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The plane that crashed in mid-August, killing Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) presidential candidate Eduardo Campos, has murky origins, local media sources said on Wednesday.
The Cessna airplane Campos used to travel to campaign stops belongs to the AF Andrade Group, media said, though the company said last week the plane officially belonged to Cessna, and was only being leased by the group.
According to media reports, the company sold the plane in May to three businessmen from the state of Pernambuco, Campos' home state, but none of the companies that allegedly own the plane actually exists.
The phantom companies, said media, could have been used to hide illicit campaign funding from electoral authorities.
The PSB has yet to clear up how it paid for the plane, but it has said the aircraft's use "was authorized by businessmen Joao Carlos Lyra Pessoa de Mello Filho and Apolo Santana Vieira," who appear as the owners of companies that, according to the investigations by Brazil's O Globo (the Globe) newspaper, do not exist at the addresses provided.
The PSB said Campos was going to declare how much was spent on the plane once the campaign ended and the flight hours were tallied.
The irregularities surrounding the plane threaten to mar the candidacy of Campos' substitute Marina Silva who could steal the election away from President Dilma Rousseff running for reelection.
