A federal prosecutor said that a sweeping investigation into corruption in Brazil "is targeting more infrastructure projects for this year's Olympic Games than previously made public," citing testimony from construction companies and execs, according to Caroline Stauffer of REUTERS.
Carlos Lima said that "the probe into corruption on projects for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August was not limited to Porto Maravilha," or the "Marvelous Port," a regeneration of the city's waterfront that includes five high-rises bearing the name of U.S. property mogul and presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Lima said, "There are more. There are leniency agreements underway that talk about this, but until they are finalized we will not know how many (projects) for sure."
Lima "is a lead prosecutor on a task force that discovered a cartel of engineering firms siphoning kickbacks from state oil firm Petrobras to political parties, a scandal fuelling a crisis that could force President Dilma Rousseff from power."
His comments "were the clearest indication yet that the Olympics has become a focus of the two-year-old investigation."
The corruption allegations "are not expected to hinder work on infrastructure for the Games, which is nearly finished, but they do further cloud an event set to start in the middle of Brazil's worst political and economic crises in decades." The IOC "did not respond to request for comment" (REUTERS, 4/19).
