The Mensalão Scandal
The Mensalão was a vote-buying scheme in which Brazil's Workers' Party (PT) paid monthly cash sums to allied congressmen in exchange for support in the Chamber of Deputies during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's first term. The scheme became public on 6 June 2005, when deputy Roberto Jefferson told Folha de S.Paulo that the PT paid roughly R$30,000 a month to legislators, with funds routed through advertising firms owned by Marcos Valério via Banco Rural and Banco do Brasil. The Supreme Federal Court (STF) tried the case as Criminal Action 470, opening trial on 2 August 2012 and convicting 25 defendants, among them PT chief of staff José Dirceu, party president José Genoino and treasurer Delúbio Soares.
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