Brazilian police arrested a former Sao Paulo mayor and two prominent financiers on Tuesday in a case that grew out of an influence-peddling scandal involving senior government officials.
Federal police announced arrest warrants for 24 people in connection with schemes involving prominent businessmen Daniel Dantas and Naji Nahas. Charges include corruption, money laundering, sending illegal remittances abroad, tax evasion and criminal associations.
Protogenes Queiroz, the federal police officer who heads the investigation, said charges stemmed from a four-year investigation of top aides to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and allied party officials accused of bribing lawmakers.
At a news conference in Sao Paulo, Queiroz said there were two criminal organizations, one headed by Dantas, the other by Nahas.
“We were amazed with the level of organization and the power of these two organizations to intimidate and corrupt,” Queiroz said.
Dantas’ attorney Nelio Machado called the arrest of his client “arbitrary and unnecessary.”
A lawyer for arrested former Sao Paulo Mayor Celso Pitta called the operation “sensationalist.”
“The operation was released in the press before he was even detained at his home at 6am,” attorney Paula Sion de Souza Neves told Globo TV. He did not address accusations against Pitta.
Nahas’ lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. An appeals court last year threw out Nahas’ 1997 conviction and 25-year sentence in a stock futures scheme.
Pitta was mayor of Brazil’s largest city and financial capital from January 1997 to December 2000 and is fighting criminal charges in another case that he diverted public funds to private accounts while mayor. Pitta has denied wrongdoing in that case.
Queiroz said the recent probe began after investigators discovered financial transactions between a bank that Dantas owns and an advertising executive accused of providing the money to legislators to support government initiatives in Congress.
Federal police added that their investigations into Dantas also led them to another other group, headed by Nahas, which they said was involved in insider trading and illegal foreign exchange trades.
Police said Pitta was arrested for using Nahas’ firm to illegally transfer funds abroad.
Dantas, one of the owners of Banco Opportunity, a private investment bank, testified before a congressional committee in 2006 that the former treasurer of the ruling Workers’ Party asked for money to help the bank keep control of a telephone company.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS