Former Petrobras managers targeted by new Car Wash crackdown
Brazil's Federal Police (PF) launched a new round of crackdowns as part of its Car Wash corruption probe today (May 4).
The latest police operation targets three former managers of Petrobras oil company's Gas and Energy division for receiving more than $32 million in kickbacks from contractors, as well as middlemen who used shell companies to channel bribes.
This stage of the investigation has been dubbed “Operação Asfixia” (“Operation Asphyxia”), in a reference to the attempt to stop a fraud and embezzlement scheme in areas of the state oil company related to fuel gas production, distribution, and marketing.
Police are investigating bid rigging, corruption, money laundering and illegal offshore banking in connection with over a dozen large-scale bidding processes at Petrobras, which have been rigged by the criminal group.
According to the Paraná state chapter of the Federal Prosecution Service, the former managers received kickbacks to steer lucrative Petrobras contracts towards certain bidders.
The evidence was obtained through the suspects' data, banking and tax records obtained through disclosure orders, as well as plea bargaining testimonies given by other former Petrobras managers and contractors.
The whistleblowers said kickbacks continued to be paid until June 2016, even though Car Wash investigations were well under way and the implicated employees no longer worked at Petrobras.
In his plea bargain testimony, Edison Krummenauer, a former manager for gas and energy projects at Petrobras, confessed to receiving about $4.8 million in kickbacks.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Former Petrobras managers targeted by new Car Wash crackdown
