Brazil courts probe bribe allegation against president

BRASÍLIA, Brazil – Brazilian courts are investigating an allegation that President Michel Temer received a campaign donation from a company implicated in a corruption racket at state oil firm Petrobras, his rivals said.

Lawyers for Temer’s predecessor Dilma Rousseff this week presented in a court filing a check paid to Temer’s PMDB party in 2014 as an electoral campaign donation. (READ: New president, same crises in Brazil)

The check was worth some $425,000 and came from construction company Andrade Gutierrez, according to Rousseff’s website.

The firm is implicated in the Petrobras scandal that has snared numerous top politicians.

The company’s ex-president Otavio Azevedo alleged in a plea deal this year that the payment had been made to Rousseff’s leftist Workers’ Party.

But her lawyers allege in their new filing that the money was instead channeled to her former coalition partner, the PMDB.

Presidential spokesman Alexandre Parola insisted Thursday, November 11, the payment was legal and there was “nothing irregular.”

Conservative Temer was vice-president at the time in a coalition government with Rousseff’s party.

He replaced Rousseff this year after leading a successful bid to impeach her over separate accusations of financial misdeeds. – Rappler.com