Santana denies receiving money from Brazilian campaigns in overseas accounts
Investigators from the operation suspect that Santana and his wife received $7.5 million in a Swiss bank account allegedly controlled by Odebrecht. 
In his testimony to the Federal Police in Curitiba, adman João Santana denied receiving money in overseas accounts for services provided during the election campaigns in Brazil and declared that he has no relationship with Odebrecht construction company.
Santana said he is the account controller of the offshore company Shellbill, in Switzerland, probed under Operation Car Wash and that the account was opened between 1998 and 1999, through a representative in Uruguay, to receive approximately $70,000 for services provided in Argentina. The adman said he had the intention to legalize the account, but "he have always had questions about the country in which he should do it."
According to him, the account received more money between 2011 and 2012 when he worked in presidential campaigns abroad.
In his testimony, Santana said he remembers that $50 million have been charged for the Angolan campaign, but he does not remember the figures for the campaigns of the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. According to parts of the testimony, he "cannot explain the origin of the money credited to Shellbill bank account."
Investigators from the operation suspect that Santana and his wife received $7.5 million in a Swiss bank account allegedly controlled by Odebrecht.
Revoke arrest warrant
The defense of João Santana and his wife, Mônica Moura, appealed federal judge Sérgio Moro to revoke their arrest warrant, issued by the 23rd phase of Operation Car Wash, launched Monday.
On the appeal, lawyer Fábio Tofic states that there is no further reason to keep the couple in jail, since they have admitted in their testimonies to the Federal Police to have received licit funds in undeclared accounts abroad, "admitted their faults" and allowed authorities access to their banking transactions.
"They are renowned business people from the Brazilian and international political marketing, and, if they had committed any sin, it has been to receive licit funds, obtained by honest work, in undeclared accounts abroad, which is a crime that does not sentence the defendant to preventive detention, not even in this egregious court," said the defense.
Translated by Amarílis Anchieta
Fonte: Santana denies receiving money from Brazilian campaigns in overseas accounts
