Brazil’s Supreme Court has sentenced former president Fernando Collor de Mello to eight years and ten months in prison for corruption on Wednesday, part of the fallout from the country’s sweeping Car Wash graft investigation.
The high court had convicted Collor of taking 20 million reais ($4 million) in bribes as a senator from 2010 to 2014 in exchange for arranging contracts for a construction company with a subsidiary of state-run oil company Petrobras.
Collor, 73, who led Brazil from 1990 to 1992, was already a tarnished figure in Brazilian politics: the country’s first democratically elected president after the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, he resigned from that office to avoid impeachment, also over corruption allegations.
Earlier this month, Supreme Court’s justices had found him guilty of corruption and money laundering in the Petrobras case in an eight-to-two ruling.
The lead judge on the case, Edson Fachin, had recommended a sentence of 33 years.
“The facts in the trial are “extremely serious” and “portray the nefarious misuse of public functions for personal and patrimonial promotion,” Fachin said on Wednesday.
In his vote, Fachin said, “the then-senator used his political-partisan influence to promote appointments to the board of directors” of Petrobras subsidiary Distribuidora “and create facilities for the establishment of contracts,” according to the court’s official website.
The money laundering was carried out through more than 40 deposits in accounts in Collor’s name and 65 accounts of companies he owned.
Meanwhile, His defence denied the accusations.
