Authorities in the country of Brazil have arrested three former congressmen who have been implemented in connection with what may be the country’s largest corruption scandal, involving the oil giant Petrobras, Brazil’s biggest and the world’s sixth largest. The arrested former congressmen have been identified as Andre Vargas, a member of the ruling Worker’s party and Luis Argolo and Pedro Correa, part of the opposition solidarity party which is a minority party in Brazil’s 594 seat Government.
“This was probably repeated in other areas” Igor Romario said who is a federal police agent in Brazil, regarding the allegation of corruption toward the congressmen.
The scandal hit its height last year when several executives inside Petrobras were arrested and charged with corruption along with high ranking officials within construction and engineering companies throughout the country revealing the scandal may involve more than just the oil company.
There is no official number as to how much money the company has allegedly spent on bribes toward officials but Petrobras has recently written off $17 billion in losses it has explained due to the graft and which may be a sign as to how much had been spent.
“We were conservative with this number” Aldemir Bendine, who is the Chief Executive of Petrobras, said regarding the number recently released by the company. “We have made our best efforts to turn the page on this sad chapter that the company has passed through Mr. Bendine continued in his statement regarding the corruption charge against his company”.
The scandal has not only affected the confidence in the country’s leadership in both their government and in private corporations but also within the economy as Petrobras was one of the largest companies within the country’s stock exchange and what experts believe will slide into a recession in 2015.
“This helps restore the company’s credibility, but there’s still a lot they have to do” Adriano Pires said, who is the President of the Brazilian Infrastructure Center which is an energy consultancy organization.
“It’s difficult to believe the company will get the best possible values, there are a lot of assets on sale and not many buyers” an anonymous source said, who is also a large investor in Brazilian stocks.
The company’s current total debt is equaled to 350.8 billion Brazilian Realis or $116.6 billion U.S dollars.
Even though the height of the protest is thought to have taken last year there was more recent protest taken place on March 15th, where thousands of protesters called for the newly elected President, Dilma Rousseff to be impeached as she has been heavily implemented in the scandal being that she was the former head of Petrobras’ board of directors.
“She may not have been directly involved in the corruption at Petrobras, but she certainly knew about it, and for me that makes her just as guilty and justifies her ouster” 35 year old protester Andre Menezes said, who was part of the Sao Paulo protest in March.
A Political Science professor who teaches at Sao Paulo University, Pedro Arruda said he agrees with the protestor’s right to voice their grievances against the President but he also added “but the impeachment they demand has no legal foot to stand on”.
Ultimately it is imperative that the country of Brazil clean up its act as it is one of the biggest countries in South America and one that could potentially be a huge contributing factor in getting countries around the world to end their dependence on Middle Eastern countries for oil.
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