he received the Mário Covas Award from SEBRAE again for his work on behalf of local small businesses. Palocci was elected federal deputy in 1998. In 2000, he resigned his office so that he could run again in the mayoral election in Ribeirão Preto. He won the election, and was again mayor of Ribeirão Preto from 2001 to 2002. He resigned in 2002 to work on Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's campaign for the Brazilian presidency. In 2003, when Lula was elected, Palocci officially resigned as the mayor of Ribeirão Preto, was nominated the Finance Minister of Brazil and became a key figure in the new government. Along with former minister José Dirceu (who resigned and subsequently lost his political rights due to involvement with the Mensalão scandal), Palocci was considered one of the most influential and strong ministers of Lula’s government. On 1 January 2011, President Dilma Rousseff appointed him chief of staff. He resigned in July 2011. Corruption crimes and other criminal charges Antonio Palocci is involved in crimes related to the Mensalão scandal. He is currently sentenced to years in jail under the Car Wash federal operation.other Investigations are still underway . Ministerial abuse of power A new scandal began to unfold in 2006 after a parliamentary inquiry heard testimony from two witnesses who claimed that the minister might have visited a manor house in Brasília suspected of functioning as a hub for fraudulent operations within the government, with the participation of some of his closest aides. Palocci had previously claimed that he had never been to that house. The main witness in the case was Francenildo Costa, the groundskeeper of the property. He believed the minister had visited the house "on at least ten occasions" and said he recognized Palocci as the man he had seen in the meetings of governmental officials at the house. A few days after Costa's deposition, his bank statement (from government-run Caixa Econômica Federal) was leaked to the press. It indicated that the groundskeeper had a balance of R$38,860 (about US$18,000.00), which would be incompatible with his income. Congressmen argued that this questionable balance implies bribery potential for contradicting the minister, apparently in an attempt to tarnish the minister's credibility as a witness. The groundskeeper justified the figures by claiming that the money had been deposited by his alleged biological father, a relatively well-off businessman from the state of Piauí, in