Odebrecht group crippled by corruption cases

The Brazilian construction industry Odebrecht is at the heart of several scandals of corruption, which would reach the 800 million euros accumulated. So much so that several countries have already imposed fines on it or have withdrawn it from calls for tenders.

According to Les Echos, the Brazilian group Odebrecht has seen its reputation galvanized by several cases of corruption due to sophisticated and systematic tricks in public contracts awarded all over the world. The company even ended up pleading guilty before the courts of Brazil and the United States after a long investigation revealed its involvement in various scandals. The former general manager of the company, Marcelo Odebrecht, and incidentally grandson of the founder, was sentenced to 19 years in prison. In addition, the family holding company has admitted distributing more than 800 million dollars in bribes for more than 10 years in a dozen countries, mainly in Latin America.

US court verdict: Odebrecht group will pay a record fine of $ 4.5 billion. An amount that the major Brazilian construction is renegotiating to 2.6 billion, because of its already precarious financial situation, according to Les Echos. Indeed, its turnover fell by 17% in 2015, reaching the 39 billion dollars, and could still collapse in 2016. The penalties do not stop there: Switzerland imposed a fine of $ 200 million to the group. 80% of the total would go to Brazil as repairs, with the United States and Switzerland sharing the rest.