Brazil Senator Denies He Got Payoffs

Senate president Renan Calheiros forcibly denied allegations published in the latest edition of Veja, a major newsweekly, that appeared to widen a corruption scandal reaching into the inner circle of Brazil's government.

Veja reported that the Mendes Junior construction company paid rent on an apartment for Calheiros in the capital Brasilia, as well as a monthly stipend for his 3-year-old daughter born out of wedlock. The magazine did not name its sources.

Calheiros, however, said the money was his own and that he asked a lobbyist friend to deliver it to the mother of his daughter in order to keep his extramarital affair secret.

"I had an (extramarital) relation out of which my daughter was born," Calheiros said in his Senate speech. "This is the sin that I committed." He denied having any connection with Mendes Junior.

Calheiros, an ally of the president, is the latest name to surface in a series of scandals involving Silva's close advisers. Brazil's mines and energy minister resigned last week amid accusations he accepted the equivalent of $50,000 from a construction company that obtained contracts to provide electricity to poor rural areas.

His resignation marked the fourth time in recent years that members of Silva's Cabinet have been forced out because of corruption allegations, but Silva has remained untouched by the scandals.