key figures, the murder of Santo André's mayor Celso Daniel and various mafia and criminal figures only intensified its sensational tone and societal impact, even though no proof of such links have been divulged. One key event that broadened the scandal into a more general investigation of the Workers' Party history as whole was the testimony of Duda Mendonça, public relations specialist and campaign manager for Lula's 2002 campaign, on August 11. He said he was paid using off-shore bank accounts and possibly illegal funds connected to Valério. The scandal, which had at that time not yet involved finance minister Antonio Palocci, said to be popular with the international finance community, threatened his standing after lawyer and former advisor testified that Palocci was involved in corrupt activities while he was mayor of Ribeirão Preto in the mid-1990s. Lula's popularity waxed and waned, but no definite proof emerged that he orchestrated or had knowledge of the payments. Much of PT's leadership was affected in some way, with many resigning or failing to win re-election. Brazil's economy was widely perceived as not having been substantially impacted by the scandal. Roberto Jefferson, who initially sparked the scandal, was expelled from the Chamber of Deputies on September 14, 2005 after the Congressional Council of Ethics determined that he had committed ethical violations. Despite continued resignations of those implicated, in October the scandal died down somewhat and Brazil had a referendum on gun sales that resulted in a loss for the government's position. At the end of October, Veja published a new story claiming that the Workers' Party had received illegal campaign funds from Cuba—threatening to re-intensify the scandal once again, though that was not ultimately the case. First joint preliminary CPI report The investigations into Post Office corruption and vote-buying unanimously approved their first joint preliminary report on September 1, 2005. The report accused 18 Brazilian deputies of involvement in the corruption scandal: (Liberal Party (PL)-Rio de Janeiro) José Janene (Progressive Party (PP)-Paraná) (PP-Pernambuco) (PP-Mato Grosso do Sul) (PL-Goiás) (PT-Minas Gerais) João Paulo Cunha (PT-São Paulo) (PMDB-Paraná) (PT-Bahia) Paulo Rocha (PT-Bahia) (PT-São Paulo) - later acquitted and sufficiently angry about the accusation to take his underwear off in front of a group of reporters (PP-São Paulo) Vanderval Santos (PL-São Paulo) José Mentor (PT-São Paulo) (Liberal Front Party (PFL)-Minas Gerais) José Dirceu (PT-São Paulo) Roberto Jefferson (PTB-Rio de Janeiro) The report accused them of misdeeds