13 February 2017
Odebrecht is a Brazilian conglomerate consisting of diversified businesses in the fields of engineering, construction, chemicals and petrochemicals. For more than 2 years Operation Car Wash, an ongoing corruption investigation in Brazi, has been overwhelming Odebrecht.
On Thursday, Peruvian authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Alejandro Toledo, president from 2001 to 2006. They also offered a reward of 100,000 sol (roughly $30,000) for information leading to his arrest.
Toledo is alleged to have received $20 million in kickbacks for approving Odebrecht’s bid to build sections of the Interoceanic Highway, which now links Brazil with Peru’s Pacific ports. In Peru, Odebrecht has won contracts worth an estimated at $25 billion since the 1990s. Peruvian government’s request to US to arrest Toledo when he was in San Francisco was not acceded to by the US government.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is alleged to have received $1million for his election campaign from Odebrecht.
Gustavo Arribas, former Head of the Argentinian Directorate General of the Federal Intelligence Agency and a close ally of President Mauricio Macri, is said to have received a bank transfer worth 600,000 U.S. dollars from Odebrecht intermediaries.
Argentinian judicial investigators have found that Odebrecht paid 35 million U.S. dollars in bribes to the Kirchner governments in order to get contracts valued at 278 million U.S. dollars.
In Ecuador and Venezuela also investigations are going on involving corruption allegations against Odebrecht.
An independent commission has been set up to investigate Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela, on allegations that he accepted millions of dollars from Odebrecht.
The DOJ announced that, Odebrecht had paid 35.5 million U.S. dollars in bribes to Ecuadorian politicians between 2007 and 2016, in return for profits of over 116 million U.S. dollars in the country.
In plea bargains testimony given by 77 executives from Odebrecht, Brazilian President Michel Temer has also been implicated. He is said to have received millions of dollars for his election campaign.
