Whistleblower says Brazil acting president Temer solicited $430,000 for campaign
In a recent plea bargaining statement, the former chair of Petrobras subsidiary Transpetro, Sérgio Machado, said Brazil's Vice-President Michel Temer, now acting president, asked him for money under the table to fund his party's São Paulo mayoral candidate Gabriel Chalita in 2012. The negotiations are said to have taken place in Brasília.
Machado said Temer negotiated $430,000 in kickbacks to fund Chalita's election campaign, with the funds provided by Queiroz Galvão construction company. “This amount actually comes from kickbaks over contracts Queiroz Galvão had in place with Transpetro,” the plea bargaining document read.
According to Machado, while he was Transpetro's CEO, “the PMDB party [chaired by Temer] received over $28.7 million in connection with illegal commissions paid by contractors.”
The contents of Machado's plea bargaining agreement became public on Wednesday (Jun. 15), following a ruling by Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki that declassified statements heard as part of Operation Car Wash corruption investigation.
Reply
Interim President Michel Temer said in a statement that “throughout his public life,” he has always strictly stayed within the legal boundaries when obtaining funds for election campaigns. He said he has never allowed any fund-raising “outside the dictates of the law for either himself or his party, let alone for any other political candidates he may have supported.”
According to him, the allegations that he solicited illegal funding from Machado, “with whom he had strictly formal relations and no close connections,” is “absolutely not true”.
Queiroz Galvão construction company issued a statement saying it does not comment on ongoing investigations and added that its “campaign donations are legal.”
In his statement document, which is more than 400 pages long, Machado mentioned several other politicians who allegedly received bribes in the guise of official campaign donations.
*With additional reporting by Maiana Diniz.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Whistleblower says Brazil acting president Temer solicited $430,000 for campaign
