A Supreme Court judge in Brazil has placed dozens of politicians under investigation for bribery in connection with the Petrobras corruption scandal.
Judge Edson Fachin named almost a third of President Michel Temer’s cabinet among the targeted politicians.
The Petrobras scandal has dogged national life in Brazil for two years, bringing disgrace to many business executives and tainting the name of the state oil company, a major player in offshore energy exploration and production.
Essentially, the corruption involved executives of potential contractor firms bribing Petrobras officials in return for them approving inflated contracts.
The palms of politicians were liberally greased in order to facilitate the transactions or to conveniently ignore them.
There are 74 politicians among the 108 names in Judge Fachin’s list, most of them apparently provided by officials of construction firm Odebrecht, which is itself deeply embroiled in the bribery.
There are eight ministers, including Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes and President Temer’s chief of staff Eliseu Padilha.
