News / Brazil

Brazil’s President Temer faces new corruption charge

Thursday, 20 December 2018 7:53 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 20 December 2018 7:57 AM ]

Brazil's President Michel Temer delivers a press conference on the first day of the G20 Leaders Summit in Buenos Aires on November 30, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Brazilian President Michel Temer has been charged with corruption and money laundering following an investigation into graft related to alleged concessions in running the country’s ports.

Temer has been under investigation since last year for allegedly receiving kickbacks in exchange for issuing a decree that allowed two port contracts to be extended for up to 70 years.

Brazil’s Prosecutor General Raquel Dodge filed a fresh corruption accusation against the outgoing 78-year-old president on Wednesday, claiming that Temer had taken bribes from port companies while serving as a deputy to former leftist President Dilma Rousseff.

The chief prosecutor said Temer and five other people were suspected of implication in the bribery case, which involved four port companies making eight million dollars in allegedly illegal payments.

Denying any wrongdoing in the case, the presidential office announced in a statement that Temer would prove there were no irregularities and the companies had no illicit gains.

This is the third corruption charge against the outgoing president, who will leave office in January.

Temer escaped action over the previous two corruption allegations against him after Brazil’s congress voted for their dismissal.

Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff speaks during the First World Critical Thinking Forum in Buenos Aires, on November 19, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Temer took over in 2016 after Rousseff was impeached for allegedly violating fiscal regulations by tampering the 2014 federal budget, an allegation she strongly rejected.

The outgoing Brazilian president will be succeeded by Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right politician who won elections in October on a campaign pledge to combat corruption and bribery in the resource-rich Latin American country.

Brazil has been shaken by a wave of corruption cases involving former presidents and other high-ranking officials.

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