BRASILIA (Reuters) - Executives from Brazil's second-largest engineering company testified that President Dilma Rousseff's 2014 reelection campaign was partly funded by kickbacks from large infrastructure projects, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
The testimony, part of a plea bargain with 11 executives of builder Andrade Gutierrez (AGIS.UL), would be the strongest link yet between the widening "Operation Car Wash" probe and Rousseff's campaign, the Folha de S.Paulo paper said.
The main opposition party PSDB has demanded that electoral authorities strike down Rousseff's victory and call for fresh elections later this year.
A spokeswoman for Rousseff's Workers' Party, known as PT, said the allegations were false. "All the campaign donations received by the PT party were strictly legal and declared to the electoral court," she told Reuters in an emailed response.
Andrade Gutierrez declined to comment.
Plea bargain deals are confidential until the testimonies are collected by prosecutors and accepted by a judge. A source last month confirmed that Andrade Gutierrez executives had signed a plea deal, which was being handled by federal prosecutors as it involved politicians.
The executives said bribes were paid to win contracts in projects, including the Angra 3 nuclear power station, the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam and three stadiums built for the soccer World Cup held in Brazil in 2014, Folha reported.
The paper had previously reported that Andrade Gutierrez executives said the scheme was also used in Rousseff's 2010 election campaign.