MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Attorney General accuses Lula da Silva of a key role in Petrobras huge corruption scandal
Janot said corruption could not have taken place without the participation of the former leader. Lula was in office between 2003 and 2011, and denies allegations. 
The Attorney General requested authorization to investigate Lula Silva and 29 other senior politicians, officials and businessmen. 
The speaker of the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha and ministers from President Dilma Rousseff's cabinet are on Attorney Janot's list. Brazil's Attorney General Rodrigo Janot has asked the Supreme Court to authorize an investigation against former President Lula da Silva for alleged corruption. Janot accused Lula of playing a key role in the huge corruption scandal at the state oil company, Petrobras.
He said the corruption could not have taken place without the participation of the former leader. Lula da Silva, who was in office between 2003 and 2011, denies the allegations.
The former president was previously accused of getting a penthouse flat in favorable conditions from a building company involved in the Petrobras scandal.
But the accusations filed now by the Brazilian attorney general are much more serious. Janot said Lula and other senior politicians conspired to create a scheme that siphoned off vast amounts of money from Petrobras.
He requested authorization to investigate Lula Silva and 29 other senior politicians, officials and businessmen.
The speaker of the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha - a former government ally who is now in the opposition - and ministers from President Dilma Rousseff's cabinet are on Attorney Janot's list.
Prosecutors say the corruption scheme is estimated to have cost the company more than US$2bn. Part of the money was used to finance the electoral campaign of top Brazilian politicians, they allege.
The accusations are part of Operation Car Wash, which was launched two years ago by a group of prosecutors focusing initially on money laundering. Their investigations led them to allegations of a complex corruption scheme at Petrobras.
Several politicians and Petrobras executives have been arrested and sentenced. Some of them have agreed to testify against other suspects in exchange for more lenient sentences, taking the investigation to a new level.
Until now, 39 people were being officially investigated in Operation Car Wash. Janot has asked for the inclusion of another 30 names on that list. He has acted on new information from suspects who agreed to a plea bargain, Brazilian media reported.
On Monday, Janot requested authorization to investigate prominent opposition leader and former presidential candidate Senator Aecio Neves. He has been accused of receiving bribes from officials at the state electric company, Furnas. Neves has rejected the allegations.
President Rousseff, who defeated Mr Neves by a narrow margin in 2014, was head of the Petrobras board of directors when much of the corruption took place, but she is not facing any official accusations against her.
Top Comments
Disclaimer & comment rules-
-
-
Read all commentsOh dear!
May 04th, 2016 - 10:20 am 0The Chief Crook, Lula, is really under the cosh now.
Will he sing like a canary and dob all his fellow crooks (and Crookess) in the crap to get a lesser sentence or will he scarper off to Italy?
Or will he be suicide, ala Nisman?
To T.Hill - Ryr 147 on “Rouseff's bid for int'l support backfiring”,
May 04th, 2016 - 05:08 pm 0146 Jack Bauer
“So you spell out a litany accusations with not one iota evidence....”
You stupidity knows no limits. If you did some research on the internet , you 'd find evidence of Dilma's criminal record.....You can look it up for yourself, you lazy twat; And I'm not asking you to confirm anything, just look it up. Educate yourself.
Yr “For example Lula, except for your opinion, he was never even ben charged with anything”....
Protected by his two terms as president, plus Dilma's first, and the immense criminal PT network installed in the Federal Govt, he has, until recently, managed to successfully block most investigations, but things are changing.... Just fyi, as the headline states, today the Attorney General has asked the Supreme Court for his indictment, based on the PB scandal, as well as for his attempt , along with Dilma's, to obstruct Justice (the Lava-Jato); and don't forget, Rodrigo Janot's appointment (18 months ago) by Dilma was supported by Lula, so no-one can claim he is being influenced by , or trying to favour, the opposition. I suppose next that you'll tell us you know more than Janot, and that his request for indicting Lula is based on mere conjectures....
When Lula became a Union Leader in SBC, I worked at Ford Motor Co. (in SBC), so I was / am well aware of his origin/ history.
“Moreover you have no idea where I live....”
By what's been said on this forum, I take it you live in Canada. But you never reply to anything directly, do you ? always deflecting, repeating your stupid mantra about proof etc...admit - once again - that you are not familiar with the idiosyncracies of Brazilian politics, etc....Don't know where you get your info from , but besides being filtered through left-wing editorials, it appears to be very limited.
Get lost Hill....
2 Jack Bauer
May 04th, 2016 - 11:33 pm 0Dilma has willing acknowledged her active resistance to the dictatorship. It's interesting that there was no armed resistance to the coup until three years later. You keep feeding the line that the coup was organized to prevent Communism. There wasn't any such thing waiting in the wings, otherwise there would have been an organized resistance from the begining.
“Lula….I was / am well aware of his origin/ history.” I'm not asking you for a character reference. I'm asking you to provide something of substance rather than your conjecture. “…until he put one of his 'pinkies' in a lathe so that he could retire…His history of dirty dealings and corruption were already in the news 40 years ago…” Since you haven't then It must be because there is no evidence to support your claim. All I have to say is 'bullshit' and that totally kiboshes your presentation.
“By what's been said on this forum, I take it you live in Canada.” Sorry like everything else you post, again pure conjecture.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!