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Coalition formed to sue Petrobras on behalf of Europe-based investors over corruption scandal

Brazil’s troubled state oil firm Petrobras faces possible new legal challenges from a coalition of groups representing international investors based in Europe, according to Reuters.

The financially hobbled and corruption-racked company is being sued over alleged fraud-related losses the investors suffered on its shares and bonds traded outside the Americas.

It all relates to the now infamous bribes-for-inflated-contracts scandal that has been unravelling for two years around Petrobras. In Brazil the case has seen prosecutions brought and won against several company executives and politicians of the ruling Workers Party who took kickbacks from the graft payments.

The investor coalition, the Netherlands-based Sichting Petrobras Compensation Fund (SCPF) has written to Petrobras calling for settlements in redress for its clients’’ losses. If no out-of-court deal is forthcoming the SCPF believes it has grounds to sue the company under European law because Petrobras shares were traded on the Madrid stock exchange.

US investors in Petrobras have already filed suit in a New York federal court.

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.

Comments

  1. Donal,
    In 1988 we presented our design for a ring pontoon four column semisubmersible, MPSS, to Petrobras Cenpes despite having been warned that “considerations had been paid.” We were denied permission to bid on Marlim’s four platforms on the same conditions as GVA. P’bras built the P-36. When it sank they adopted our design and have built several the latest almost entirely in Brazil, P-51. I presume the corruption has been ongoing since at least 1988!

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