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March 21 (UPI) -- Brazilian former President Michel Temer was arrested Thursday morning in Sao Paulo by a Rio de Janeiro-based task force in charge of a years-long corruption investigation involving bribes in exchange for government contracts. According to the confession of businessman Jose Antunes, owner of Engevix, Antunes admitted paying a bribe to a colonel, with Temer's knowledge, to win a government contract.
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In addition to that case, Temer faces nine other investigations, five of them in the Supreme Court, G1 reported.
Authorities were also seeking to arrest Wellington Moreira, former energy and mines minister, and six other former officials and businessmen.
Temer, 78, is the second president Brazil's history to be arrested after a corruption investigation. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva began serving a prison sentence for corruption last year.
Temer served as president of Brazil from August 2016 to December 2018. He was preceded by Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached.
The so-called Car Wash is an investigation that has been going on for many years involving schemes of bribe payments in exchange for government projects involving several countries across Latin America.
