Brazil’s Post Office CPI (Congressional Investigative Commission), which is investigating charges of corruption in the Brazilian Post Office will hear the testimony of the former secretary general of the PT (Workers Party), SÀlvio Pereira.
Pereira has left his post in the party on a leave of absence while the investigation is underway. He will be questioned about his relationship with adman Marcos Valério, a partner in an ad agency, SMP&B, which has contracts with the Post Office.
In Brazil, where there is no fifth amendment, a person who is worried about the consequences of giving testimony usually obtains a habeas corpus which protects him from arrest and allows him to refuse to give answers that could be incriminating. Yesterday, Sílvio Pereira got a habeas corpus.
The Post Office CPI is scheduled to begin receiving copies of documents from the ad agency, DNA, which belongs to adman, Marcos Valério, who is accused of being the moneyman in a payoff scheme involving political parties, including the PT, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s party.
At the same time, the CPI will also be receiving bank transaction receipts and other financial records of everyone who is under investigation by the commission.
ABr