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Former Petrobras executive testifies ruling party members took bribes

San Francisco: A former executive with Petrobras said on Tuesday the country’s ruling Workers Party benefited to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars from graft payments.

Speaking at the congressional hearing into the massive corruption scandal surrounding Brazil’s troubled state-run oil giant, Pedro Barusco said: “I received a share and the PT (Workers Party) another share, maybe $150-200 million.”

Police claim dozens of politicians received payments in the scheme in which an estimated $3.8bn was creamed off inflated contracts.

Barusco said he received payments from large engineering and construction companies going back 18 years. In return, the companies received inflated contracts from Petrobras.

Last week Splash reported shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries was implicated when an accused Brazilian lobbyist alleged the South Korean firm had paid bribes to Petrobras.

Among the 54 people accused of taking bribes are a former president and the speakers of both chambers of Congress.

Donal Scully

With 28 years experience writing and editing for newspapers in the UK and Hong Kong, Donal is now based in California from where he covers the Americas for Splash as well as ensuring the site is loaded through the Western Hemisphere timezone.
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