Brazil’s prosecutor general found evidence linking the tourism minister of interim President Michel Temer to the corruption scheme at state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Monday.
Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot included intercepted phone messages in a request to the Supreme Court for a formal investigation of Tourism Minister Henrique Eduardo Alves, Folha reported in publishing excerpts of the messages.
The messages supposedly show Alves offering political support to construction firm OAS Engenharia allegedly in exchange for campaign donations funded by money illegally taken from Petrobras. Alves, of the PMDB party, ran for the governorship of the state of Rio Grande do Norte in 2014.
OAS Engenharia is one of the several engineering firms with executives sentenced by local courts over their involvement in the corruption and money laundering scandal.
Alves has repeatedly said all campaign donations were legal. The general prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to request for comments.
Alves is the third minister in Temer’s cabinet to be linked to the massive Petrobras corruption scheme since his interim administration started last month.
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