Brazilian Pol Caught Filling Socks with Bribe Back as Assembly’s Chief

Leonardo Prudente hides money in socksBrazilian assemblyman Leonardo Prudente (no party since he resigned so as to avoid being expelled from the DEM party) says he will return to his post as president of the Federal District Legislative Assembly after a leave of absence that began on December 1st following accusations that he was part of a corruption scheme.

Prudente was filmed accepting stacks of money and then putting wads of bills into his pockets and when he ran out of pockets he crammed the rest of the money into his socks.

As president of the Legislative Assembly Prudente will manage impeachment hearings against the governor and other members of the executive and legislative branches accused of receiving bribes – including himself.

According to the Federal Police, an investigation called Pandora’s Box has found that contractors who do work for the local government in Brasília (GDF) have been making illegal payments to the GDF, which were passed on to members of the legislature and the executive branch for their political support.

The accusations against the governor José Roberto Arruda, the vice governor, Paulo Octávio, and other members of the executive and legislative branches are mainly based on films made by a former member of Arruda’s cabinet, Durval Barbosa, who was until recently the secretary for Institutional Relations.

At the top of a long list of bribe recipients compiled by the police were Prudente and the governor, José Roberto Arruda. Both were members of the DEM (in fact Arruda was the only DEM governor in the country) and both were forced to resign in the face of devastating film footage showing them handling wads of money as they tried to decide what to do with the stuff, before stuffing it into bags, pockets and socks.

Both of them wrote similar letters of resignation to the DEM board of directors. Both face uncertain political futures.

However, Leonardo “socks” Prudente is now a part of Brazilian political folklore. He explained his behavior by saying, with a straight face, that as he never carries a briefcase he hides money in his clothes in order to keep it safe.

ABr

Tags:

You May Also Like

Mickey Gets a Brazilian Voice

Brazilian music has influenced many musicians and has won fans worldwide, specially the bossa-nova ...

A Candid Talk with Gerald Thomas, Brazil’s Brightest Prima-Donna

Trying to explain one’s art and motivation, while defending a particularly individualistic view of ...

Franklin Martins at the time he was wanted by the police

Brazil’s New Cabinet Has Man Who Kidnapped US Ambassador in 1969

Brazilian President Lula da Silva and his newly formed ruling coalition completed the reshuffling ...

40% of Young Brazilians Don’t Know How AIDS Is Transmitted

600 thousand of Latin America’s total of 1.8 million HIV carriers live in Brazil, ...

Brazil Is Hip in Moscow

Today marks the start of the “Brazil-Russia Fashion” exposition, a presentation of Brazilian jewelry, ...

IMF Goes to Brazil to Liquidate the Country’s Debt

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Rodrigo de Rato, will be in ...

The Phenomenon

With almost 1.6 million votes, Enéas made history during Brazil’s latest elections becoming the ...

Brazil Drafts US Multinationals to Affirmative Action Program

Brazil’s Minister of the Special Secretariat of Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality ...

Brazil Incensed with Criticism to the Construction of Belo Monte Dam

Earlier this month the Human Rights Commission at the Organization of American States (OAS) ...

Brazil Will Be the US of This Century, Says Lula

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reiterated the importance of integration among the ...

WordPress database error: [Table './brazzil3_live/wp_wfHits' is marked as crashed and last (automatic?) repair failed]
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `wp_wfHits`