BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Court has authorized prosecutors to investigate two ministers close to President Dilma Rousseff for allegedly receiving illegal campaign donations, one of them the treasurer of Rousseff’s last campaign, Brazilian media reported.
Rousseff’s chief of staff Aloizio Mercadante and Institutional Communications minister Edinho Silva have been linked to a corruption scandal at state-run oil firm Petrobras by one of the executives arrested in the case, according to Globo TV and O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper.
Senator Aloysio Nunes, from the opposition party PSDB, will also be investigated, the media said.
Spokespeople at the Supreme Court were not immediately available to comment on the reports.
The head of construction firm UTC Engenharia, Ricardo Pessoa, said in plea bargain testimony that some of the money resulting from the overpricing of Petrobras projects was donated to the campaign of several politicians, including Rousseff. Silva was the treasurer of Rousseff’s campaign.
Mercadante and Silva have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. When Pessoa’s testimony became public in June, Silva said the 7.5 million reais donated by Pessoa to Rousseff’s presidential campaign were legal and approved by the Supreme Electoral Court.
