Brazil’s Former Ruling Party Treasurer Charged in Petrobras Case

Brazil’s Former Ruling Party Treasurer Charged in Petrobras Case

By Raymond Colitt / Bloomberg

12:20 PM BRT
April 27, 2015

The former treasurer of President Dilma Rousseff’s Workers’ Party was charged by Brazilian public prosecutors for his role in the corruption scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras.

Vaccari is being accused of laundering money stemming from kickbacks paid by Petroleo Brasileiro SA contractors that were funneled to a printer linked to the party, the public prosecutor’s office said in a statement on its website. Prosecutors are demanding that Vaccari and others involved in the alleged scheme return 2.4 million reais ($820,000) to public coffers, as well as 4.8 million reais in damages.

The charges, which could lead to prison terms of 3 to 10 years, maintain the spotlight on the role of the Workers’ Party, or PT, in the country’s largest corruption scandal ever. Vaccari was arrested April 15 and his preventive imprisonment was extended on April 21.

Vaccari resigned from his treasurer post after his arrest. The PT at the time said his imprisonment was unjustified. The party has repeatedly said that all donations it received were legal. Vaccari’s lawyer Luiz Flavio D’Urso wasn’t immediately available to comment, an attendant at his office said. The PT didn’t immediately reply to an e-mailed request for comment.

Pedro Barusco, a former Petrobras services manager who entered a plea bargain with prosecutors, told investigators the PT received as much as $200 million from the scheme in the decade through 2013, according to a transcript of his testimony.