Brazil, 10 Other Countries Coordinate Odebrecht Probes
February 17 2017 - 10:04AM
Dow Jones News
By Rogerio Jelmayer and Luciana Magalhaes
SÃO PAULO -- Prosecutors in Brazil and 10 other countries agreed
to move to a new level of cooperation in their corruption
investigations of Brazilian construction company Odebrecht SA.
Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru,
Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Portugal and Brazil signed an
agreement late Thursday to start a combined task force with
bilateral and multilateral investigative teams to coordinate a
probe of the builder.
The Odebrecht scandal has reverberated across Latin America
after the company admitted in a settlement with the U.S. Department
of Justice in December that it paid a total of almost $800 million
in bribes to officials in multiple countries to win large
public-works contracts.
The new task force will also cooperate with the so-called
Operation Car Wash investigation of bid-rigging and bribery by
Odebrecht and other construction companies for contracts with
Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or
Petrobras.
The task force will work "on the recovery of assets and full
compensation for damages caused by illicit activities, including
the payment of fines, according to the legislation of each
country," prosecutors said in a statement. The accord was announced
by the press department of Brazil's attorney general, Rodrigo
Janot.
Brazil's high court accepted, earlier this year, a mammoth plea
deal with 77 former and current employees of Odebrecht, the company
prosecutors have described as leading the graft ring centered on
Petrobras.
Earlier this month, a Peruvian judge ordered the arrest of
former President Alejandro Toledo , amid prosecutors' suspicions
Mr. Toledo took $20 million in bribes in exchange for steering
contracts to Odebrecht for a highway project connecting southern
Peru to Brazil.
Mr. Toledo, who is a visiting scholar at Stanford University in
California and is believed to be outside of Peru, has denied
wrongdoing.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was
indicted in December over allegations of illegally benefiting from
two real-estate deals involving Odebrecht in exchange for help
winning contracts with state-run firms. Mr. da Silva, who is a
defendant in several other cases and hasn't been arrested, denies
the allegations.
Write to Rogerio Jelmayer at rogerio.jelmayer@wsj.com and
Luciana Magalhaes at Luciana.Magalhaes@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 17, 2017 09:49 ET (14:49 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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