Brazilian governor sentenced to 14 years in prison

FILE – In this April 18, 2012 file photo, Rio de Janeiro Gov. Sergio Cabral, right, attends the inauguration of a new Peacemaker Police Unit (UPP) in Fazendinha slum inside the Alemao slum complex in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Cabral has been sentenced on Tuesday, June 13 2017, to 14 years and two months in prison for corruption and money laundering. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano, File)

SAO PAULO  — The former governor of Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state has been sentenced to 14 years and two months in prison for corruption and money laundering.

Sergio Cabral was arrested in November on charges of receiving bribes and laundering money as part of a colossal graft probe roiling Brazil.

His sentence was handed down Tuesday by Judge Sergio Moro who heads the investigation of the corruption-kickback scandal at Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras.

Prosecutors have said Cabral received hundreds of thousands of dollars a month from several companies in exchange for help getting building contracts that ranged from projects in slums to refurbishing Rio’s Maracana Stadium.

Cabral’s lawyer Rodrigo Roca said he would appeal the sentence.