Oil and mining tycoon Eike Batista, wanted in connection with the Petrobras scandal, returned to Brazil from the US and turned himself in to authorities on Monday, according to UPI.
Once Brazil’s richest man, Batista lost the bulk of a $35bn fortune and saw his Grupo EBX conglomerate collapse when Brazil’s economy crashed in 2014. He had been considered a fugitive since Thursday (January 26) when he left the country for New York.
Batista and other suspects are accused of laundering about $100m in corruption linked to the Petrobras scandal, a huge bribes-for-inflated-contracts scheme surrounding the state oil firm. The scandal has rocked Brazil’s economy and seen dozens of executives and politicians jailed.
