Most of the largest individual donations made directly to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's re-election campaign came from people who hold jobs in his administration or at state-owned companies. According to an investigation by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo published on Sunday (27), 57 of the 76 people who gave at least R$ 2,500 directly, without going through a crowdfunding drive, hold government or state company posts.
Their contributions add up to R$ 425,000. Of that, R$ 355,000 arrived as bank transfers and R$ 70,000 was estimated as donated services. The figures were pulled on Wednesday (23) from Divulgacand, the platform run by Brazil's electoral courts to disclose campaign finances. The amount is small next to the R$ 66.9 million the campaign has received so far. R$ 65.2 million of that came from the electoral and party funds, pools of public money distributed to parties and transferred by the PT. Crowdfunding brought in R$ 283,000.
Who the donors are
Folha identified the donors' positions by cross-checking each donor's CPF, Brazil's tax ID, on the government transparency portal and their names on state companies' institutional pages. The donors sit at several levels. They include ministers, secretaries, directors, aides and executives at state companies. Eight of the 57 also hold seats on boards of federal state companies other than the ones where they work, a role that pays extra compensation known in Brazil as a jeton.
A survey by G1, Globo's news portal, using data through September 22, shows the same pattern. Donors to Lula include Labor and Employment Minister Luiz Marinho and Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, one of the campaign's coordinators. By that date, the campaign had declared R$ 1.4 million in donations from individuals. The largest single gift came from businessman Erasmo Carlos Battistella, CEO of Be8, Brazil's largest biodiesel producer according to ANP data cited by G1: R$ 500,000. The same businessman gave an identical amount to Flávio Bolsonaro (PL). The list also includes services counted as donations, such as the R$ 30,000 declared by gospel singer and pastor Kleber Lucas for recording a jingle and a video clip.
The rules
Under Brazilian electoral rules described by G1, any individual can donate to candidates and parties, as long as the contribution is identified and traceable. Márcio Nogueira, an electoral law specialist who heads the Rondônia branch of the national bar association, the OAB, and was interviewed by the portal, said cash donations are capped at 10% of a donor's gross income in the year before the election. Goods and services can be given up to an estimated value of R$ 40,000 per person.
According to Nogueira, campaigns can raise funds until election day. After that, fundraising is only allowed to settle expenses already incurred. The disclosure numbers are partial and change as campaigns register new revenue on Divulgacand. The first round of Brazil's presidential election is scheduled for October 4, one week after the Folha report was published.