Brazilian officials say they’ve carried out searches and detentions across the country linked to the huge Odebrecht construction company as part of their investigation into corruption at the state-run oil giant Petrobras.
Prosecutors say Odebrecht had a specific sector in charge of illicit payouts. Officials said on Tuesday the so-called “structured operations sector” continued to operate even after the corruption probe began two years ago.
Prosecutors in the case have alleged that businesses paid more than $2bn in bribes to obtain contracts with the oil company, projects that later ballooned in cost. Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras, reported a record quarterly loss of $10.2bn on Monday due to a large reduction in the value of some assets amid lower oil prices.
Petrobras has been at the center of a sprawling corruption scandal that has ensnared some of Brazil’s most powerful lawmakers and business executives.
The embattled company said it lost 36.9bn reais, or $10.2bn, in the fourth quarter. That brought its full-year 2015 result to a $9.6bn loss.
Once the crown jewel of Brazil’s government, Petrobras’s image quickly lost its luster amid mismanagement and corruption.
The discovery of huge offshore oil reserves in 2007 had been supposed to vault Brazil into the top tier of oil and gas producing nations. Then president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hailed the discoveries as an economic salvation for Brazil’s millions of poor.
But the investigation into widespread bribery at Brazil’s biggest company has eroded Brazilians’ trust in the political and business elite.
Police questioned Silva earlier this month as part of the investigation. The once highly popular former president has said he committed no wrongdoing and suggests the probes are part of a political smear campaign.
The Petrobras scandal has also badly hurt President Dilma Rousseff, Silva’s hand-chosen successor who led the Petrobras board for several years as the alleged bribery scheme played out.
A poll by the respected Datafolha agency published on Sunday said 68% of people surveyed want to see lawmakers vote to impeach Rousseff. That was up eight percentage points since February, with the jump highest among the rich.
Brazil also is mired in its worst recession in decades, and it is ground zero for the Zika virus outbreak that has spread across the Americas as Rio de Janeiro prepares to host the Olympics in August.
