Brazilian Federal Police say they have evidence that Aécio manipulated data from the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry that investigated the Mensalão scandal.
The Federal Police claim to have obtained circumstantial evidence that Senator Aécio Neves (PSDB-MG) acted to manipulate the data from Banco Rural that was delivered to the Postal Service CPI, which investigated the so-called mensalão scheme in 2005. According to the Federal Police, the data was altered in order to omit the institution's connection with the companies of the scheme's operator, Marcos Valério, and the Minas Gerais state government, which at the time was led by Aécio, and that he could not have been unaware of or not have participated in the investigated scheme.
247 - The Federal Police, in a report dated May of this year, claims to have obtained evidence that Senator Aécio Neves (PSDB-MG) acted to manipulate the data from Banco Rural that was delivered to the Postal Service CPI, which investigated the so-called mensalão scheme in 2005. According to Federal Police delegate Heliel Jefferson Martins Costa, the data was altered in order to conceal the institution's connection with the companies of the scheme's operator, Marcos Valério, and the Minas Gerais state government, which at the time was led by Aécio.
According to the Federal Police, the evidence against the politician appears on occasions when "secondary facts are demonstrated, duly proven, from which it is possible to extract the conviction of the existence of the fact to be proven, through inductions or logical reasoning," that is: Aécio could not have been unaware of or not have participated in the investigated scheme.
The investigations, initiated based on the testimony of former senator and president of the Postal Service CPI in 2005 and 2006, Delcídio do Amaral, indicate that Aécio and the vice-governor Clésio Andrade allegedly manipulated the data presented to exclude politicians from the PSDB party from the investigations.
As a result of the manipulation of information, the names of the guarantors of the loans taken out by Marcos Valério were omitted from the CPI report. This allegedly happened after Aécio agreed with Delcídio to extend the deadline for Banco Rural to provide the requested information.
"The exclusion was made without any valid reason, since there was no change in the guarantees given to settle the loan that would justify the bank's waiver of the surety commitments (guarantees) provided by Mauri José — president of ALMG and leader of the Minas Gerais government in that legislative body — and Danilo de Castro — secretary of the Minas Gerais government at the time of the events," the Federal Police report highlights.