Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine has announced that Brazilian authorities have filed charges against the former president of the company’s subsidiary Estaleiro Jurong Aracruz (EJA) and a former consultant to EJA as part of Operation Car Wash investigations.
On Saturday, Ministério Público Federal in Brazil filed charges against Martin Cheah Kok Choon, former president of EJA, and Guilherme Esteves de Jesus, former advisor to EJA, for money laundering and corruption in connection with certain drilling rig construction contracts entered into by subsidiaries of the company with Sete Brasil in 2012.
Cheah’s employment was terminated by Sembcorp in June 2015, while Guilherme Esteves de Jesus is no longer a consultant. Sembcorp says the charges were filed against the two men in their personal capacity and there are no charges against the company itself.
In Singapore, Sembcorp said it will be lodging a further suspicious transaction report with the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force.
Both of Singapore’s major shipbuilders, Sembcorp Marine and Keppel Offshore and Marine, have been caught up in Operation Car Wash which began in March 2014. The investigations are centred around a bribes-for-inflated-contracts corruption scheme involving Brazil’s state oil firm Petrobras and rig company Sete Brasil.
