MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's electoral authority investigating funding of Rousseff's presidential campaign

Gilmar Mendes said a 17-month investigation found evidence that Rousseff’s Workers’ Party (PT) was indirectly funded by money stolen from Petrobras.

The vice-president of Brazil’s TSE electoral authority has asked for an investigation of President Dilma Rousseff’s 2014 re-election campaign, citing evidence that it may have been financed with money from a corruption scheme at state-run oil firm Petrobras.

 In a document sent to federal prosecutors and federal police, Gilmar Mendes said a 17-month-old investigation into a massive price fixing and political kickback scandal had found evidence that Rousseff’s Workers’ Party (PT) was indirectly funded by money stolen from Petrobras.

Mendes said in his request to prosecutors and federal police that there are indications Rousseff’s PT was indirectly financed by Petrobras, which is forbidden under law. Rousseff’s campaign also received funds from companies entangled in a continuing probe into the kickback scheme involving Petrobras, Mendes claimed.

The investigation into inflated contracts at Petrobras, known as Operation Carwash, has roiled Latin America’s largest nation since allegations spread from oil executives to builders and Rousseff’s allies. Mendes’ request could further increase pressure on Rousseff, who is already facing a combination of low popularity, slowing economic growth and calls for impeachment.

“It is essential that I inform the competent authorities of signs of electoral offences and prosecutable crimes,” Mendes said in the report he submitted.

The request from the TSE is a further blow to Rousseff, who is not among the dozens of politicians under investigation for taking bribes but has seen her popularity fall to single digits as a result of the scandal, a stalled economy and the widening corruption probe.

The PT has repeatedly said all donations were legal and properly registered with electoral authorities.

Mendes, who is also a Supreme Court judge, cited plea bargain testimony from Ricardo Pessoa, head of construction firm UTC Engenharia. Pessoa said he donated 7.5 million Reais originating from the overpricing of contracts with Petrobras to Rousseff’s campaign.

Mendes said he had crossed information from the investigation with records of campaign donations.

Rousseff was re-elected to a second term in October in Brazil’s closest election in the past two decades. All financial resources used while Rousseff ran for president were received legally, and her campaign accounts were approved unanimously by the TSE, according to an emailed statement by Social Communication Minister Edinho Silva. He was the treasurer of Rousseff’s campaign.

If the TSE rules that Rousseff’s presidential race was illegally funded, it could annul her and her vice-president’s election victory. In theory and barring an appeal before the country’s Supreme Court, runner-up Aécio Neves would become president.