Petrobras investigates employees for accepting bribes

Oil giant Petrobras is investigating an allegation according to which a Dutch company has bribed Petrobras to do business with the state-run organization, as announced on Tuesday (Feb. 18) by Petrobras CEO Graça Foster. According to her, an investigative committee has been especially assembled for the case.

“Last year we started an auditing process at Petrobras. A term of at least 30 days is granted, during which we cannot give any information on the matter,” Graça Foster declared.

According to a news report from daily O Estado de S. Paulo, Dutch SBM Offshore, which supplies Petrobras with platform ships, allegedly paid employees and middlemen $139.2 million in order to do business with the Brazilian oil giant. The allegation comes from a former employee, who disclosed the information to the Prosecution Office in the Netherlands.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira