Brazil's Bolsonaro faces first potential scandal

Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro (pictured) is facing his first potential scandal even before assuming power.

The government's financial supervisory council (COAF) detected suspicious cash transfers from Fabrício Queiroz, a former adviser to Bolsonaro's son, Flávio Bolsonaro.

According to COAF, Queiroz made the suspicious cash payments totaling 1.2mn reais (US$307,692) during 2016 and the wife of Flávio Bolsonaro, Michele de Paula Bolsonaro, received 24,000 reais from Queiroz.

Flávio Bolsonaro came out to say the bank transfer to his wife was the payment of an old debt but he also admitted that he had failed to inform the tax authorities of the transaction in question.

COAF's probe took place after prosecutors demanded details of all financial transactions by people linked to Rio de Janeiro's chamber of deputies, as several legislators in the state are under investigation.

Flávio Bolsonaro has been a Rio de Janeiro lawmaker since 2003 and in the October general elections he won a bid to become a member of the country's senate.

The successful presidential campaign of Jair Bolsonaro, who takes office January 1, was strongly focused on criticizing the widespread corruption in Brazil when the leftist workers party was in power.