A Brazilian judge sentenced the former head of South America’s biggest construction company to 19 years in prison on Tuesday as a huge anti-corruption investigation claimed its highest-profile conviction.
Marcelo Odebrecht was found guilty of 11 charges of bribery and 40 counts of money laundering in relation to a system of kickbacks that his company allegedly paid to senior executives at the state-run oil conglomerate Petrobras.
In his ruling, the federal judge Sérgio Moro said there was robust evidence from phone and email exchanges that proved Odebrecht was the “mastermind” of the scheme, which was ultimately used to channel money to politicians for election campaigns.
This was not an isolated act, but part of the corporate policy of the Odebrecht Group, the judge said. Two other former executives – Márcio Faria and Rogério Santos – also received similar penalties.
Although the judgment is likely to be appealed, the stiff sentence has sent shockwaves through the Brazilian corporate and political worlds.
Until the scandal broke two years ago, Odebrecht was one of the country’s most successful and powerful companies with more than 180,000 workers and contracts in dozens of countries around the globe. Marcelo – the grandson of the founder – was not just a prominent executive, he was also closely connected to senior figures in the ruling coalition led by the Workers party.
But he – along with several dozen other businessman and politicians – was arrested last year in the Lava Jato (Carwash) investigation into corruption at Petrobras.
More are likely to follow as the investigation reaches ever deeper into the congress and ever closer to the palace of President Dilma Rousseff. Last week, Lava Jato investigators raided the homes and offices of Rousseff’s predecessor and ally, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Prosecutors said the former president was suspected of receiving illicit benefits from construction companies. Lula denies this accusation.
