[6] After being identified as a key figure in the scandal, Soares was expelled from PT,[7] a decision that was approved by a majority of votes in the National Directory.

Soares was one of forty persons who were denounced to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) on March 30, 2006, by Attorney General Antonio Fernando de Souza for having been involved in the distribution of the secret payments.

[8] Delúbio played a crucial role in the Mensalão scandal, causing a significant crisis for the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration and nearly cost him his reelection.

[4] In November 2012, Soares was sentenced by the STF to 8 years and 11 months in prison for conspiracy and racketeering in connection with the Mensalão scandal.

[13] This phase of the operation was named Carbono 14 and it involved the R$12 million loan made by Banco Schahin to cattle rancher Jose Carlos Bumlai, half of which was funneled to Ronan Maria Pinto, owner of the newspaper Diario do Grande ABC.

[14] Federal Judge Sergio Moro found him and four other defendants guilty, and sentenced him on March 2, 2017, to five years in prison,[15] noting that he had previously been convicted of complicity in the Mensalao scandal and that the money laundering in this case was particularly sophisticated, in that two people were interposed between the source of the funds and their final destination and that the scheme had involved two false loan agreements.