BRAD BROOKS, ABC NEWS, 9/18/2015
Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday banned corporate contributions to political campaigns and parties, a hot issue as investigators in the nation’s biggest corruption scandal say such financing was used by businesses to win lucrative contracts with state-run oil company Petrobras.
The court ruled 8-3 to block such campaign financing — which in the most recent presidential elections represented well over 90 percent of the funding for leading candidates and eventual presidents.
Brazil’s bar association brought the case to the top court, which first took it up in 2013 but saw a conservative justice block a final vote until now.