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(ATR) Sergio Cabral once charmed IOC members as Rio de Janeiro campaigned for the 2016 Olympics.
Cabral is now beginning a 14 year prison term in connection with bribes he took while serving as governor of Rio de Janeiro state from 2007 to 2014. He was swept up in the so-called Operation Lava Jato that has brought down business executives and government officials on corruption charges.
Cabral, under arrest since last November, was already in prison when his sentence was handed down by a Brazilian court Tuesday.
Cabral is the highest ranking ex-elected official to be sentenced from the investigation and the one with the closest connections to Rio 2016. Cabral helped campaign for the Rio bid, meeting and speaking to IOC members at the final presentation in Copenhagen when Rio was elected in 2009.
The charges that have led to Cabral’s imprisonmentapparently do not involve Rio 2016, which so far has escaped the tarnish of the widespread criminal inquiry. That could change, depending on what happens with the investigation said to be underway involving Eduardo Paes, the mayor for Rio de Janeiro in the lead-up to the Games. Paes denies any impropriety and is not facing charges.
Much of the scandal revolved around the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, which is reported to have spent nearly $1 billion bribing officials in Brazil and other Latin American nations, such as Peru and the Dominican Republic. The Odebrecht scandal helped lead to the impeachment of former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and could also bring down her successor Michel Temer.
Sentenced to prison with Cabral was Wilson Carlos Carvalho, former state interior minister and a friend of Cabral since their boyhoods. Cabral’s wife, Adriana Ancelmo, avoided jail when the judge determined there was not enough evidence to convict her.
Written by Ed Hula.
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