Luciana Vasconcelos
Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – The joint preliminary report by the Post Office and Vote Buying CPIs says that it is "perfectly plausible" that the loans made by adman/businessman Marcos Valerio at the Banco Rural and the BMG for the PT were fictitious and were invented in order to make illegal funds legal . According to the report, the money from the loans was "passed on to the pockets of politicians under the false pretext of paying for past debts."

The report calls the story by Valerio of his guaranteeing the loans for the PT based on his friendship with the former PT treasurer, Delubio Soares, "a lame explanation." The report goes on to say that it is most unlikely that the Banco Rural and BMG would have made the loans with such "fragile guarantees."

The report concludes by saying that PT creditors seem resigned to losing their money or, the report wryly observes, they are cooking up illicit means to get it back.

Translator: Allen Bennett