Early on 23 June, federal police officers arrested Paulo Bernardo, a former planning minister in the government of Lula da Silva (2003-2011), and a communications minister in Dilma Rousseff’s first government. In the 18th phase of the corruption probe, ‘Operation Car Wash’, this time run by police from São Paulo rather than Curitiba, investigators are looking at up to R$100m (US$29.7m) in bribes from contracts signed with Consist, an IT company, for services provided to the ministry of planning. Prosecutors believe that Bernardo benefited from the scheme and used part of the money to bankroll the election campaigns of his wife, Gleisi Hoffman, a federal senator belonging to the left-wing Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT).End of preview - This article contains approximately 715 words.
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