The noose around Brazil president Temer’s neck is getting tighter.
On Tuesday, local paper Observador reported that Brazilian police announced that in a separate probe from the ongoing Carwash scandal, they had arrested a presidential aide and two ex-governors as part of an investigation into the 2014 World Cup’s most expensive stadium. Tadeu Filippelli, a special adviser in Temer’s Cabinet, and former Federal District governors José Roberto Arruda and Agnelo Queiroz were arrested early on Tuesday, in what Reuters said was “another black eye for the country’s political establishment that adds pressure on beleaguered President Michel Temer.”
According to Reuters, renovation of the Brasilia stadium for the 2014 World Cup cost about 1.5 billion reais ($460 million), prosecutors and police said in a statement, and an auditing court has said the construction included rampant overbilling and corruption. It was the second-most expensive soccer arena in the world after the reconstruction of Wembley Stadium in London, according to the local World Cup committee’s documents on spending.
In a plea bargain last month, executives of construction group Odebrecht SA offered evidence that builders and politicians sought to fix contracts for World Cup arenas in at least six cities.
Suspicions that many of the 12 stadiums built or renovated for the 2014 World Cup were overpriced led to street protests before and during the tournament.
Today’s arrest will raise the pressure on Temer, who has resisted growing calls for his resignation after the disclosure of a recorded conversation in which he encouraged the payment of hush money to a jailed lawmaker in the Carwash corruption probe. The evidence provided by Odebrecht corroborated the testimony of three
executives of rival construction group Andrade Gutierrez, prosecutors
said in a statement.
And in a scramble to “wash his hands” of any ties to his now former aide, moments ago Reuters also reported that Temer announced he will fire Filippelli, as if that action will somehow wash away any potential corruption that links the two politicians.
The question is just what information Filippelli will disclose in his own “plea agreement” and whether he will be the one to drag down his now former boss.
via http://ift.tt/2rPmJ45 Tyler Durden