Weekly Report - 18 March 2010 (WR-10-11)

The ongoing investigation into the bankrupt Bancoop (Cooperativa Habitacional dos Bancários de São Paulo), a small savings fund linked to the ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) through trade unions, has cast new light on the scheme mounted by the party to finance its campaigns illegally and also pay bribes to guarantee support for the government in congress. This scheme, which came to be known in Brazil as mensalão, irreversibly blackened the PT's “whiter-than-white" reputation.