Brazil jails Medina’s former campaign adviser on ‘money laundering’

SantoDomingo.- A Brazilian judge on Thursday sent political campaign adviser JoãoSantana and his wife Monica Moura to pretrial the detention, on charges ofmoney laundering, officials said.

Santana wasan adviser for the campaigns of the presidents of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, andthe Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina among others.

Santana and Mourawere detained last week on charges of receiving money in the corruption scandalin Brazil’s State oil company Petrobras.

Investigatorstry to determine if the payments not declared abroad used to finance electioncampaigns are kickbacks.

Judge SergioMoro, who hears the Petrobras case, ruled to detain the couple noting that Santana"tried to destroy electronic records" which "indicates a risk tothe investigation."

The publicistsgained fame with El Salvador’s presidential campaign won by Mauricio Funes in 2009and were then hired by several candidates from other Latin American countries.