Sao Paulo, Feb 24 (EFE).- Former President Fernando Collor de Mello, who resigned in 1992 to avoid impeachment, is implicated in the corruption scandal that is rocking Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reported Tuesday.
Confessed criminal Alberto Youssef, considered the key figure in the network of corruption and money laundering, testified as part of a plea bargain that Collor accepted a bribe of 3 million reais ($1.1 million).
The former president rejects the allegations, his press office said.
Collor, currently a senator representing Alagoas state, was the first president elected by popular vote after the end of the 1964-1985 military dictatorship.
His term began in 1990 and ended abruptly two years later amid corruption allegations that spurred Congress to schedule a vote on impeachment.
Folha de Sao Paulo said Collor was named in Youssef's deposition to prosecutors in the southern state of Parana, who are leading the Petrobras investigation.
The alleged bribe, according to the newspaper, facilitated a deal between a chain of gas stations in the state of Sao Paulo and Petrobras subsidiary BR Distribuidora.
Businessman and energy consultant Pedro Paulo Leoni Ramos, a Cabinet minister in Collor's administration, was named by Youssef as the intermediary in the bribery.
Three former Petrobras executives and seven directors of private firms that did business with the oil giant are in custody in connection with Brazil's largest scandal in decades.
One of the Petrobras officials, Paulo Roberto Costa, has agreed to testify for the prosecution in exchange for a lesser sentence. He and Youssef have been the main sources of allegations against businesspeople and politicians, including members of President Dilma Rousseff's Workers Party.