RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – Brazil’s Federal Police yesterday charged Jose Dirceu, former chief of staff to former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with four crimes related to his alleged involvement in bribery and bid-rigging at Petrobras and other state-run companies.
Dirceu, who has been held since Aug 3 at a jail in Curitiba, Brazil under suspicion of involvement in Brazil’s largest-ever corruption scandal, was charged with racketeering, receiving bribes, fraud and money laundering, the Federal Police press office said.
Dirceu is the most senior member of Brazil’s ruling Workers’ Party to be arrested in the scandal so far. The charges bring the scandal uncomfortably close to Lula, to whom he was chief political adviser.
