Brazil: Currency dealer said he transferred large amounts to house speaker
Businessman Leonardo Meirelles, owner of Labogen laboratory
In a testimony heard by the Council of Ethics of the Chamber of Deputies, businessman Leonardo Meirelles, owner of Labogen laboratory, said Thursday (Apr. 7) that foreign currency dealer Alberto Youssef, under scrutiny as part of Operation Car Wash, was using the bank accounts of his company to receive and transfer money.
“He talked about how much pressure he felt, since the transfer was so big. The values in this transfer belonged to Eduardo Cunha,” Meirelles stated. B
“Youssef would merely transfer amounts to me and tell me to watch for the accounts. They were usually offshore, so it's hard to get names of natural persons,” said Meirelles, who was paid for each operation carried out. He went on to say that, during a lunch with the currency dealer, after having seen Júlio Camargo, another businessman, leave Youssef's office, the latter said he felt relieved for having entered into a contract. “He talked about how much pressure he felt, since the transfer was so big. The values in this transfer belonged to Eduardo Cunha,” Meirelles stated.
Nonetheless, he denied he knew Cunha and said he was aware of no transfer earmarked for any specific account belonging to Cunha, nor could he say whether the lower house speaker holds bank accounts overseas.
Meirelles confirmed he received $5 million in one of his Hong Kong bank accounts, divided into three transactions. He denied that any deposit was made to Switzerland. “There were three transfers[…], from Júlio Camargo's firm into my account in Hong Kong,” he said, stressing he did not know where the money was headed. “I've already handed over more than 400 payment SWIFT [codes] from my companies abroad to third-party beneficiaries whose identity I cannot ascertain,” he stated.
Meirelles said that other politicians received amounts from Youssef, adding that many of these politicians often paid visits to the currency dealer's office or were mentioned by Youssef himself. He went on to say he cannot disclose the names of beneficiaries due to the cooperation deals he agreed to with the court in Paraná, which spearheads Operation Car Wash, and with the Prosecution Office.
The businessman, believed to be Youssef's middleman, is facing charges in 12 suits filed under Federal Police-launched Operation Car Wash, and is heard as a witness in the proceedings aimed at removing Cunha from his post as lower house speaker for charges of lying to the Congressional Committee of Investigation (CPI) on Petrobras in March last year, when he denied having accounts overseas. Documents were released by Swiss prosecutors later on which brought to light accounts associated with him in the European country. According to one of the charges, Cunha received $5 million in secret bank account abroad.
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
Fonte: Brazil: Currency dealer said he transferred large amounts to house speaker
