Brazilian federal judge Sergio Moro, the man behind Brazil's largest ever corruption investigation, said there is still lack of interest from the country's political establishment to fight corruption, despite the political and economic crisis the practice sent the country into.
Brazilian lawmakers tossed out a corruption charge against scandal-plagued President Michel Temer on Wednesday, saving the conservative leader from becoming the country’s second leader in 12 months to be forced from office. Despite hugely embarrassing bribery allegations, Temer had been expected to survive.
August has been a devastating month for Brazilian presidents, 31 days in which they have been impeached or resigned. One even committed suicide, Getulio Vargas in 1954, and for Michel Temer's own predecessor, ex president Dilma Rousseff, it was her demise when she was removed last Aug. 31 for breaking fiscal rules in her management of the budget.
The Brazilian Congress will return from recess this week and could bring back political uncertainty fears to local markets, as lawmakers are set to decide on Wednesday if the Supreme Court should trial President Michel Temer for corruption. Temer was formally charged with passive corruption by the prosecutor-general Rodrigo Janot at the end of last month.
Brazilian federal police on Thursday arrested a former head of Petrobras and the Banco do Brasil, marking a new chapter of the sweeping graft probe into the state-owned oil company. Three people were detained in the operation, the prosecutor's office said in a statement, as part of the Car Wash investigation that has uncovered systemic corruption and ensnared many of Brazil's political and business elites.
Brazil’s Attorney General’s office announced on Tuesday that it has tripled its 2018 budget for the investigation into a sprawling corruption scandal that has engulfed political and business leaders across Latin America.
Former Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s conviction on corruption charges is not a political statement, but an enforcement of the law demonstrative of Brazil’s commitment to combat corruption at the highest levels of society, Brazilian Prosecutor-General Rodrigo Janot said at the Atlantic Council this week.
Brazilian President Michel Temer looked on track on Thursday to avoid trial over graft charges, after a committee of lawmakers recommended the accusations against him be shelved ahead of a congressional vote. If the matter is put aside, Temer would win some respite.
Former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who rose from childhood poverty to become a two-term president, was convicted on corruption charges on Wednesday in the first of five graft trials he faces.He was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. He will remain free on appeal.
The Brazilian Senate gave final congressional approval to an unpopular overhaul of the country's labor laws on Tuesday night, providing crucial political support to embattled President Michel Temer as he fights a damaging corruption accusation.