BUENOS AIRES – Former Brazilian president Fernando Collor de Mello was sentenced to eight years and 10 months in prison today for bribery and money laundering, reported German news agency dpa.
Collor de Mello, 73, received around 30 million reais (RM27.4 million) in bribes from a subsidiary of state-run oil company Petrobras, Brazil’s Supreme Court said yesterday.
Collor de Mello, who was Brazil’s president from March 1990 until December 1992, can appeal the sentence.
The massive “Lava Jato”, or “Car Wash”, probe has thrown Brazil’s political elite into tumult. Hundreds of politicians, civil servants, and entrepreneurs are involved across Latin America.
Brazil’s current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sentenced to a long prison term in 2017 for corruption and money laundering and spent 580 days in prison. The Supreme Court later overturned the sentence. – Bernama, June 1, 2023
