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Brazil Police Make Arrests in Graft Probe Linked to Temer

by Associated Press

   SAO PAULO --

   Federal police arrested several people Thursday in connection with an
   investigation into whether President Michel Temer accepted bribes for
   favors to a company operating at the country's largest port, the
   attorney general's office said.

   Rodrimar, the company at the center of the inquiry, confirmed that its
   president, Antonio Celso Grecco, was arrested and that police searched
   its headquarters in Santos, where the port is located. The company said
   the warrant would allow Ceslo Grecco to be held for five days. Rodrimar
   denies ever receiving any official favors.

   According to Brazilian news outlets, others arrested included: Jose
   Yunes, a former aide to Temer; Joao Batista Lima, a former police
   coronel who is reportedly close to Temer; and Wagner Rossi, a minister
   in a previous government who once ran the entity that administers the
   port.

   The attorney general's office and police declined to name anyone
   arrested.

   The G1 news portal published a video showing Lima being put into an
   ambulance Thursday morning as a uniformed federal police officer
   watched. An Associated Press photographer saw Rossi arrive at the Sao
   Paulo federal police station, where he denied wrongdoing.

   Temer has also denied the charges.

   The president has been accused in two other cases, but in both he
   received a reprieve from Congress, which voted against removing him
   from office to stand trial. He could still face those charges when he
   leaves office.

   The president's office declined to comment Thursday.