Brazilian police disband corruption ring

Federal police in Brazil have disbanded a corruption ring that defrauded the Culture Ministry of some 180 million reals (53 million U.S. dollars), Agencia Brasil reported Tuesday.

Police arrested 14 people suspected of abusing a law designed to promote spending on cultural activities, by using the money instead to throw parties and lavish weddings.

According to Rodrigo de Campos Costa, an official with the force's organized crime division, the abuse was flagrant.

"There was, at the very least, an auditing failure on the part of the Culture Ministry," he said.

In 1991 Brazil enacted the Rouanet Law, which allows companies to declare any money spent on promoting cultural activities as a tax write off.

Investigators said the suspects diverted funds that were earmarked to support such projects as children and youth theater productions in poor neighborhoods, concerts and the publication of books, among other activities.

Campos Costa said the ministry was cooperating with the investigation, to ensure "the law is effectively used for the objective it was designed, which is to promote culture in the country."

For at least the past two years, Brazil has been mired in successive public-sector corruption scandals that have led to the imprisonment of top officials.

President Dilma Rousseff has also been suspended pending an impeachment trial on charges of concealing the extent of the public deficit. Endit