Latin American Economy & Business - March 2016 (ISSN 1741-7430)

Marcelo Odebrecht sentenced: Marcelo Odebrecht, former president of Odebrecht SA, Latin America’s largest construction and civil engineering company, has been sentenced to 19 years imprisonment by a Brazilian federal court. The sentence was for his part in the bribery, money laundering and organised crime charges brought against the company, which was found to be a participant in the lava jato (‘carwash’) scandal that engulfed the state-run oil company Petrobras.  Marcelo, 47, is the grandson of the late Norberto Odebrecht, the founder of the company, known across Latin America for its involvement in large-scale building projects. Odebrecht’s lawyer, Nabor Bulhoes, said the sentence was “a serious error by the judiciary” and that his client would appeal against it. Curitiba-based judge Sérgio Moro, who has been at the centre of investigations into the multiple lava jato cases, concluded that Odebrecht and other companies formed a cartel, agreeing among themselves who would win different Petrobras contracts and manipulating contract prices to their benefit. Odebrecht operates in 28 countries and currently has a staff of 168,000 employees. Its revenue in 2014 was US$28.5bn. It has been involved in a range of international projects including building the Port of Mariel in Cuba, the Magdalena river waterway in Colombia, the Panama City metro system, and the Gasoducto del Sur in Peru.