Nine people face new embezzlement charges in Petrobras scheme

Federal Judge Sérgio Moro, in charge of the investigations under Operation Car Wash, accepted on Monday (Dec 15) the allegations against nine people involved in a scheme in which resources from the Brazilian oil giant Petrobras were embezzled: foreign exchange dealer Alberto Youssef, Petrobras's former supply director Paulo Roberto Costa, Waldomiro de Oliveira, associated with Youssef, and six high-ranking employees from the construction company OAS: José Adelmário Filho, Agenor Franklin Magalhães Medeiros, Mateus Coutinho de Sá Oliveira, José Ricardo Nogueira Breghirolli, Fernando Augusto Stremel Andrade e João Alberto Lazzari—all of whom have become defendants in the proceedings opened by the judge.

Judge Moro claims that, according to evidence and testimonies provided by Youssef and Costa, no documents exists which makes it legally possible to ascertain whether the services put forth in the contracts signed by OAS and the companies under the dealer's control were in fact carried out.

“As part of the criminal scheme, OAS leaders allegedly allocated at least one percent of the value of the contracts and their addenda to Petrobras's supply department. Part of the amounts went to Paulo Roberto Costa, while he was supply director, and then another amount after his departure,” the judge declared.

Last week, the Public Prosecution Office in Paraná reported 36 people under investigation in the seventh stage of Operation Car Wash. Most of them are are connected with the construction companies which signed contracts with the oil firm.

Agência Brasil attempted to reach OAS, but there was no answer up to the publication of this news story.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira