Odebrecht


Odebrecht S.A. is a Brazilian conglomerate, headquartered in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, consisting of diversified businesses in the fields of engineering, construction, chemicals and petrochemicals. The company was founded in 1944 in Salvador, Bahia by Norberto Odebrecht, and is now present in the regions of the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Its leading company is.
Odebrecht S.A. is a holding company for Construtora Norberto Odebrecht S.A., the biggest engineering and contracting company in Latin America, and Braskem, the largest petrochemicals producer in Latin America and one of Brazil's five largest private-sector manufacturing companies. Odebrecht controls Braskem, which by revenue is the fourth largest petrochemical company in the Americas and the seventeenth in the world.
The name Odebrecht has become shorthand for an unprecedented regional bribery scandal. Between 2001-2016, Odebrecht paid USD $788 million in bribes across Latin America.
Odebrecht has also been central to the Operation Car Wash scandal. On 19 June 2015, Brazilian authorities arrested the former CEO, Marcelo Odebrecht, in connection with their ongoing probe into bribes paid to the Brazilian oil giant, Petrobras. On 7 March 2016 he was sentenced to 19 years and 4 months jail, for paying over US$30 million in bribes to executives of Petrobras, in exchange for contracts and influence.
On June 17, 2019, the group filed for bankruptcy, seeking to restructure USD $13 billion in debt.

Timeline

Norberto Odebrecht Construtora Ltda., the privately owned precursor to Odebrecht S.A, was founded in 1944 by Norberto Odebrecht. In the late 1970s and early 80s, Odebrecht began to expand internationally and diversify its business. In 1980, CBPO, another Brazilian contractor, merged with Odebrecht, and in 1981 Odebrecht S.A. was created. In 2002, Odebrecht established Braskem, a petrochemical company that went on to become Latin America's largest. In 2007, Odebrecht Agroindustrial was established to produce ethanol, sugar and energy.

Corporate structures

The Treasurer of the Brazilian Workers' Party, João Vaccari Neto, was arrested in 2015 for allegedly receiving "irregular donations", and José Dirceu, former chief of staff for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was arrested for orchestrating a large part of the scandal, also in 2015.
Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha, was investigated for allegedly receiving more than USD$40 million in kickbacks and bribes. He was imprisoned in October 2016 and his accounts frozen. Former Minister of Mines and Energy Edison Lobão was investigated for receiving more than USD$50 million in bribes from Petrobras and arrested 19 October 2016 and held in custody due to what the justice department of Paraná state called "a concrete possibility of flight given his access to hidden resources abroad, as well as double nationality."
In February 2016, amidst the Peruvian presidential race, a report from the Brazilian Federal Police implicated Peruvian president Ollanta Humala as a recipient of bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for public works contracts. Humala rejected the accusation and has avoided any confrontation with the media on the matter. Under the Humala administration Odebrecht received contracts worth US$152 million, in addition to the $7.3 billion Southern Gas Pipeline project and $60 million in contracts with regional governments in Peru.
On 4 March 2016, former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was detained and questioned for three hours as part of a huge fraud inquiry into the state oil company Petrobras after his house was raided by federal police agents. Lula, who left office in 2011, denied allegations of corruption. The long-running inquiry known as Operation Car Wash, is probing accusations of corruption and money laundering at Petrobras. Dozens of executives and politicians have been arrested or are under investigation on suspicion of overcharging on contracts with Petrobras and kicking part of the money for bribes and electoral campaigns. Police said they had evidence that Lula, 70, received illicit benefits from the kickback scheme. Lula's institute said in a statement that "violence" against the former president was "arbitrary, illegal and unjustifiable", as he had been co-operating with the investigations.

Other politicians involved

Antigua and Barbuda

Executives running Odebrecht's bribery division secretly bought a majority share of Meinl Bank and used it to transfer funds to politicians' offshore accounts. Prime Minister Gaston Browne denied receiving a bribe from Odebrecht in January 2016.

Argentina

The Worker's Party government of Dilma Rousseff was criticized during her reelection bid for heavily financing the proposed free enterprise zone at the in Cuba.

Dominican Republic

At least $92 million of the bribes Odebrecht has admitted making were paid in the Dominican Republic, and 14 people were charged with bribery or money laundering. The Dominican Republic announced in February $184 million in fines — twice the amount of its illicit payments to win public works contracts between 2001 and 2014.

Ecuador

The attorney-general of Panama has announced that 43 people suspected of involvement in the bribery scandal. Odebrecht is the largest government contractor in Panama, with contracts over 500 million, including a subway line in Panama City.

Peru

On 5 November 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, revealed that Appleby managed 17 offshore companies for Odebrecht and at least one of them was used as a vehicle for the payment of bribes in Operation Car Wash. Some of these offshore companies are publicly known to operate for Odebrecht in Africa and be involved in bribes. Among those involved in the operation who are named in the papers are Marcelo Odebrecht, his father Emílio Odebrecht, and his brother Maurício Odebrecht.

Rankings

;2009 Engineering News-Record magazine rankings:
;USA
;Peru