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After 2 years, Switzerland will send Brazil extracts regarding Serra's campaigns.

The Swiss Public Prosecutor's Office rejected the latest appeal filed by the defense of Senator José Serra (PSDB-SP) and will have to send to Brazil the bank statements relating to the financial transactions that allegedly irregularly funded the senator's election campaigns; Serra is suspected, along with other members of the PSDB party, of receiving R$ 10,8 million through a scheme involving construction companies that worked on the construction of the Rodoanel highway in São Paulo.

After 2 years, Switzerland will send Brazil extracts regarding Serra's campaigns (Photo: (Valter Campanato/Agência Brasil)

247 - The Swiss Public Prosecutor's Office has rejected the latest appeal filed by the defense of Senator José Serra (PSDB-SP) and will have to send to Brazil the bank statements relating to the financial transactions that allegedly irregularly funded the senator's election campaigns.

Serra, along with other members of the PSDB party, is suspected of receiving R$ 10,8 million through a scheme involving construction companies that worked on the Rodoanel highway project in São Paulo.

The process regarding the submission of bank statements, which should indicate who paid and who received funds irregularly, lasted almost two years due to repeated delaying appeals filed by the defense.

According to Serra's lawyers, the case no longer makes sense since the Supreme Federal Court (STF) declared last year that the criminal liability for the crimes attributed to the former governor of São Paulo had expired.

The Swiss Public Prosecutor's Office, however, understood that the Supreme Court's decision does not prevent the investigation and forwarding of bank statements. For the Swiss authorities, the target of the confiscation are the offshore companies that allegedly participated in the scheme.

According to Swiss authorities, "the documents are potentially useful for fully reconstructing the flow of money related to crimes committed after 2010 that are not time-barred."