Wagner Rossi resigned Wednesday as Brazil's agriculture minister, amid allegations of corruption under his watch, according to dpa. He is the fourth minister to step down from the Cabinet of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. In less than eight months in office, she had previously lost chief of staff Antonio Palocci, transport minister Alfredo Nascimento and defence minister Nelson Jobim. Like Nascimento and Jobim, Rossi was among the ministers "inherited" by Rousseff from her predecessor, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Rossi admitted to having flown "three or four times" in planes belonging to a company that had government contracts. Such gifts are explicitly forbidden by Brazil's public ethics code. Separately, he was implicated in allegations of illegal benefits granted to a firm that sold powdered milk to the government. Rossi insisted in his resignation letter that he had nothing to do with that. "Over the last 30 days, I have faced on a daily basis a downpour of false accusations, with no proof," he said. "None of these accusations point to any actions of mine that may be considered illegal or inappropriate."
