Brazil’s debt-laden state oil firm Petrobras is planning to claim a portion of this week’s anti-corruption settlement agreed to by engineering giant Odebrecht, according to The Wall Street Journal.
On Wednesday Odebrecht agreed to pay between $2.6bn and $4.5bn to Brazilian, Swiss and US authorities for its part in the gargantuan bribery scheme that has roiled Brazil’s economy and politics, almost bringing Petrobras to its knees.
The scheme involved massive bribes paid by would-be contractors in return for hugely over-inflated contracts from Petrobras.
Numerous executives (from Petrobras and contractor firms) and politicians who looked the other way have been charged and convicted in the affair.
Now Petrobras, which by the conservative estimates of its own accounting lost $2.5bn (but which others say lost up to $13bn) because of the excessive contract prices, is going to ask for a portion back from Odebrecht, one of the biggest bribers involved.
