Brazil's anti-govt blackmail documents proven fake
Reuters, Sunday, November 15, 1998 at 18:40
SAO PAULO, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Documents that supposedly
showed President Fernando Henrique Cardoso was stashing away
millions in a secret Caribbean bank account were proven fakes,
according to handwriting experts and Brazilian police.
The documents were filled with blatant errors, including
photocopied signatures and erroneous titles attached to a
government official's name, experts said in local media
reports.
Brazil's most senior military aid, Gen. Alberto Cardoso
said that the documents were merely "a smear campaign."
"There were inconsistencies, gross errors in dates. There
were indications of a blackmail attempt," Cardoso, who bears no
relations to the president, was quoted as saying in O Globo
newspaper Sunday.
The other bullet in the dual-barreled blackmail scheme was
a set of taped phone conversations which were turned over to
police and reported on by news magazine Veja this weekend.
Veja said the cassettes detailed a failed bid by top
government officials to influence part of July's $19 billion
privatization of state telephone giant Telebras.
According to Veja's report, the tapes detailed a plan by
Brazil's Communications Minister Luiz Carlos Mendonca de Barros
and by the head of the National Development Bank to help a
consortium led by Opportunity Bank to win units stretching from
Rio de Janeiro to the Amazon region, most apparently through
financing assistance.
The article also insinuated, but provided only vague
supporting transcriptions, an attempt to feed the competing
Telemar consortium false information on other potential bids.
Magazine Epoca, which broke the story on the suspected
blackmail plot last weekend, said the plan ultimately fell
apart because of a communication error within the Opportunity
bank's consortium.
President Cardoso rarely appeared in Veja's transcription
of the tapes and was not obviously involved in the plan.
The tapes and documents were allegedly peddled ahead of the
country's October general elections to opposition leaders, who
said they declined to go public with them because they appeared
false.
But attention to scandal last week rattled Brazil's
financial markets, which fell 3.76 percent on Thursday amid
fears the political implications of the blackmail plot could
slow voting on crucial austerity measures in Congress.
A visibly upset Cardoso blasted media interest in the
charges on Friday, telling reporters it showed "a lack of
respect for the presidency."
"It's a pity (that these charges occurred) in the moment
Brazil is fighting, and that I am personally fighting, to
defend our currency," Cardoso said.
"Brazil needs credibility."
Copyright 1998, Reuters News Service |
