SAO PAULO: Brazil’s state-run energy giant Petrobras funneled kickbacks to officials from political parties, the weekly Epoca news magazine reported yesterday.
Epoca cited evidence from lobbyist Joao Augusto Rezende, a former head of BR Distribuidora, a Petrobras subsidiary.
Augusto told the weekly he handled all Petrobras’s foreign contracts and collected a “fee” from the companies involved.
The lobbyist for the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), which is part of President Dilma Rousseff’s ruling coalition, said between 60 to 70 percent of the graft money was passed on to the PMDB.
Joao Vaccari Neto, the ruling Workers Party’s finance secretary, meanwhile received the equivalent of $8m in kickbacks from Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht as part of a Petrobras international contract during Rousseff’s 2010 presidential campaign, Epoca also reported. AFP
