Accused names Dominican leader in major scandal in Brazil, reports

Santo Domingo.- Dominican president Danilo Medina, the lateHugo Chavez of Venezuela and Angolan José Edoardo dos Santos allegedly receivedmoney for their campaigns from Brazilian company Odebrecht through a secretaccount of the spouses Joao Santana and Monica Moura, being held Brazil oncharges of money laundering, bribery and tax evasion, in the case know as Lava Jato (gusher washing).

Brazilian newspaper O Globo and Spanish agency EFE reportthat Moura and Santana are charged with taking US$7.5 million in kickbacks fromfunds diverted from Petrobras through undeclared Swiss accounts.

In her deposition to Brazil Federal Police, Moura he deniedthat the money came from contracts in Brazil.

She said all funds were deposited abroad in the account ofthe company Shellbill Finance, used by Odebrecht to fund election campaigns ofpoliticians in Brazil and other countries.

In addition to Chavez and dos Santos, Dominican Republic presidentDanilo Medina, currently seeking reelection, also allegedly received money.

According to the outlets, Moura had admitted illegalpayments for the presidential campaign of dos Santos of Angola in 2011 andcited similar maneuvers in an election campaign in Panama in 2014, but didn’tspecify.

Moura and Santana also worked for presidents Mauricio Funes(El Salvador) in 2009; Danilo Medina (Dominican Republic) since 2011 and forBrazilians Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff.

According to the statement filtered to the media, Mourasaid Chavez’s 2011 campaign cost 35 million dollars paid mostly with "unreported"legally funds from "several donors."