The Mensalão scandal () took place in Brazil in 2005 and threatened to bring down the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Mensalão is a neologism and variant of the word for "big monthly payment" (salário mensal or mensalidade).
June 8 June 2005 – A CPI is installed to investigate alleged corruption in the Post Office after the testimony of Roberto Jefferson. Workers Party treasurer Delúbio Soares denied the claims in a press conference and said that he would authorize the investigation of all of his personal bank accounts. 14 June – Additional testimony of Roberto Jefferson in front of the Council of Ethics of the Chamber of the Deputies. Jefferson says that he informed the ministers Aldo Rebelo, , Ciro Gomes, Miro Teixeira, José Dirceu and Antônio Palocci about the alleged payments. Palocci and Dirceu deny they were warned by Jefferson; Rebelo, Guia, and Gomes, and Teixeira confirm that Jefferson warned them about the existence of the "mensalão". Roberto Jefferson states that José Dirceu should resign from the government "quickly". 16 June – Minister of Civilian Household José Dirceu resigns. Dirceu was labeled by his opponents the "Rasputin" of the government because he was a strong figure with influence over President Lula. 17 June – Roberto Jefferson leaves the presidency of the Brazilian Labour Party (PTB) 22 June – Deputy Raquel Teixeira (Goiás) testifying in front of the Council of Ethics confirms that on 18 February 2004 deputy Sandro Mabel of the Liberal Party (PL) invited her to leave the PSDB in exchange for a monthly payment if she also promised to support the government. According to Raquel, the offer was R$30,000 (about US$12,913) a month – which could be increased up to a sum of R$50,000 (about US$21,521) with R$1 million ($430,420) as a "bonus" at the end of the year. Raquel says she denounced the request and spoke to the governor of Goiás Marconi Perillo about it. 22 June – Governor Marconi Perillo (PSDB-Goiás) tells the Council of Ethics that on 5 March 2004 during an official visit of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the food enterprise Perdigão S.A. in Rio Verde, he notified and warned the president about the offer received by deputy Raquel Teixeira (PSDB-Goiás). 30 June – With his left eye injured due to an accident moving an armoire – Deputy Roberto Jefferson (PTB-Rio de Janeiro) testifies to the Post Office CPI. Jefferson says that the agency of the Rural Bank at the 9th floor of Brasília shopping mall is used to withdraw the money of mensalão since the delivery by suitcases got very risky.
July 4 July – Workers Party member Silvio Pereira resigns from his post as secretary general of the party. According to Jefferson he was the manager of the "mensalão". 4 July – The magazine Veja publishes photos of a contract from the Bank BMG S/A indicating Marcos Valério as the guarantor of a 17 February 2003 R$2.4 million bank loan to the Workers Party (PT). The document was signed by Workers Party President José Genoíno and party treasurer Delúbio Soares. Genoino claimed that he didn't read the document when he signed it. Valério had paid back the first R$300,000 of the loan. 5 July – Workers Party (PT) treasurer Delúbio Soares resigned. Deputy José Borba (leader of the PMDB) claimed that Valério, despite not having a public post, directly took part in the nomination of directors for strategic positions in state-run enterprises. Valério denied the claim. 6 July – It is discovered that Marcos Valério had moved more than R$800 million within his bank accounts in the past 3 years. 6 July – Marcos Valério testified before the Post Office CPI and maintained that he did not do anything illegal. The veracity of his testimony was questioned by parliamentarians and many political analysts because Valério spoke under a preemptive habeas corpus (exempting the individual from certain legal sanctions for not telling the truth) granted by Brazilian courts. 6 July – Deputy (PL-RJ), former bishop of the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God) denied involvement in the scandal. 7 July – It became public that the Bank of Brazil (BB) had loaned R$20 million to the Workers' Party without any guarantor or guarantees. The CPI for the Post Office began to investigate loans to the Workers' Party. There were also new claims that members or supporters of the Workers' Party had unique control of the bank. 7 July – The bank, postal, and telephone records of Roberto Jefferson, Delúbio Soares, José Genoíno and José Dirceu were subpoenaed. 8 July – José Adalberto Vieira da Silva, an adviser to deputy José Nobre Guimarães, who is the brother of Workers' Party President José Genoíno, was detained at Cumbica airport in Guarulhos (SP) with US$100,000 in cash stuffed in his underpants and R$200,000 in his luggage. 9 July – Workers' Party president José Genoíno resigns. 12 July – Lula completes a ministerial reform which includes the removal of cabinet-level ministerial status from Luiz Gushiken, the Secretariat of Government Communication and Strategic Management (Secom), who had been suspected of having questionable relationships with pensions firms under his jurisdiction. 14 July – Mauro Marcelo, director of the Agência Brasileira de Inteligência (Abin), resigns after calling the Post Office CPI a "circus ring" and their members "wild beasts". Henrique Pizzolato, director of Marketing and Communications for the Banco do Brasil petitions for retirement. Several days earlier, Fernanda Karina Somaggio, former secretary of Marcos Valério had accused the director of being part of the circle that connected Valério to the government. Pizzolato had already been attacked because he used Banco do Brasil funds to pay for a Brazilian country music (sertaneja) concert which returned profits to the Workers Party (PT). 15 July – During an interview with the national newscast Jornal Nacional (Rede Globo) Marcos Valério admits that the funds in his bank accounts were used as loans to the Workers Party (PT), thereby administering an illegal off-book accounting scheme for the party. 15 July – A number of non-governmental parties assert that Valerio's concessions are actually a strategy to reduce the apparent severity of the crimes since the penalties for off-book accounting are less severe. Some parliamentarians on the CPI recall the "Uruguay Operation", a fictitious financial entity created by some supporters of the impeached President Fernando Collor de Mello to explain his alleged large financial gains. The deputy Eduardo Paes (PSDB-RJ) labels the Marcos Valério claims as the "Paraguay Operation" as an allusion to this episode. The Paraguayan ambassador to Brazil Luis González Arias protests against the use of the name of his country in this "pejorative manner". 17 July – During an interview to Rede Globo, Workers Party treasurer Delúbio Soares says that the only impropriety he committed was the use of off-book accounting as described by the businessman Marcos Valério two days earlier. 17 July – In Paris for the Bastille Day celebrations, Brazilian President Lula says during an exclusive interview with a Brazilian freelance journalist aired in Brazil by Rede Globo that off-book accounting is a "common practice in Brazil". 19 July – The former secretary-general of the Workers Party (PT) Silvio Pereira testifies with habeas corpus protection before the CPI on the Post Office. He does not explain how he received a Land Rover from an employee of the firm GDK whose president César Oliveira Silvio he admits to knowing. GDK had won a major contract of R$90 million together with Petrobras in 2004. Silvio Pereira, whose salary as a worker of the PT is R$9,000 per month, is accused of living a lifestyle incompatible with his inheritance and income, including a penthouse apartment in São Paulo and a mansion in Ilhabela 19 July – The subpoenaed bank records of Marcos Valério and his businesses reveal connections to the leaders of a number of parties, including the PT. The then former President of the House of Deputies João Paulo Cunha (PT-SP) appears to be the beneficiary of a withdrawal of R$50 thousand made by wife. This information denies his previous claim that his wife was seen at the Banco Rural branch only while paying a cable television bill. It is also discovered that there were withdrawals of R$320 thousand made by Anita Leocádia, an advisor to the leader of the PT in the House Paulo Rocha (PT-BA), in addition to numerous other withdrawals made by advisors to PT members and other party leaders. 20 July – The Vote Buying Congressional Inquiry (CPI) is installed. 20 July – Workers' Party (PT) treasurer Delúbio Soares testifies under habeas corpus protection before the Post Office CPI. He says that the only irregularity practiced by his party is book-off accounting and that he is the only guilty party. 20 July – Maria Christina Mendes Caldeira, the former wife of Deputy Valdemar Costa Neto (PL), accuses Valdemar of receiving the "mensalão". She says her former husband illegally brought dollars into Brazil and that he is a compulsive gambler. 20 July – Also, the STF, after a communication from the Council for Control of Financial Activities (COAF), blocks an account of Marcos Valério's wife Renilda Fernandes de Souza after she tried to withdraw R$1.8 million from a Bank Boston account in Belo Horizonte, MG 20 July – The President of the Municipal Foundation of Culture in Belo Horizonte Rodrigo Barroso Fernandes resigns because of accusations related to money laundering. He has ties to Belo Horizonte mayor Fernando Pimentel (PT) because of his work as treasurer during the 2002 election campaign. Rodrigo's name had appeared in the lists of withdrawals from the accounts of Valério's firms SMP&B and DNA (including a R$350 thousand withdrawal from an account of SMP&B with Banco Rural).
21 July – Deputy Paulo Rocha resigns as the leader of the Workers' Party (PT) in the Chamber of Deputies. 22 July – In Rio de Janeiro, Lula states that "among 180 million Brazilians, there is not a single man or woman" that can lecture him about ethics and that the "Brazilian elite" will not bring him down. 22 July – The head of the CPI on the Post Office Delcídio Amaral admits that Roberto Costa Pinho worked for his election campaign in 2002. Roberto was discovered to have initiated a withdrawal of R$350 thousand from an account of SMP&B, a firm of Valério's. Also, Amaral confirms that he was guarantor of a rent contract for a house in Campo Grande/Mato Grosso do Sul for Costa Pinho. 22 July – The former secretary-general of the Workers' Party (PT) Silvio Pereira admits that it was improper to accept a Land Rover from a businessman. He apologizes and requests his disaffiliation from the Workers' Party. 22 July – Newspapers, including O Globo, report that the police have recorded a phone conversation between members of the "máfia da previdência", a gang specializing in fraud against the National Social Security Institute (INSS) and the Receita Federal (Federal Revenue Service), mentioning the names of political figures Delúbio Soares, José Dirceu and Roberto Jefferson. The Ministério Público Federal (the Federal Prosecutor's Office) begins to investigate the new connection. here http://www.portalcorreio.com.br/site/noticia.php?id=9669 28 July – Newspapers report that Delúbio Soares had told the General Public Prosecution Office that the loans guaranteed by Marcos Valério paid expenses connected to the government transition and Presidential inauguration. 28 July – In Rio Grande do Sul, Lula states that the economy is vulnerable and that the policies of his government had antagonized the opposition.
August 1 August – President of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto, resigns. He concedes that he received illegal money to pay off debts from his political campaigns.