MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Temer linked to the Petrobras scandal by a key witness

Machado, former chief executive of state oil company Petrobras, said that Temer had asked for money from the company to fund political campaigns

Brazil's interim president Michel Temer has been linked to one of the country's biggest corruption scandals in testimony by a key witness made public Wednesday. . Sergio Machado, former chief executive of state oil company Petrobras, said that Temer had asked for money from the company to fund political campaigns for himself and other members of his party.

 The oil executive said that Temer had met with him to ask for US$431,000 to finance the campaign of Congressman Gabriel Chalita.

Machado also said he had arranged bribes for Temer and 10 other politicians, some of whom are members of Temer's center-right PMDB party.

Other witnesses have accused Temer of financially backing two corrupt Petrobras executives so they could oversee the scheme.

Temer has denied all involvement in the Petrobras scheme, a sweeping scandal in which contractors overbilled the company by some US$2 billion. His office said Machado's testimony, a plea deal made public by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, “absolutely lacks truth.”

Michel Temer's coalition has ruled for barely a month following the impeachment of Brazil's former president Dilma Rousseff. The Brazilian Senate voted to impeach Rousseff on charges that she used accounting tricks to hide the Brazilian budget deficit when she ran for re-election in 2014.