Brazil’s Supreme Court Plans to Shelve Meirelles Tax Probe

Brazil’s Supreme Court will shelve an investigation of alleged tax crimes by central bank President Henrique Meirelles after a request from prosecutors.

The Supreme Court accepted Brazilian Prosecutor General Roberto Gurgel’s request to drop the probe because it was the prosecutor’s office itself that had started the investigation, the court said today in a statement on its Web site.

Gurgel said he made the request to the Supreme Court because allegations made against Meirelles had already been investigated in another probe in the past, according to a statement on the Prosecutor’s Office Web site.

“Brazil’s penal code requires the case be shelved, except in case of new evidence,” Gurgel said in the statement. “And there was no new evidence.”

The first investigation, which looked into allegedly illegal money transfers from Brazil to foreign countries, had also been dropped, according to the statement from the Prosecutor’s Office.

Meirelles has denied any wrongdoing.