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Top ally of Lula and Rousseff arrested in Brazil

Xinhua, September 27, 2016 Adjust font size:

Brazil's ongoing Lava Jato investigation into the Petrobras corruption ring has claimed another prominent scalp, with the arrest of Antonio Palocci.

Palocci, a former finance minister to ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and chief of staff to the impeached Dilma Rousseff, was arrested Monday in Sao Paulo.

He stands accused of favoring construction company Odebrecht to secure Petrobras contracts and of receiving bribes, the federal police revealed in a statement.

Palocci was arrested in the 35th phase of the Lava Jato investigation, which saw police carry out 45 searches and raids in seven states across the country.

Palocci is known to be one of the most influential members of the Workers' Party. He was Minister of Finance from 2003 until 2006 under Lula, acted as Chief of Staff for Rousseff in 2012, and coordinated both Lula's presidential campaign in 2002 and Rousseff's in 2010.

The statement explained that Palocci benefited from some of the over 128 million reais (39.4 million U.S. dollars) in bribes paid by Odebrecht to Workers' Party members between 2008 and 2013.

Two other men were arrested, Juscelino Antonio Dourado, Palocci's former chief of staff, and Branislav Kontic, his former campaign adviser. The three are being taken to Brasilia for interrogation.

This new phase of the Lava Jato investigation comes less than a week before Brazil's municipal elections on October 2. Enditem