Brazil’s antitrust agency launched an “administrative procedure” involving 21 construction companies and 59 executives accused of paying bribes to secure contracts with Petrobras, Brazil’s state oil company.
The procedure that began Dec. 22 is, in effect, a process to determine whether the agency, Cade, will file formal charges against the companies and executives. The accused, which include Brazil’s largest construction companies, will now be allowed to present their defenses.
Federal prosecutors, who have been investigating the kickback scheme since 2014, said bribes were set at a percentage of the value of the Petrobras contracts in what is being called Brazil’s largest ever corruption scandal.
Prosecutors charged that the companies had to make the payoffs if they wanted to do business with Petrobras. Within Petrobras, four company directors allegedly ran the scheme between 2004 and 2012 and the payoffs were funneled through outside operators to three political parties: the governing Workers Party and its two top congressional allies.
Cade began its own investigation in March and said in the Dec. 22 announcement that the payoffs started in 1998 and continued until 2014 and involved contracts totaling over $9 billion for five Petrobras refineries.
“The alleged cartel would have been organized in a dynamic manner, adapting itself to diverse changes that occurred on the market and within the institutional environment in order to guarantee that the public tenders conducted by Petrobras met the interests of the involved companies,” it said.
Full content: Bloomberg BNA
Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.
Featured News
South Dakota Reaches Settlement With NCAA Ahead of Antitrust Payout Approval
Apr 23, 2025 by
CPI
Judge Allows Yelp’s Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google to Proceed
Apr 23, 2025 by
CPI
Meta Lawyers Try to Undercut Instagram Co-Founder’s Damaging Testimony
Apr 23, 2025 by
CPI
Tyson Foods, Others Settle Pork Price-Fixing Suit for $64 Million
Apr 23, 2025 by
CPI
NJ Sues RealPage, Landlords Over Rent Collusion
Apr 23, 2025 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – Mergers in Digital Markets
Apr 21, 2025 by
CPI
Catching a Killer? Six “Genetic Markers” to Assess Nascent Competitor Acquisitions
Apr 21, 2025 by
John Taladay & Christine Ryu-Naya
Digital Decoded: Is There More Scope for Digital Mergers In 2025?
Apr 21, 2025 by
Colin Raftery, Michele Davis, Sarah Jensen & Martin Dickson
AI In the Mix – An Ever-Evolving Approach to Jurisdiction Over Digital Mergers in Europe
Apr 21, 2025 by
Ingrid Vandenborre & Ketevan Zukakishvili
Antitrust Enforcement Errors Due to a Failure to Understand Organizational Capabilities and Dynamic Competition
Apr 21, 2025 by
Magdalena Kuyterink & David J. Teece