A fugitive ex-judge who allegedly used connections with top Brazilian officials to embezzle nearly $100 million has surrendered to police, Justice Minister Jose Gregori said.
Nicolau dos Santos Neto turned himself in to federal agents in far southern Brazil on Friday and was taken to a jail in this southeastern city, Gregori said in a live television interview.
"There was no deal. He simply turned himself in," Gregori said, denying reports that Santos Neto had negotiated for special privileges. Still, he said, Brazilian law allows judges to stay in a special cell rather than in the common lockup.
The arrest ended a seven-month manhunt that turned dos Santos Neto into a national symbol of corruption, a man whose face peered out from "wanted" posters in airports, train depots and bus stations around the country.
Dos Santos Neto was convicted of padding the budget for a luxurious and still-unfinished courthouse in Sao Paulo, then pocketing the money.
The case snowballed into a national scandal in July, when the national newsweekly magazine Isto E' published transcripts of phone conversations suggesting that Planning Minister Martus Tavares and a former top aide of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso had helped to approve millions of dollars in extra funds for the courthouse in 1995 and 1996.
Both officials denied any wrongdoing.
