Brazilian Supreme Tribunal Releases Further Information on Mensalão Scandal

On April 19, 2013, O Estado de São Paulo reported that the head of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Joaquim Barbosa, released a statement concerning the nature of the crimes surrounding the mensalão scandal, decided last December. According to the documents, the scandal was performed in three steps: first, there were measures of accounting fraud done between the agencies of Marcos Valério and the Banco Rural. Second, fraudulent mechanisms were used to simulate loans between the two sides. Third, money was then repaid to agencies of Valério and the federal government, who then used the money to pay the offending government officials. Some of the already-convicted defendants will be retried for additional offenses discovered in the investigation.  Read Article