Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine has announced that a federal court in Brazil has sentenced Guilherme Esteves de Jesus, a former advisor to the company’s subsidiary Estaleiro Jurong Aracruz (EJA), to prison for corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organisation.
De Jesus was involved in corruption in connection with certain drilling rig construction contracts entered into by subsidiaries of Sembcorp Marine with Sete Brasil in 2012, and sentenced to 19 years and 4 months in prison. He was also fined. Brazilian Federal Prosecutors has filed further charges against him for money laundering, with proceedings still ongoing.
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.
