MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rousseff's defense claims some campaign funds were provided by Temer's party

Rousseff's defense team verified the accounts report presented by PT and confirmed in July that R$ 1 million had been transferred for the campaign.

Brazilian ex-President Dilma Rousseff's (PT) defense team attached to the case against her slate at the Superior Electoral Court, TSE, documents revealing that R$ 1 million (US$ 320.000) which construction company Andrade Guitierrez donated to her re-election campaing in 2014 went through the account of who was then Vice Presidential candidate Michel Temer (PMDB).

 This could weaken the statement from Temer, currently President, that his campaign fund-raising was separate from Rousseff's.

The former president of the construction company, Otávio Azevedo, declared in September that he had transferred this amount to the PT's national board. He also said that the board made a transfer in July to Dilma's campaign.

The amount was, according to Azevedo, part of funds skimmed from contacts that Andrade Gutierrez had been awarded by the Brazilian federal government.

Rousseff's defense team verified the accounts reports presented by PT and confirmed that in July an amount of R$ 1 million had been transferred for the campaign.

However, the CNPJ (tax identification number for companies) of the donating entity was the national directory of the PMDB Party, and not of the PT. A receipt reveals that the original source of the money was Andrade Gutierrez.

The case, which is sponsored and run by the PSDB Party against Dilma's slate, is investigating alleged abuses of economic and political power, in addition to evidence that money diverted from Petrobras helped to fund the PT leader's re-election campaign.

An aide to Temer said that Azevedo confirmed that he had donated R$ 1 million to Temer's campaign but those funds were “clean” and not related to any contracts.