New York D.A. Indicts Brazilian Politician in Corruption-Money Laundering Scheme

On March 9, 2007, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announced the indictment of Paulo Maluf, former governor and mayor of São Paulo, Brazil, along with four co-conspirators. Prosecutors accuse Maluf, 75, of masterminding a scheme to steal and launder more than $11.6 million from a Brazilian public works project. The indictment charges Paulo Maluf, currently a federal deputy in the lower house of Brazil’s National Congress, with participating in an over-invoicing and kickback conspiracy that generated millions of dollars in criminal proceeds. The indictment alleges that during the period from January 1993 through August 2004 the stolen funds were illegally transferred to a bank account in New York secretly controlled by Maluf, and then wired to another account under Maluf’s control in Jersey through the Durant International Corp. The indictment alleges that Durant is controlled through “offshore shell entities and offshore trusts from the British Virgin Islands.” According to the indictment, Maluf used kickback funds to pay for personal expenses in the U.S. and Brazil, and to finance political campaigns in Brazil ... [more]