congressman from 1991 to 1995 (SP-PT) and, again, from 1999 to 2003 (SP-PT). He was elected president of the PT in 1995 and re-elected in 1997. Dirceu held numerous posts in the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), of which he is a founder, including the presidency of the National Executive between 1995 and 1997. In 1989 he coordinated first presidential campaign of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He exercised various parliamentary activities in municipal councils, state legislative assemblies, and the legislative chamber of the Federal District. Among them, he was a member of the Finance and Budget Commission and vice-president of the Public Safety Commission. From January 1, 2003 to June 16, 2005, Dirceu was Lula's chief-of-staff. In Brazil, the chief-of-staff has a ministerial status similar to the British Cabinet Office, and Lula's presidential decree putting him in charge of all government appointments gave him more power still. Mensalão corruption scandal Dirceu's departure as Lula's chief-of-staff is attributed to a massive corruption scheme in the legislature, the Mensalão scandal. Upon leaving the government, Dirceu resumed his roles as an elected congressman for the state of São Paulo. He was expelled from the Congress on November 30, 2005, accused of breaching the parliamentary decorum due to his involvement with the Mensalão scandal, and barred from holding any executive or legislative positions until 2015. As of 2006, he was practicing in a law firm in Rio de Janeiro. He was prosecuted and convicted by the Attorney General, charged with being the leader of the mensalão. He charged with of corruption, embezzlement, racketeering and money laundering, among other charges, by the Supreme Federal Tribunal in August 2012, and found guilty in October 2012. He is currently serving a 7-year sentence at the Papuda prison. Petrobras corruption scandal On August 3, 2015 he was again arrested on suspicion of corruption and money laundering as result of the Operation Car Wash investigation. On May 18, 2016, he was found guilty and sentenced to 23 years and three months in prison. He had previously been sentenced to more than ten years' imprisonment in connection with the mensalão scandal. On May 3, 2017 an appeal court granted him bail pending appeal, which had previously been denied. The prosecutor in charge of the investigation called the decision "incoherent" and said that Dirceu's liberty posed "real risk to society". Prosecutors charged Dirceu the same day with diverting R2.4 million from