Brazils corruption scandal spreads across South America
Brazil’s corruption scandal spreads across South America
An investigation into a construction firm sparks allegations of bribes from Panama to Peru
Emma Graham-Harrison
Saturday 11 February 2017 16.00 EST
The fallout from a massive bribery scandal that helped to bring down a Brazilian president is spreading across Latin America, threatening to engulf leaders from Panama to Peru.
The workings of a secret “bribery department” at the Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht that suborned government officials around the world for years are being exposed by investigators. Meticulous schemes of graft laid out by witnesses, in plea deals and in leaked and seized documents show how the company funnelled $800m (£641m) of payouts to politicians and parties in Latin America alone.
As prosecutors chase the trail of that cash, it has led them towards some of the region’s most prominent figures. Brazil’s president, Michel Temer, was accused in leaked testimony last year of taking campaign funds from Odebrecht, and the Panamanian president, Juan Carlos Varela, was implicated by a man who has himself been arrested in connection with the scandal. Both deny wrongdoing. In Argentina a federal judge is seeking information from Brazil and Switzerland to determine if the head of the spy agency took a $600,000 bribe from Odebrecht, which he also denies.
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Authorities who offered a $30,000 reward for Toledo’s capture say he took the money in return for smoothing Odebrecht’s path to a lucrative contract for a road connecting Brazil to Peru’s Pacific coast. They have sought particular help from the US, where Toledo is a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and from Israel. His wife has Israeli citizenship and the country does not have an extradition treaty with Peru, so officials fear he may try to seek refuge there.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/11/brazils-corruption-scandal-spreads-across-south-america
