Brazilian presidential decree raising fines on banks and listed companies involved in illicit acts aims to empower the central bank and the country's securities industry watchdog in their efforts to bolster transparency, Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said in Paris.
Brazil's top electoral court gave embattled President Michel Temer a big victory late Friday, voting to reject allegations of campaign finance violations that could have removed him from office. After four days of deliberations, judges voted 4-3 in a case that many viewed as a measure of whether Temer could remain in office amid a ballooning corruption scandal and single-digit popularity.
Brazil's top electoral court on Thursday excluded testimony of engineering company executives from an illegal campaign funding trial against President Michel Temer, a move that suggested it would throw out a case that had threatened to unseat him.
The head of Brazil´s Superior Electoral Tribunal, TSE, Justice Gilmar Mendes added extraordinary sessions, including next Saturday, to continue considering the alleged political and economic abuse committed by the winning ticket of the 2014 elections, when Dilma Rousseff was reelected with Michel Temer as vice-president. According to court sources the decision to add sessions this week received unanimous support from his six co-Judges.
Brazilian media are reporting late Monday that the country's federal police have asked embattled President Michel Temer 84 questions related to an investigation of corruption allegations against him. Temer has faced growing calls to resign amid the scandal. He has 24 hours to reply to the questions delivered Monday afternoon.
Brazil's Michel Temer is already fighting a devastating corruption scandal, but this week he faces a more immediate threat: a court ruling on whether he should even be president. The case in the Supreme Electoral Tribunal or TSE was long considered a slow-burning sideshow to the developments in Brazil's corruption revelations, which have now reached the top.
Brazilian police have arrested Rodrigo Rocha Loures, a former congressman and close friend of President Michel Temer. Rocha Loures was seen in a video released in May carrying a bag with 500,000 Brazilian Reais (US$154,000).
Brazil's economy grew by one percent in the first quarter of 2017, ending eight consecutive quarters of shrinkage in the country's worst recession in history, the state statistics office said Thursday. While not definitively ending the recession, the spike in growth offers another glimmer of light for Latin America's biggest economy -- and could throw a lifeline to President Michel Temer as he tries to fend off a huge corruption scandal.
The union representing Brazil's federal police investigators expressed concerns on Monday about how probes into government corruption will be handled by the newly named justice minister, who is a personal friend of President Michel Temer.
Three ex Brazilian presidents are holding talks on the future of the country following what seems the inevitable outcome of the current political situation with deep differences between the political system and the Judiciary.