San Francisco: Petrobras, Brazil’s graft-racked state-run oil giant asked a US judge on Thursday to throw out a fraud case against the company.
The class-action case, in US federal court in New York, has been brought by investors who claim the multibillion dollar bribes-for-inflated-contracts scandal that has thrown Petrobras and the country of Brazil into turmoil, means the company’s stocks were fraudulently overvalued for years.
Petrobras maintains that the company was just as much a victim in the scandal because the fraud was committed by a handful of individuals.
But the investors say it was not possible the company’s top brass did not know what was going on.
Petrobras’ share value has fallen disastrously from a high of near $300 billion to approximately $60 billion.
US District Judge Jed Rakoff did not rule on Petrobras’ request for a dismissal but said he would do so within two weeks.
