While the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court guarantees impunity and review of fines for businessmen involved in the biggest robbery in the country’s history, the processes go in the opposite direction in the United States, confirming Lava Jato’s findings.
Accused by the task force of having harmed Petrobras during the PT governments, the Trafigura Group pleaded guilty to a decade of bribery in Brazilby signing a plea agreement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in a federal court in Miami this Thursday, 28.
International trading company commodities with primary operations in Switzerland, Trafigura violated the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), will pay a criminal fine of $80.4 million and have $46.5 million forfeited, in line with the 127 million dollars it had set aside in December 2023 to resolve the case.
“For more than a decade, Trafigura bribed Brazilian authorities to obtain business illegally and obtain more than US$61 million in profits”said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the DOJ Criminal Division. “Today’s guilty plea highlights that when companies pay bribes and undermine the rule of law, they will face significant sanctions. The Department remains determined to combat foreign bribery and hold those who violate the law accountable.”
“Our office will continue to target anyone who uses the Southern District of Florida to promote corrupt foreign practices and bribery schemes.”said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe. “We will continue to work with our colleagues in the Criminal Division to identify and prosecute those responsible, including individuals and businesses.”
Did you learn, STF?
As The Antagonist has shown in recent years:
In October 2016, Lava Jato arrested, at Guarulhos airport, businessman Mariano Marcondes Ferraz, who paid bribes to obtain contracts at Petrobras for the Trafigura Group. In the order that determined the arrest, the then judge Sergio Moro indicated that Ferraz “committed crimes of corruption and money laundering”.
In March 2017Moro accepted a complaint from the Federal Public Ministry against the businessman and detailed the case of the payment of 870 thousand dollars to Paulo Roberto Costa, then director of Supply at the state-owned company.
“The undue advantage would have been paid through eight bank transfers made by Mariano Marcondes Ferraz, an individual, and through his offshoresTik Trading S/A, Firmainvest Ltd and Firmapar Corp, which totaled USD 870,000.00, between the dates of 19/05/2011 to 21/02/2014, in favor of the OST Invest & Finance Inc account, maintained at Banco Lombard Odier, based in Geneva, Switzerland, whose attorney and holder was Humberto Sampaio Mesquita and whose final beneficiary was Paulo Roberto Costa.”
In December 2018within the scope of Operation Without Limits, Lava Jato pointed out the existence of 966 commercial operations between Trafigura and Petrobras over just over a decade, during the governments of Lula and Dilma Rousseff.
In November 2019, at the request of Lava Jato, the Swiss Public Prosecutor’s Office carried out searches and seizures at Trafigura offices in Geneva. According to the MPF, “Trafigura, between 2004 and 2015carried out business with Petrobras, worth more than US$9 billion, focusing on purchase and sale operations of oil and oil products”.
Republic Attorney Jerusa Burmann Viecili, a member of the task force, stated that “the operations of Petrobras’ commercial area in the international market constitute a favorable environment for the emergence and spread of corruption schemes, since the volume traded is very large and a few extra cents, in daily negotiations, can yield millions of dollars in the end of the month in bribes”.
In November 2020Lava Jato prosecutors in Curitiba presented an improbity action to the Court, asking for blocks of up to 1 billion reais, against Trafigura, its executives, in Brazil and abroad, and former Petrobras employees.
They were all accused of harming Petrobras by at least 198.43 million reais, by favoring the company in oil purchase and sale operations, between May 2012 and October 2013. According to the MPF, Trafigura paid 6.86 million of reais in bribes to former employees of the company’s commercial area, who were also accused of corruption in the criminal justice system.
“It is estimated, conservatively, that these 31 commercial operations with PETROBRAS carried out thanks to shady arrangements allowed TRAFIGURA to enrich itself illicitly to the detriment of the Brazilian state-owned company, earning a gross profit 14 of at least US$37.3 million in historical values, when reselling to third parties the fuel oil acquired from PETROBRAS, or when reselling to PETROBRAS the fuel oil acquired from third parties, a margin that could have been captured by the Brazilian state-owned company in the international market if the purchase and sale operations had not been carried out been illicitly directed to the trading company in question”the lawsuit said.
Among the former Petrobras executives, Marcus Alcoforado and Jorge Rodrigues were accused. Rodrigo Berkowitz, who also participated, reported the scheme.
From Trafigura, Márcio Magalhães (representative in Brazil), Tim Waters (USA), Andy Summers, José Larocca and Mike Wainwright (Switzerland) were accused, as well as six foreign companies that are part of the business group who directly benefited.
This is decade of briberyexposed by Lava Jato and confirmed in the USA, which has been swept under the carpet by the STF.
Tags: Company targeted Lava Jato confesses decade bribery Brazil
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