Cerveró accuses Alves of pressuring for the purchase of the refinery.
A whistleblower in the Lava Jato corruption scandal, former Petrobras and BR Distribuidora director Nestor Cerveró, stated that the company's board was pressured in 2013 by Senator Edison Lobão and Representatives Eduardo Cunha and Henrique Eduardo Alves, Minister of Tourism, all from the PMDB party, to acquire the Manguinhos refinery in Rio de Janeiro "for the prosaic reason of receiving bribes." Manguinhos was privatized in 1998 during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration.
247 - A whistleblower in the Lava Jato corruption scandal, former Petrobras and BR Distribuidora director Nestor Cerveró, stated that the company's board was pressured in 2013 by Senator Edison Lobão and Representatives Eduardo Cunha and Henrique Eduardo Alves, Minister of Tourism, all from the PMDB party, to acquire the Manguinhos refinery in Rio de Janeiro.
According to him, the reason for the pressure to buy was "a prosaic motive, to receive the deal, to receive a bribe."
Manguinhos was privatized in 1998, during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration.
In a statement released through his press office, the Minister of Tourism, Henrique Eduardo Alves, denied any involvement in the case.
“I have never discussed this matter in any instance of Public Administration. I have never even heard of this matter being discussed by anyone. I am also unaware of any such matter involving Mr. Marcelo Sereno. I have never met with Congressman Eduardo Cunha at BR Distribuidora.”
In a dispatch to the Supreme Federal Court (STF), the Attorney General of the Union, Rodrigo Janot, accused Alves of receiving bribes in the Petrobras scheme. Despite the accusations, he was kept as a minister in Michel Temer's interim government.
Read here A report by Gustavo Aguiar on the subject.