A Brazilian federal court Tuesday accepted a formal charge for 184 accounts of money laundering against former Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral.
Cabral has been in jail since November 2016 when he was arrested for another accusation. This is now his fourth indictment for financial and corruption-related crimes.
In Tuesday’s statement from the court, Cabral is accused of laundering 39 million reais (12.6 million US dollars).
In addition, 10 other people were also formally denounced for participating in the governor’s money laundering scheme, including Cabral’ s wife Adriana Ancelmo.
Last year, a police investigation found that Ancelmo’s jewelry collection alone amounted to over 6.5 million reais (2.1 million US dollars) and that most of the pieces had not been included in the couple’s financial statements.
Cabral is accused of making a fortune out of embezzlement and bribes in exchange for favoring companies in many construction projects for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
As the governor suddenly grew rich, the state he governed was drowning in debt. Cabral’s disastrous administration is widely regarded as the main reason why the state had to declare a state of financial emergency in 2016.
Cabral’s scheme is believed to have taken over 310 million reais (100.4 million US dollars) from the state’s coffers, according to judicial authorities.
