Brasilia – Police are recommending ex-Finance Minister Antonio Palocci be indicted for abusing his power in a bid to discredit a witness who accused him of links to corruption, judicial sources said Monday.
Palocci, who was much admired by financial markets for his stewardship of Brazil’s economy, stepped down in March from the government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Based on more than five months of investigation, the nearly 2000-page police report was submitted Monday to the federal judge heading the probe into the illegal obtaining and leaking to the press of the bank records of a man who said he saw Palocci numerous times at a Brasilia mansion that was reportedly the scene of drunken orgies.
Caretaker Francenildo Costa said the parties included prostitutes, businessmen and civil servants – some of them Palocci associates – and that crooked deals were cut amid the debauchery.
It was after Costa made those statements to a local newspaper that details of his bank account were leaked to the media in an effort to show he had been bribed to discredit Palocci, who had flatly denied ever visiting the mansion.
The account in question was with the Caixa Economica Federal, a savings institution directly controlled by the finance ministry, and Caixa’s then-chief executive, Jorge Mattoso, acknowledged to police that Palocci had access to the illegally obtained bank summary.
Already facing other allegations of corruption, Palocci resigned amid the uproar over his apparent abuse of power in the Costa matter.
In addition to the ex-minister, the police report urges prosecution of former Caixa boss Mattoso and journalist Marcelo Netto, a one-time press aide to Palocci.
Palocci is currently campaigning for the Oct. 1 elections in which he hopes to be elected a federal lawmaker for the governing Workers Party, while his erstwhile political mentor, Lula, is seeking a second four-year term as president.
