SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – A federal judge in Brazil overseeing a sweeping corruption investigation said yesterday there were signs that President Dilma Rousseff’s former chief of staff had received bribes.
Judge Sergio Moro asked the Supreme Court to authorize an investigation into whether a graft case involving Brazil’s planning ministry may have benefited Gleisi Hoffmann, now a senator and still personally close to the president.
Hoffmann has not been formally charged with any wrongdoing.
Moro’s investigation, which has mostly focused on a political kickback scheme at state-run oil firm Petrobras over the past 17 months, has already pushed Rousseff’s approval rating to single digits and, along with a slow economy, brought calls for her impeachment.
“This is very bad news for Rousseff, at a time she is doing everything to diminish the crisis, news like this brings the crisis even closer to her,” said Thiago de Aragao, a partner at Arko Advice, a consulting firm.
Hoffmann served as Rousseff’s chief of staff from 2011 to 2014, before leaving to run for senator as a member of Rousseff’s Workers’ Party.
Rousseff has repeatedly denied knowing about corruption at Petrobras, though she chaired the oil firm’s board from 2003 to 2010 when much of the alleged graft took place.
Though reports of Hoffmann’s involvement hurt Rousseff’s image, it is unclear if the investigation into the planning ministry will reach her, said Aragao.
Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer said on Tuesday that an impeachment was “unthinkable,” the day after he decided to drop the day-to-day political coordination of her government.
The corruption investigation, which has broadened to other state-run companies and ministries, is divided between Moro’s court in the southern city of Curitiba, where trials have been ongoing since last year, and the Supreme Court in Brasilia, the only court that can try sitting politicians.
Moro said Hoffmann appeared to have received money from Consist, a consultancy that allegedly helped divert funds from the planning ministry.
One of Hoffmann’s lawyers, Guilherme Gonsalves, appeared to have taken money that Consist received from the planning ministry in 2011, Moro wrote in a dispatch, citing documents seized from Gonsalves’ law offices.