Sawt Falasteen - Brazilian police probe senator close to Lula

Police said they carried out 18 raids in three states as part of the probe into the failed Banco Master and shady ties between its director and public figures in Brazil, such as judges and members of Congress.

A police source said that the targets of these raids included Jaques Wagner, a close ally of Lula and his government's top representative in the Senate with the job of pushing the president's legislative agenda in that chamber.

A Supreme Court order authorizing the raids says Wagner, 75, is suspected of receiving "undue economic advantages" from the bank that included payments of money and an apartment, totaling more than a million dollars, and use of private planes.

In exchange for these perks, Wagner is alleged to have defended the interests of the bank, such as trying to win Senate passage of a constitutional amendment raising the amount of money insured by a fund fed by banks themselves for times of crisis. The effort in the Senate failed.

The affair erupted in November with the collapse of Banco Master, crushed under the weight of $7 billion in debt to 800,000 depositors who were later reimbursed by the government.

It quickly led to a probe of suspicious links between its director, the banker Daniel Vorcaro, and public figures in Brazil at both ends of the political spectrum. Vorcaro was arrested in March.

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the right-wing presidential candidate and Lula's main rival, is accused of having financial dealings with the banker.

R.Shaban--SF-PST