(CNN)Brazilian prosecutors on Wednesday presented charges of corruption against ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his wife, Marisa Leticia da Silva, according to state-run news agency Agencia Brasil.
The charges stem from the
Operation Car Wash money laundering investigation.
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Prosecutors allege the former president benefited from “illicit advances in connection with a renovation of a triplex” in a beach town near So Paulo.
The investigation extends to the president of the Lula Institute, Paulo Okamoto, and Leo Pinheiro, president of OAS, a construction company heavily investigated under Operation Car Wash.
Da Silva sent out a series of tweets after the charges, calling them “fiction” and claiming he had “been a victim of extremely serious illegalities, according to the ex-president’s defense.”
Beyond da Silva and his wife, six others are accused and tied to the construction firm, the news agency states.
According to Agencia Brasil, “The attorney general is also investigating whether works carried out by Odebrecht on a farm often visited by Lula’s family in Atibaia, So Paulo, came from illicit advantages benefiting him.” According to Agencia Brasil, “The Prosecution Service is also investigating whether works carried out by Odebrecht on a farm often visited by Lula’s family in Atibaia, So Paulo, came from illicit advantages benefiting him.”
Odebrecht is another construction company implicated under Operation Car Wash.
Da Silva, 65, was inaugurated as Brazil’s president in 2003 and handily won his bid for a second term.
He resigned in January 2011 with a 90% approval rating, just months before it was announced he would undergo chemotherapy for a malignant tumor in his larynx. His cancer was found to be in complete remission in February 2012.
When the former president was questioned by police in March over allegations of corruption, he strongly denied them. The same day that he was questioned, authorities searched his home, the Lula Institute and his son’s home, among other locations.
Police at the time said the searches were part of a broader inquiry into corruption and money laundering tied to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras.
