Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced ex-president Fernando Collor de Mello Wednesday to eight years and 10 months in prison for corruption, part of the fallout from the country’s sweeping “Car Wash” graft investigation.
The high court had convicted Collor of taking 20 million reais ($4 million) in bribes as a senator from 2010 to 2014 to “irregularly” arrange contracts for a construction company with a subsidiary of state-run oil company Petrobras.
Collor, 73, who led Brazil from 1990 to 1992, was already a tarnished figure in Brazilian politics: the country’s first democratically elected president after a 1964-1985 military dictatorship, he resigned as president to avoid impeachment, also over corruption allegations.
The Supreme Court’s justices found him guilty last Thursday in an eight-to-two ruling in the Petrobras case.
The lead judge on the case, Edson Fachin, had recommended a sentence of 33 years.
