Brazil’s Petrobras recovered more than US$1.2 billion diverted by corruption

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras has already recovered more than R$6 billion (US$1.2 billion) of the total amount of resources that were diverted by the corruption that took place during more than a decade inside Brazil’s largest company, the company advised this Friday, June 25.

The amount of the recovered resources was updated by the state-owned company after receiving from the Technip Group R$271.1 million (about US$55.3 million), in addition to another R$578.3 million (US$118 million), which were already delivered by the group.

The companies Technip Brasil and Flexibras, both from the Technip Group, investigated for corruption, reached an agreement with the courts to accept their liability and indemnify Petrobras for the deviations.

In July 2019, the state-owned oil company received the first installment of this same agreement (R$313 million, about US$63.8 million), and in June last year, the second (R$265.1 million, about US$54 million).

According to Petrobras, in 2021 alone, more than R$1 billion (US$204 million) that had been diverted through fraudulent contracts has been recovered.

“These recoveries are due to Petrobras’ status as a victim of the crimes investigated by Lava Jato. The company will continue to adopt the necessary measures to ensure adequate recovery of the losses caused to it,” the company said in a statement.

As a major stakeholder in the clarification of the crimes and the recovery of the misappropriated funds, Petrobras acts as a co-plaintiff, with the Prosecutor’s Office, in 21 proceedings for administrative irregularities still in progress, and as an assistant to the prosecution in 79 criminal proceedings for illegal acts investigated by Lava Jato.

The Brazilian Federal Police estimate that the total amount that was diverted by the corruption of one of the largest companies in Latin America during the almost ten years of operation of the criminal network, amounts to about R$42 billion (about US$8.57 billion).

According to the investigation that began more than seven years ago and uncovered the biggest corruption scandal in Brazil’s history, a cartel made up of major construction companies illegally divided up the state-owned company’s contracts for more than a decade.

The contractors were awarded the bids through the payment of multi-million dollar bribes distributed among high officials of the state-owned company and politicians from almost all parties, who protected the corrupt practices.

The investigation against these embezzlements has already sent to jail the executives of several of the largest Brazilian construction companies, numerous former state-owned company executives, and prominent politicians who allegedly benefited from the corrupt practices, among them former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose conviction has just been overturned by the federal supreme court.