The former head of Petrobras’ international division was jailed for more than 12 years on Monday for his role in the ongoing graft scandal at Brazil’s state-run oil company.
Jorge Zelada was found guilty of money laundering and corruption for accepting huge bribes to favour US company Vantage Drilling Corporation in a 2009 contract award.
The Petrobras bribes-for-inflated-contracts scheme has seen the same pattern repeated over a period of many years with engineering and construction companies paying off Petrobras executives.
The web of corruption involved overseas as well as domestic contractors and also entailed kickbacks to politicians at high levels of the government.
Federal Judge Sergio Moro handed down a term of 12 years and two months for Zelada who headed the international division of the company from 2008 to 2012.
Zelada was arrested in July last year. Judge Moro also sentenced another former Petrobras executive Eduardo Costa Musa in connection with the same contract for Vantage drilling.
Between them Zelada and Musa received $31m in this one bribe.
In its own financial accounting last year Petrobras put the cost of the corruption at $2.1bn. The overall cost in terms of subsequent damage to the business will be much more.
