In mensalão case, relator rules that defendants in PTB are guilty of passive corruption

On Wednesday, September 19, the justice-relator in Penal Case 470, known as the mensalão, Joaquim Barbosa, ruled that the defendants who were members of the PTB, Roberto Jefferson, Romeu Queiroz and Emerson Palmieri were guilty of passive corruption. According to the relator: “The PTB ensured party fidelity in return for an improper advantage… The payments sustained votes in favor of the government.”

Barbosa explained how Jefferson took over as president of the PTB and commander of the payment scheme run by Marcos Valério and the former PT treasurer, Delubio Soares, after the death of Jose Carlos Martinez. And how former deputy Romeu Queiroz requested money from then minister of Transportation, Anderson Adauto. “Queiroz sold his support in exchange for money from the PT that was being handed out to allies in Congress,” said the relator.