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Michel Temer

BRASILIA. – Brazil’s acting President Michel Temer on Wednesday rejected allegations that represented the first direct link between him and the massive corruption probe at state-run oil company Petrobras.

Sergio Machado, former head of a state-run oil subsidiary called Transpetro, said in a plea bargain deal made public on Wednesday that Temer asked him to channel $400 000 in company funds to 2012 Sao Paulo mayoral candidate, Gabriel Chalita.

At the time, Temer was the country’s vice-president and a key figure of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party.

He became interim president on May 12 after President Dilma Rousseff was suspended for allegedly breaking fiscal laws.

Machado said the payments were channelled through legal campaign donations made by the construction firm Queiroz Galvao, but resulted from Petrobras kickbacks.

According to testimony by prosecutors in the plea bargain document, Temer wanted Machado “to ask for illegal funds from companies that had businesses with Transpetro in the form of official donations for Chalita’s campaign”.

In a statement, Temer called Machado’s accusations “completely untrue”.

The construction firm and Chalita have also denied wrongdoing.

Transpetro is a subsidiary of Petrobras, which is at the heart of the political crisis that led to impeachment proceedings against Rousseff. Machado headed the firm from 2003-2015.

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Tribunal lifted the seal on the plea bargain late on Tuesday and it was made public on Wednesday.

Machado accused more than 20 politicians from various parties of corruption.

Among other things, he claimed to have paid almost $10 million in bribes to Senate president Renan Calheiros over 10 years. – AP