A US District Judge in Brooklyn has fined Brazilian engineering giant Odebrecht $2.6bn for corruption linked to the Petrobras bribes-for-inflated-contracts scandal, according to Reuters.
Odebrecht has been the biggest name among contractors caught up in the scheme, which has seen the undoing of company executives at state oil firm Petrobras and at contractor firms, not to mention numerous politicians.
The sentencing followed December’s guilty plea by Odebrecht and its affiliate Braskem SA on charges of paying around $788m in bribes in a dozen countries.
As some of the bribes had passed through US banks, the case came under US jurisdiction.
Petrobras, which has huge offshore oil drilling interests, has been under investigation for more than two years.
