investigative commission was set up, the government allegedly tried to control it by installing government allies Senator Delcídio do Amaral (PT) as president of the commission and Deputy Osmar Serraglio (PMDB) as the key rapporteur, responsible for writing the final report. Although the investigation of the Post Office scandal was officially restricted in scope to irregularities in the Post Office's administration, it began to investigate the expanding monthly payment claims because of apparent connections between the cases. An additional commission was created to investigate the broader scandal on July 20. Allies of the government occupied key posts. The president of the CPI was Senator and the rapporteur was Deputy Ibrahim Abi-Ackel. Abi-Ackel had been minister of justice in the government of João Baptista Figueiredo, and had also been accused of involvement in the corruption scandal. José Dirceu, once a leftist student leader who organized against the right-wing military dictatorship after it took power in a 1964 coup, was arrested in 1968, then released at the demand of the kidnappers of the US ambassador. He was exiled to Cuba. Later, he secretly returned to Brazil, under a false identity and had plastic surgery to disguise his face. He hid in Paraná and opened a shop. During this time, he became involved as a student union leader. He married but did not reveal his true identity even after he had a son with his wife. Only after 1979, when political amnesty was declared, did he openly return to political life, campaigning for democratic elections and the end of the dictatorship regime. As a consequence of the mensalão scandal, Dirceu resigned in 2005 as chief of staff to President Lula. The scandal develops In early July 2005, an advisor to a Congressional deputy and brother of Workers’ Party President José Genoíno, was stopped at an airport with $100,000 in his underwear and additional funds in his luggage. The wives and secretaries of key figures testified before numerous and overlapping Congressional panels, including Valério's secretary, , and the ex-wife of Valdemar Costa Neto, Maria Christina Mendes Caldeira, who later fled to the United States with nothing but her clothes and a support animal. She applied for asylum under a secret identity. Congressional hearings were often marked by fiery rhetoric and emotional outbursts, including numerous incidents of crying by witnesses and Workers' Party deputies. Although still murky and unclear, reported links between the scandal, its