Brazil: Rousseff denies allowing illicit campaign funding

Suspended President Dilma Rousseff said today (Jul. 22) on her Twitter page that she did not allow the payment of her electoral campaign with illicit money not registered with the Superior Electoral Court. “If such payment was made, I was not aware of it,” she said.

In a testimony heard by Federal Judge Sérgio Moro yesterday (21), adman João Santana and his wife Monica Moura confirmed they received amounts overseas as payment for the 2010 electoral campaign of Rousseff's Workers' Party (PT).

The hearings were held as part of the criminal case in which the suspects are charged under Operation Car Wash. Both have been in jail since February, in Curitiba.

In her testimony, Mônica Moura, who was in charge of the finances of the couple's marketing firm, disclosed she received $4.5 billion in a bank account in Switzerland controlled by businessman Zwi Skornick, who is facing charges related to illegal payments, according to Car Wash investigators.

Mônica Moura declared the transfer was the payment of a debt for services for the PT provided during the President Dilma Rousseff's campaign in 2010. The company run by the couple was tasked with the political marketing work of the campaign.

Mônica Moura reported that, in 2013, she started pushing former PT treasurer João Vaccari Neto to clear the debt, estimated at $10 million. After that, she says, she was advised by Vaccari to turn to Skornick, who would pay part of the amount.

Asked by Judge Sérgio Moro whether the payments had been registered with the Electoral Court, Mônica Moura answered, “No, they weren't. They're slush funds.”

Impeachment

On Twitter, Rousseff declared she is still fighting her impeachment. “The proceedings will only come to an end with the vote at the Senate. There are six senators to go for [impeachment] to be stopped,” she said. The case on her permanent ouster is expected to be voted on by the full chamber late in August.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira