MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) — Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro allegedly paid $11 million in undeclared cash to a Brazilian political consultant to campaign for then president Hugo Chavez ahead of the 2012 voting, media reported.
Monica Moura made the accusation in a testimony to Brazilian prosecutors in exchange for having her eight-year prison term commuted, according to the EFE news agency.
The campaigner was convicted in 2016 of money laundering together with her husband, Joao Santana, in a corruption investigation into Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras.
Moura claimed Maduro, then foreign minister, handed her money in person at his office and was to bring another $15 million. She said money came from Brazilian construction firms that were interested in having Chavez reelected. Most of it was given by the Odebrecht conglomerate.
