Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:
A Brazilian senator allied to far-right President Jair Bolsonaro was caught hiding cash in his underwear throughout a police investigation into the diversion of public funds for combating the coronavirus, native media reported on Thursday.
Federal officers raided the house of Chico Rodrigues within the northern state of Roraima on Wednesday as a part of a corruption probe.
They discovered 30,000 reales ($5,300) in money, a part of which was found in Rodrigues’s underwear, together with “between his buttocks,” mentioned main retailers together with O Globo, Folha de S. Paulo and Estadao, quoting sources from the investigation.
The federal police confirmed to AFP they had been attempting to dismantle a “potential legal scheme diverting public funds” put aside to fight the outbreak in Roraima state.
Rodrigues in the meantime issued an announcement saying the police “did their job finishing up a search as a part of an investigation wherein I am cited,” though he made no point out of the money nor the place it was allegedly discovered.
He complained that he’d had his “house invaded only for doing my job as a legislator” and insisted he had executed nothing improper.
Bolsonaro accused the media of utilizing the story to painting his authorities as corrupt.
“This operation is a typical instance that there is not any corruption in my authorities, that we’re tackling corruption irrespective of who it’s,” he mentioned.
Bolsonaro was elected in 2018 partly on the again of promise to combat corruption, however since he took workplace he is confronted a number of scandals.
They embrace an investigation into his son Flavio, who’s accused of deviating public funds throughout his time as a Rio de Janeiro state legislator.
Bolsonaro is being investigated over accusations by his former justice minister, Sergio Moro, that the president tried to intervene with police probes to defend members of his household and pals.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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