BRAZIL
Hitting Close To Home
Brazilian prosecutors filed graft charges against the son of President Jair Bolsonaro, a move that complicates the populist leader’s vow to stamp out corruption in Brazil, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Flavio Bolsonaro, a senator and the president’s eldest son, as well as 16 others, have been accused of money laundering, embezzlement and running a criminal empire.
Authorities have been investigating the 39-year-old senator over allegations that he took part in a scheme to siphon off taxpayer money in his former job as a state deputy in Rio de Janeiro. He has denied the charges and said the accusations are part of a conspiracy against his father.
Meanwhile, the case has raised political tensions in Brazil and has pitted Bolsonaro’s family against the judiciary and the media.
Bolsonaro was elected in 2018 on the promise of ending Brazil’s endemic corruption exposed by Operation Car Wash, an investigation that uncovered a graft scheme largely orchestrated by members of the opposition leftist Workers’ Party.
However, Sergio Moro, a former Car Wash judge and also a former justice minister in Bolsonaro’s cabinet, accused the president of trying to interfere in federal criminal investigations and failing to support anti-graft legislation.
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