Bribes, money laundering in Caribbean tax havens and the accusation of having given away the country's strategic assets to private individuals. The book "Privataria tucana", launched just before Christmas, became a best-seller in just a few days and in recent weeks has sold over 120 copies.
It took journalist Amaury Ribeiro 12 years of investigations to collect thousands of documents that tell how the privatizations desired by former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (considered, to tell the truth quite across the board, a savior of the country for having put the disastrous Brazilian economy back on track in the early 90s) have in fact been a sale of state assets and a gift to people closely linked to members of the government.
PSDB, the main opposition party of the current government of Dilma Rousseff, was targeted. A party that is already weakened enough after losing the last three presidential elections. And José Serra, Dilma's challenger in the last presidential elections and former minister of the Cardoso government, is one of the main accused of corruption together with his daughter Veronica.
At the end of the 90s, tens of millions of euros would have reached the current accounts of Serra's friends and relatives, including the former director of Banco do Brasil, following triangulation between Brazil, Uruguay, the United States and the British Virgin Islands . Operations carried out with front companies that had the sole purpose of losing track and cleaning up the money. In the meantime, the country´s largest companies ended up at auction: the Vale mining group, the Embraer aeronautical industry, the Usiminas, Compagnia Siderurgica Nazionale and Acesita steel companies, as well as the chemical giant Copesul and the railways.
To make the Brazilians digest the privatizations, starting from 1995, the government raised the tariffs of the services provided by state-owned companies: the cost of energy increased by 150%, while telephone rates soared by 500%. The state was thus able to place its family jewels, without too many protests. The Cardoso government then declared that it had collected 85,2 billion reais (about 35 billion euros) from the sale. But according to what is reported in the book, the State would have even paid to sell its businesses: between money already accounted for but not entered in the balance sheet, interest rates at 15% on debts contracted, huge investments made shortly before the privatizations, in the end the State Brazilian spent at least 87,6 billion reais, i.e. 2,4 billion more than he collected.
Despite the more than 100 original documents reported in the book, Serra and Cardoso have branded the journalistic investigation as "rubbish" and "collection of slander". Meanwhile, Parliament has taken action and has already launched a commission of inquiry. Nevertheless, according to Ribeiro, there would have been a "mess" between the majority and the opposition to close the era of privatizations: “Unfortunately there was a big agreement. PT and PSDB made an agreement at the time to stop the investigation which was beginning to annoy due to the volume of information contained". Even on the left, in fact, there are fears that figures linked to former president Lula may be involved in the scandal. As the author of the investigation recalls, "there are no saints in this story".
