RIO DE JANEIRO, April 10 (UPI) -- More than a dozen Brazilian mayors and a judge were arrested in an alleged scheme to abscond with funds from the social security plan, federal officials said.
Sixteen mayors were arrested along with nine lawyers and a judge in a sting that followed an eight-month investigation into the alleged scheme, which authorities said netted more than $100 million in public funds earmarked for Brazilian retirees, O Globo reported Thursday.
Corruption scandals involving politicians in Brazil are not uncommon and have dogged even reform-minded administrations -- such as that of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose own administration was implicated in a bribery scandal involving federal deputies in 2006.
