Ideological falsehood and money laundering: these are the accusations contained in the new complaint received by the former president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The story concerns some properties owned by him, which Lula allegedly concealed.
The San Paolo prosecutor also denounced 16 other people in addition to the former President, including his wife, Marisa Leticia, and one of the children, Fabio Luis, believed to be the beneficiaries of a luxury penthouse owned by Oas, the brick involved in the Brazilian Tangentopoli.
The corruption scandal last Friday had led to the spectacular police raid Lula's house to force him to testify as part of the Petrobras investigation. Lula is in fact suspected of being one of the beneficiaries of the bribe scheme linked to the Brazilian oil giant.
The prosecutor now suspects that Lula and his wife are the real owners of the penthouse in Guarujà (216 square meters on 3 floors), owned by the brick holding company Oas, involved in the "Lava Jato" investigation, which has already led to dozens of of politicians, managers, entrepreneurs and fixers.
Lula has repeatedly denied being the owner of the apartment but admitted that in the past he had been offered the purchase. The Lula Institute, the foundation of the former head of state, specified last month that Mrs. Marisa had purchased a share of the property through a cooperative of the banking union, which however was declared insolvent and the ownership of the entire condominium Solaris was taken over by the OAS.
Instead, investigators suspect that the penthouse was purchased by Lula and furnished on direct indications from the ex-president's wife. The magistrates arrived at this conclusion after questioning about a hundred people including neighbours, workers, doormen and employees of the building.
