Brazil’s top prosecutor has found evidence that a bribe scheme involving local engineering firms and the state oil company extended to pension funds and a workers’ fund, benefiting the ruling Workers’ Party and allies, newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Friday.
The paper said the potential new front in Brazil’s largest-ever corruption investigation was based on a slew of text messages leaked to the local press on Thursday from Leo Pinheiro, the convicted former head of engineering firm OAS.
“According to what can be inferred from the messages, there were debentures issued by the companies acquired by banks … or by pension funds where there is political interference,” top Brazilian prosecutor Rodrigo Janot wrote in documents seen by Folha.
Janot said the messages indicated OAS might have paid bribes to politicians, including House Speaker Eduardo Cunha, or made official campaign donations to political parties in exchange for the financial transactions that raised funds, according to Folha.
The leaked texts, sharply criticized by Brazil’s justice minister on Thursday, could lead prosecutors to formally investigate several members of President Dilma Rousseff’s cabinet, creating more headaches for the unpopular leader as she fights unrelated impeachment charges and a recession.
Brazil Energy Insight 
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