Brazilian police detained former Finance Minister Guido Mantega for questioning in relation to alleged tax benefits granted to companies in exchange for bribes, Brazil’s leading newspapers reported.
The detention on Monday comes only days before President Dilma Rousseff faces a key vote in the Senate that could temporarily remove her from office on charges of illegally using loans from state banks to finance budget deficits. Police are questioning Mantega on whether he helped companies including Cimento Penha that received favorable rulings from tax appeal board known as Carf, Estado de S.Paulo and Folha de S.Paulo newspapers reported.
Mantega, whose lawyer did not immediately reply to phone calls requesting comment, was the longest-serving finance minister since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985. He presided over Brazil’s economic boom and then its slowdown, and was one of the architects of government spending policies that became the basis for a request to impeach Rousseff.
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