Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht paid $40 million to President Michel Temer’s party and another party to ensure a contract with the state oil company, according to testimony from a former Odebrecht executive.

 

Marcio Faria’s accusation came in plea bargain testimony released late Wednesday as part of the biggest corruption probe in Brazil’s history. The investigation, known as Operation Car Wash, has already unveiled billions of dollars in kickbacks and bribes paid to politicians by Brazilian companies.

 

But this week, the Supreme Court announced a new wave of investigations into top politicians, including eight of Temer’s Cabinet ministers, dealing a major blow to his presidency and raising questions about whether he can continue to effectively govern. In opening the investigations, the court released recordings of the plea bargain testimony that underpins the probe.

 

Though Temer is mentioned in some of the testimony, he is not under investigation since he has temporary immunity from any crimes committed before he took office.

 

Temer’s office has denied Faria’s accusations.

 

In his testimony, Faria said he met with Temer and some of his allies at Temer’s office in Sao Paulo in 2010 in order to “bless” an arrangement whereby Odebrecht would make a contribution to the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party in exchange for its help smoothing the approval of a pending contract with Petrobras.

 

When asked whether it was clear that this money was a bribe or an illegal gain, Faria responded: “Totally an illegal gain because it was a percentage on top of the contract.”

 

Faria said no figures were discussed at the meeting, but the deal was clear: Odebrecht would pay the party 5 percent of the value of the Petrobras contract. That amounted to around $40 million, he said.

 

Faria said Temer’s party later decided to cut in the Workers’ Party. At the time, Temer was the vice-presidential candidate on a ticket with Dilma Rousseff of the Workers’ Party as the presidential candidate.  In the end, Faria said Temer’s party received 4 percent of the contract’s total, and the Workers’ Party received 1 percent.

 

Temer’s office acknowledged that the president had a brief conversation with Faria in 2010, but flatly denied the rest.

 

“The narrative released today doesn’t correspond to the facts and is based on an absolute lie,” his office said in a statement. [Read More]

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Source: VOA News: War and Conflict