Odebrecht

Odebrecht Organization
Privately held company
Industry Conglomerate
Founded 1944
Founders Norberto Odebrecht
Headquarters Salvador, Brazil
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Key people
 Luciano Guidolin, (CEO)
Products Construction, engineering, aerospace, environmental engineering, petrochemicals, chemicals, utilities, ethanol, real estate, infrastructure, defense, transportation, and others
Revenue Increase US$31.0 billion (2014)
Increase US$207.6 million (2013)
Number of employees
 181,000[1]
Subsidiaries Construtora Norberto Odebrecht
Odebrecht Oil and Gas
Foz do Brasil
Odebrecht Realizações Imobiliárias
Odebrecht Infraestrutura
Odebrecht Agroindustrial,
Braskem,
Odebrecht Administradora E Corretora De Seguros
Odeprev Odebrecht Previdência
Odebrecht Foundation,
Mectron
Odebrecht Energia
Website www.odebrecht.com.br

Odebrecht Organization (Brazilian Portuguese: [odɛˈbɾɛ(t͡)ʃ]) is a Brazilian conglomerate consisting of diversified businesses in the fields of engineering, construction, chemicals and petrochemicals. The company was founded in 1944 in Salvador da Bahia by Norberto Odebrecht, and is now present in South America, Central America, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Its leading company is Norberto Odebrecht Construtora.[2]

Odebrecht S.A. is a holding company for Construtora Norberto Odebrecht S.A., the biggest engineering and contracting company in Latin America, and Braskem S.A., the largest petrochemicals producer in Latin America and one of Brazil's five largest private-sector manufacturing companies. Odebrecht controls Braskem, the fifth largest petrochemical company in the world, with exports to 60 countries in all continents of the world. By revenue, Braskem is the fourth largest petrochemical company in the Americas and the seventeenth in the world.

On 19 June 2015, Brazilian authorities arrested the former CEO, Marcelo Odebrecht, in connection with their ongoing probe into bribes paid by the Brazilian oil giant, Petrobras.[3] 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.[4][5]

Timeline

Corporate structures

The Treasurer of the Brazilian Workers' Party, João Vaccari Neto, was arrested in 2015 for allegedly receiving "irregular donations,"[6] 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.[7]

Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies (lower house of the Congress of Brazil) Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ), was investigated for allegedly receiving more than USD$40 million in kickbacks and bribes.[8] Former Minister of Mines and Energy Edison Lobão (PMDB) 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."[9]

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.[10][11] 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.[11]

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, has 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 the "violence" against the former president was "arbitrary, illegal and unjustifiable", as he had been co-operating with the investigations.[12]

According to a political analyst and columnist for TeleSUR, "few imagined that behind this successful business empire laid hidden an entrenched corruption scheme that spread systematically throughout the region with more force than the Zika virus that has plagued Brazil in recent years. Under the leadership of the founder's grandson, Marcelo Odebrecht, one of the largest international corruption scandals was uncovered upon discovering that Odebrecht used deceitful practices to award lucrative public works projects in the countries it operated".[13]

Other politicians involved

Rankings

2009 Engineering News-Record magazine rankings

Notable projects

USA
Peru

References

  1. ↑ About the Group. odebrecht.com. Retrieved 7 April 2015
  2. ↑ "Corporate Structure | Odebrecht". 10 July 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  3. ↑ "Brazil Arrests Head of Odebrecht in Petrobras Scandal". The New York Times. 20 June 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
  4. ↑ Fonseca, Pedro (8 March 2016). "Former Odebrecht CEO sentenced in Brazil kickback case". Reuters. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  5. ↑ "Brazil Petrobras scandal: Tycoon Marcelo Odebrecht jailed". BBC. 8 March 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  6. ↑ Jelmayer, Rogerio (15 April 2015). "Brazil Police Arrest Workers' Party Treasurer Joao Vaccari Neto". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  7. ↑ MAGALHAES, LUCIANA (3 August 2015). "Brazilian Police Arrest José Dirceu, Ex-Chief of Staff, in Petrobras Probe". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  8. ↑ Romero, Simon (21 August 2015). "Expanding Web of Scandal in Brazil Threatens Further Upheaval". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  9. ↑ "Brazil: Eduardo Cunha arrested over alleged corruption: Former lower house speaker detained as part of a probe into corruption at oil giant Petrobras". Al Jazeera. 19 October 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  10. ↑ Leahy, Joe. "Peru president rejects link to Petrobras scandal". Financial Times. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  11. 1 2 Post, Colin. "Peru: Ollanta Humala implicated in Brazil’s Carwash scandal". perureports.com. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  12. ↑ "Brazil Petrobras scandal: Former president Lula questioned". BBC News. 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
  13. ↑ Romero, Geovanny Vicente. "Odebrecht: A New Virus Spreads Through Latin America". Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  14. ↑ Collyns, Dan (10 February 2017). "Peru ex-president Alejandro Toledo faces arrest on bribery charges". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  15. ↑ "Colombia Ex-Minister Accepts Charges in Odebrecht Fraud Scandal". Telesur. 16 January 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  16. ↑ "Óscar Zuluaga será investigado por vínculo con Odebretch". Telesur (in Spanish). 7 February 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  17. ↑ "Jefe de Inteligencia de Macri recibió $600.000 de Odebrecht". Telesur (in Spanish). 11 January 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  18. ↑ KP, teleSUR – hr -. "Lasso y Rodas, apellidos del escándalo Odebrecht en Ecuador". Retrieved 24 May 2017.
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