Brasilia, Sep 21 (EFE).- Joao Vaccari, former treasurer of Brazil's governing Workers Party, was sentenced Monday to 15 years and four months in prison for his role in a massive corruption scheme centered on state oil company Petrobras.
Vaccari was found guilty of accepting bribes, money laundering and criminal conspiracy.
The 56-year-old Vaccari was the treasurer of President Dilma Rousseff's Workers Party until April, when he resigned after being detained by the Federal Police as part of the Petrobras investigation.
Convicted along with Vaccari was former Petrobras executive Renato Duque, who received a 28-year prison term from federal Judge Sergio Moro.
The $2 billion scandal involves a score of major companies, which, according to authorities, overcharged the oil giant for contracts and split the extra money with corrupt Petrobras executives while setting aside some of the loot to pay off politicians who provided cover for the graft.
Fifty politicians are also under investigation, including the leaders of the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, and Senate, Renan Calheiros.
Investigators suspect that some of the Petrobras money may have found its way into Rousseff's successful 2014 re-election campaign.
Federal Police have requested authorization from the Supreme Court to interrogate Rousseff's predecessor and political mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, on the suspicion that the former president might have benefited from the graft.
Brazil's Supreme Court recently banned corporate contributions to political parties and election campaigns, a common practice that the tribunal found contributed in part to the Petrobras affair.
In their 8-3 ruling last Thursday, the justices struck down a 1995 law that allowed corporations to donate in a given election cycle up to 2 percent of their previous year's gross revenue.
The ruling on a case brought to the high court by Brazil's bar association comes just days after Congress passed a bill - not yet signed by Rousseff - that made changes to the 1995 law.
That bill still would allow corporations to donate to electoral campaigns but not to individual candidates, according to Brazilian media outlets, which said it also would limit their donations to a maximum of 20 million reais ($5.1 million) per company.
Legal experts say the Supreme Court's decision could lend Rousseff, who says she opposes all financing of political activities by corporations, the backing she needs to veto the new bill.
