Brazil President Endorsed Businessman’s Bribes in Secret Tape, Newspaper Says
On the recording, Mr. Batista said he had been paying hush money to Eduardo Cunha — the former speaker of Brazil’s lower house of Congress, who has been jailed since last year for his role in the graft scheme —
and Lúcio Funaro, who also figured in the Cunha case.
By DOM PHILLIPSMAY 17, 2017
RIO DE JANEIRO — A food company executive secretly recorded President Michel Temer of Brazil endorsing the executive’s payment
of hush money to a once-powerful politician jailed for corruption, a Brazilian newspaper reported Wednesday night.
The newspaper, O Globo, said that Mr. Temer also directed the executive to pay a lawmaker to help resolve a problem at a company plant, and
that the police later filmed the lawmaker receiving about $143,000.
Mr. Temer told Mr. Batista that he would have to keep up the payments, the newspaper said.
According to O Globo, the recording was made as part of a plea bargain
that the brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista, who control the family-owned meat giant JBS, made with prosecutors.