Labor Party presidential candidate Former President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva stated that “the theft may have occurred in Petrobras” during the Labor governments. The statement was made at the TV Band debate, Sunday (16), after Lula confronted incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) over the Petrolão scandal.
“When a man confesses to a crime, it’s because he committed a crime,” Lula said. “People went there and reported it. Maybe there was a robbery in Petrobras, maybe there was.” The Labor member indicated that they arrested the robbers from Petrobras because there was an investigation, without secrecy in the actions of the government.
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Then the Labor Party said that in order to fight corruption, it was not necessary to shut down businesses. Lula continued: “In Korea, they did not shut down Samsung, and in Germany they did not shut down Volkswagen. That is, they arrested the owner of the company and the workers continued to work, and the company continued to produce.”
Speaking on the subject, Bolsonaro said Petrolão was the “biggest corruption scheme in human history” and that he made Petrobras a “city” by diverting resources. Bolsonaro also said the former president “split the corruption money with friends.”
The Petrobras scandal, known as the “Petrolão”, was a Petrobras money laundering scheme during PT governments that involved collecting bribes from contractors, evading foreign exchange, money laundering, and inflating business rates. This scheme was investigated by the Federal Police in Operation Lava Jato.
The debate was the first face-to-face meeting between the candidates since the first round of elections and was promoted by a group made up of the UOL portal, Bandeirantes Group, Folha de S.Paulo and TV Cultura, with support from Google and YouTube. At certain times, the candidates themselves were able to manage their time and walk around the studio stage.
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