Brasília - Simone Vasconcelos, an employee of the ad agency, SMP&B, is scheduled to be interrogated by the Federal Police today. Vasconcelos was a financial director of SMP&B, which is partly owned by Marcos Valerio. Valerio has been denounced as the moneyman in a supposed congressional payff scheme where some members of Congress were paid to vote with the government. Vasconcelos is accused of actually making the payments (which are known as a monthly allowance - "mensalão") after she made large withdrawals from SMP&B accounts.

Meanwhile, the Post Office CPI has scheduled testimony by Vasconcelos for this Wednesday. In prior testimony to the Federal Police, Vasconcelos declared that she did not know the people she gave the money to. She said Marcos Valerio had her wear a certain blouse and that the people who got the money knew who she was by the blouse. According to deputy Gustavo Fruet (PSDB-PR), "If she is going to stick to this blouse story, it is hard to see how we are going to make any progress on this."

Translator: Allen Bennett