Silvio José Pereira (born May 4, 1961) is a sociologist and co-founder of the

Brazilian Workers Party The Workers' Party ( pt-BR, Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) is a centre-left to left-wing political party in Brazil. Some scholars classify its ideology in the 21st century as social democracy, with the party shifting from a broadly socialist id ...

. Born in

Osasco Osasco () is a municipality in São Paulo State, Brazil, located in the Greater São Paulo and ranking 5th in population among São Paulo municipalities. According to the IBGE 2015, Osasco currently has the 9th highest gross domestic product in ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

, he was a key figure in the

mensalão scandal The Mensalão scandal ( pt, Escândalo do Mensalão, ) was a major parliamentary vote-buying scandal by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration that threatened to bring down his government in 2005. ''Mensalão'' is a neologism, a variant of ...

and resigned from his post of secretary general of the party on June 4, 2005. Under

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (; born Luiz Inácio da Silva; 27 October 1945), known mononymously as Lula, is a Brazilian politician, trade unionist, and former metalworker who is the president-elect of Brazil. A member of the Workers' Par ...

's administration, Pereira was responsible for the allocation of the 32,000 commissioned positions.

Operation Car Wash

The 27th phase of the Operation Car Wash (''Lava Jato'') uncovered Pereira's involvement in the oil corruption scheme linked to Petrobras through his company DNP Eventos Ltds. The investigation revealed that he was one of the recipient of payments from GDK and OAS contractors in the scheme that involved overpaying contracts so that excess funds are funneled to personal accounts. For example, he was accused of receiving a

Land Rover Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rove ...

from a supplier of Petrobras and of receiving, together with other leading members of the party, illegal withdrawals from the accounts of

Marcos Valério Marcos Valério Fernandes de Souza (born January 29, 1961) is a Brazilian businessman in the field of public relations. He is the owner of two communications firms: DNA and SMP&B. Because of his involvement in the Mensalão scandal, he was sente ...

. Pereira also allegedly gained favors from OAS and GDK for appointing Renato Duque to the Petrobras Services directorate. Brazil's Federal Public Prosecution Service charged Pereira with passive corruption and money laundering and was arrested in April 2016.

References

1961 births Living people Brazilian sociologists People from Osasco {{SouthAm-sociologist-stub