Beach-side apartments in Brazil may have been used as bribes and to launder money for members of the ruling Workers’ Party (PT), police and prosecutors said as they carried out six arrests and executed 15 search warrants in four cities.
Brazilian police and prosecutors said Wednesday that as part of their investigation into a massive corruption scheme centered on Petrobras they were looking into whether some of the money diverted from the state-controlled oil company was laundered through real-estate transactions coordinated by a Panamanian-based law firm.
Brazil’s Finance Minister Nelson Barbosa is expected to announce as much as 60bn Reais (US$15bn) in loans as the government seeks to revive growth amid the worst economic downturn in over a century.
The former CEO of World Sailing says he was fired for pushing to get rid of polluted Guanabara Bay as the sailing venue for this year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Peter Sowrey tried to change the venue, or at least have a “B plan” but says “I was told to gag myself on the subject.”
The soaring US dollar and Brazil’s slumping economy led to a weaker demand for imported goods and services in 2015. As a result, Brazil’s current account deficit reached USD 58.942 billion, equivalent to 3.32% of GDP. The result is the smallest amount since 2010. In 2014, the current account deficit reached USD 104.181 billion, or 4.31% of GDP.
SBM Offshore’s CEO and another company executive have agreed an out-of-court settlement with the Brazilian public prosecutor’s office (Ministério Público Federal) for charges relating to the Petrobras corruption scandal.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff approved a resolution to maintain the current system for establishing the minimum price of oil on which royalty payments are paid by state-run oil company Petrobras to local governments.
President Dilma Rousseff said on Friday that her cash-strapped government could consider tapping into Brazil's sizeable foreign reserves at a given moment, an idea that troubles investors already worried about the country's economic decline.
Brazil's ex president Lula da Silva declared that there is “no more honest living soul in the country” than him, as he angrily rejected new corruption allegations linking himself and some of his relatives to the corruption scandal involving state-run oil company Petrobras.
Recession-hit Brazil's central bank in a divided vote left the key interest rate untouched on Wednesday despite rising inflation, opting against an increase that could put a further brake on the world's seventh-biggest economy.