SAABF SAAB AB (PK)

By Paulo Trevisani, Luciana Magalhães and Jeffrey T. Lewis 

BRASÍLIA -- Brazil's former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was indicted late on Friday on charges of money laundering and influence peddling allegedly for accepting bribes from Swedish aerospace company Saab AB and others.

A judge in the capital, Brasília, ruled there is sufficient evidence to put Mr. da Silva and his son Luis Claudio Lula da Silva on trial for allegedly accepting illegal payments of more than 2.5 million reais ($750,000).

Judge Vallisney de Souza Oliveira handed down the indictments after prosecutors filed the charges against Mr. da Silva and his son on Dec. 9.

There are indications a Saab intermediary paid a company owned by the younger Mr. da Silva in return for his father's efforts to convince the government to buy the Swedish company's Gripen jet fighters for the Brazilian Air Force, the judge said.

The da Silvas' lawyers said their clients are innocent. They said the former president never participated in the acquisition of the planes, and his son was paid for marketing work related to sports events.

Representatives for Saab weren't immediately available to comment. But a spokesman for the company told The Wall Street Journal on Dec. 10, after prosecutors filed the charges, that Saab has strict policies regarding business deals. The spokesman had added that Saab was cooperating fully with Brazilian authorities to "safeguard honest and correct business decided on quality and price."

No Saab employees have been charged.

Judge Oliveira also handed down indictments against the former president and his son for allegedly accepting payments from a representative of Brazil's auto industry to help push tax breaks for car manufacturers through Congress.

The payments to Saab and the car makers were made between 2011 and 2015, according to the indictments. Mr. da Silva was Brazil's president between 2003 and 2010, but remained influential with the government, which was led by his protégée Dilma Rousseff until earlier this year, when she was impeached and expelled from office for violating laws over the budget.

The judge referred to evidence offered by prosecutors that transfers to the firm of Mr. da Silva's son were made "without any proof of work [done]."

The sums were transferred to Mr. da Silva's son "only because of his direct contact" with the former president, according to evidence presented to the judge, the indictments said. Prosecutors also delivered evidence that Mr. da Silva "offered to use [his prestige] to facilitate the interests" of Saab and other companies, the judge wrote.

The latest indictments against the elder Mr. da Silva grew out of an anticorruption investigation known as Operation Zealots, which started out examining a disputes tribunal at the country's tax agency.

The elder Mr. da Silva already is the subject of three other indictments for separate crimes associated with the far-reaching so-called Operation Car Wash investigation of alleged graft centered on state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA. That probe has snared scores of politicians and businessmen.

Meanwhile, prosecutors from that investigation filed more charges against the former president earlier this week over alleged corruption and money laundering. A different judge will decide whether or not to indict Mr. da Silva over those fresh charges in the Car Wash investigation. Mr. da Silva has denied any wrongdoing.

Write to Paulo Trevisani at paulo.trevisani@wsj.com and Jeffrey T. Lewis at jeffrey.lewis@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 17, 2016 11:08 ET (16:08 GMT)

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