Brazil: Former Finance Minister jailed by Federal Police

Brazilian former Finance Minister Guido Mantega was temporarily detained Thursday morning (Sep. 22) by the Federal Police as part of the probes into money embezzlement at Petrobras. According to a note from the Federal Prosecution Service, in July, 2012, consortium Integra Offshore, formed by companies Mendes Júnior and OSX, signed a $922 million contract with Petrobras for the construction of platforms P-67 and P-70.

In a statement to prosecutors, executive Eike Batista, former head of OSX's administration board, said that Guido Mantega, chair of Petrobras's administration board at the time, asked for $1.54 million from the Workers' Party (PT) in November 2012.

To make the siphoning possible, Eike Batista signed a bogus contract with a company connected to admen implicated in Operation Car Wash for money laundering. After an unsuccessful first attempt at a transfer in December 2012, a  $2.35 million transaction was detected between the bank the accounts of Eike Batista and those of the admen, dated April, 2013.

Money funneling

The probes have found signs that some $2.16 million were transferred by Mendes Júnior to a financial operator already convicted of corruption. Transactions were carried out from February to December, 2013.

Also revealed was a transfer adding up to more than $1.85 million by consortium Integra Offshore, based on a fake contract signed in 2013 with Tecna/Isolux. The evidence, both documentary and in the form of witness testimonies—which provided the foundation for the suit filed by the prosecutors—show that the amount was transferred to the benefit of onetime Chief of Staff José Dirceu and other individuals associated with him.

It was further unearthed that companies in the Tecna/Isolux company sent approximately $3.09 million to Credencial Construtora, a firm that had already been used by Dirceu for illicit advantages, in the same period in which those facts took place.

Ex-minister Guido Mantega is to be taken to the Federal Police headquarters in Curitiba today.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira