The ex-minister of Public Works of Portugal, Antonio Mexia, now denies that Brazilian adman Marcos Valério, accused of being the money man behind the cash-for-votes scheme in the Brazilian Congress, met with him as “a consultant of the president of Brazil”.
The Portuguese newspaper Expresso reported yesterday that Valério had said he was a “consultant of the Presidency of Brazil.”
According to the Brazilian ambassador in Portugal, Paes de Andrade, however, Mexia told him that Valério “never said he had any title or denomination linking him directly with the Presidency of Brazil.”
According to Mexia, he received Valério during a courtesy visit of some ten minutes at the request of the president of Portugal Telecom, Miguel Horta e Costa, “for a general conversation on the Brazilian economy, Portuguese investments in Brazil and the importance of Portugal Telecom investments.”
ABr