SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – The vice president of Brazil’s TSE electoral authority yesterday asked for an investigation of President Dilma Rousseff’s 2014 re-election campaign, citing evidence that it may have been financed with money from a corruption scheme at state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA .
In a document sent to federal prosecutors and federal police, Gilmar Mendes said a 17-month-old investigation into a massive price fixing and political kickback scandal had found evidence that Rousseff’s Workers’ Party was indirectly funded by money stolen from Petrobras, as the firm is known.
The request from the TSE is a further blow to Rousseff, who is not among the dozens of politicians under investigation for taking bribes but has seen her popularity fall to single digits as a result of the scandal and a stalled economy.
The Workers’ Party has said all donations were legal and properly registered with electoral authorities.
On Thursday, prosecutors charged house speaker Eduardo Cunha with taking a $5 million bribe, the first sitting politician to be formally accused in the corruption scandal, Brazil’s largest ever.
Mendes, who is also a Supreme Court judge, cited plea bargain testimony from Ricardo Pessoa, head of construction firm UTC Engenharia. Pessoa said he donated 7.5 million reais originating from the overpricing of contracts with Petrobras to Rousseff’s campaign.
Mendes said he had crossed information from the investigation with registers of campaign donations.
