Entrepreneur and PT ex-secretary arrested in 27th phase of Operation Car Wash
The Federal Police launched Thursday (Apr. 1) the 27th phase of Operation Car Wash with the purpose of investigating crimes of extortion, fraud, active and passive corruption, and money laundering in a number of cities in São Paulo.
Arrested in this stage, dubbed Operation Carbon 14, were former Workers' Party (PT) Secretary-General Sílvio Pereira and entrepreneur Ronan Maria Pinto, who owns the Diário do Grande ABC newspaper and the company Viação Expresso Santo André. According to federal prosecutors, Pinto received $1.69 million of the $3.37 million obtained in a fraudulent loan involving Petrobras and Schahin Bank.
The funneling was mediated by cattle rancher José Carlos Bumlai and refrigeration firm Bertin, before it reached Ronan Pinto's company. Prosecutors believe Bumlai used contracts signed with Petrobras to pay loans with Shahin Bank. Suspicions have arose that the $3.37 loan was meant to benefit the PT, and was paid by means of a contract with the Shahin construction company, in which the firm was the operator of a Petrobras ship in 2009.
“Our goal is to provide clarification over money laundering by the Shahin Bank. We suspect the funneling was carried out in a bid to clear campaigning debts for the city of Campinas, [ruled by the PT] at the time,” Federal Prosecutor Diogo Castro told the press at the Federal Police headquarters, in Curitiba.
Former PT Secretary Sílvio Pereira, also under scrutiny in the mensalão case, was the one who “devised the fraudulent loan scheme with the bank,” Castro reported.
Carbon 14
Fifty officers were engaged in this phase of Operation Car Wash, named Carbon 14 after the scientific procedures used to ascertain the age of old facts and objects. Sílvio Pereira and Ronan Pinto will be sent to the Federal Police Superintendency in Curitiba, while those taken in for questioning will be heard in São Paulo city.
“In this new phase of investigations, the goal is to identify the routes taken by the money obtained with Shahin Bank, in favor of the PT,” Castro said.
Agência Brasil attempted to reach Sílvio Pereira's counsel, but were given no response. In a note, Ronan Pinto said he has “no connection with the facts mentioned and [is] falling victim to a situation which will certainly be clarified now once and for all.”
*With additional reporting from Flávio Albuquerque
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
Fonte: Entrepreneur and PT ex-secretary arrested in 27th phase of Operation Car Wash
