Brazilian federal prosecutors filed corruption charges against the country's former President Lula on Wednesday local time, accusing him of planning a series of corruption cases that are still unfolding today in order to maintain his party's ruling position.

Lula was the founder of the Workers' Party and served as President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010. He was also the mentor of former President Rousseff, who had just been impeached. In May of this year, news broke that he was facing a Supreme Court investigation in the Brazilian Petroleum corruption case. About two weeks before this, Rousseff appointed Lula as a cabinet minister known as a "super minister", which was accused by critics of helping Lula evade investigation and prosecution.

According to the "New York Times" report on the 15th, prosecutor Delta Dallagnol said that the Workers' Party engaged in widespread bribery and acceptance of kickbacks in order to build its own alliance in Congress, and that Lula was the "ultimate commander" of these illegal acts and the "general" in charge of everything.

The report stated that the actual charges against Lula were much smaller: Prosecutors accused Lula and his wife of illegally receiving about $1.1 million in funds to repair and improve a beach house, and the money was paid by the large construction company O.A.S.

In addition to these specific charges, prosecutors say Lula played a major role in the Petrobras corruption case. They allege that in a case that has engulfed Brazilian politics and plunged the country into more than two years of political turmoil, Lula oversaw illegal spending, including campaign funds, in which O.A.S. funneled as much as $26 million to state-owned Petrobras in exchange for contracts.

Prosecutors did not say that the money went into the hands of Lula himself, but they insisted that the money was received by oil executives, leaders of the Workers' Party and members of the then-ruling coalition, in order to maintain their control of power.

The latest accusation is a huge blow to Lula. The Workers' Party created by Lula ruled Brazil for 13 years, which ended with Rousseff's resignation. Before the political turmoil in Brazil in the past two years, Lula enjoyed high popularity among the people, and there is news that he may once again enter the political arena as a candidate of the Workers' Party in 2018. But his legacy may be tarnished by corruption scandals and Brazil's deep economic crisis following the ouster of Rusev, the man he groomed.

In March this year, the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo filed corruption charges against him; last month, a federal judge ruled that he must appear in court for allegedly obstructing the Petrobras corruption investigation. Since the Petrobras corruption case surfaced in 2014, 40 political and business figures have been jailed in the country. Lula and his lawyers deny any of the above accusations.