The Brazilian politician involved in an ongoing corruption scandal has admitted to having used a ‘secret bank account’ in the Bahamas, according to reports in the US media.
The ‘money-for-votes’ scandal in Brazil intensified last week after Duda Mendonca, campaign manager to Brazil’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, admitted that he failed to declare political funding from abroad.
According to the US newspaper The San Jose Mercury News, Mendonca said the money had come from Marcos Valerio, the man at the centre of the corruption scandal, which is now tainting Lula da Silva’s Worker’s Party.
Valerio is an advertising executive with federal government contracts.
Mendonca further claimed that the payments had been channelled through the Bahamas by Valerio, who has reportedly loaned millions of Brazilian Reais to the Worker’s Party during the election campaign.
Mendonca, however, insisted that the money had not been used to fund the president’s campaign.
The Tribune was unable to contact Bahamian financial services regulatory officials for comment on the alleged existence of the Bahamas bank account.
According to an August 19 Miami Herald report, the Worker’s Party was founded in 1980 “as a bastion of political integrity”.
However, on June 6 of this year, it was alleged that the party bought votes and support from legislators for about $13,000 per month.
“Last week the president apologised on behalf of his government and party in a nationally televised speech after a close ally told a congressional hearing that Lula da Silva’s 2002 campaign had been funded in part from a hidden bank account in the Bahamas.
“The president said he hadn’t known about the secret account,” the Herald said.
Source: The Tribune
