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Bill & Melinda Gates foundation sues Petrobras alleging 'pervasive bribery'

Saturday, September 26th 2015 - 09:04 UTC
Full article 12 comments
Created in 2000 by Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, the foundation focuses on improving education and health and reducing poverty. Created in 2000 by Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, the foundation focuses on improving education and health and reducing poverty.
The foundation is suing on its own, suggesting it believes it might recover more of its losses on Petrobras' American depositary shares that way. The foundation is suing on its own, suggesting it believes it might recover more of its losses on Petrobras' American depositary shares that way.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have sued Petrobras to recoup stock losses stemming from a corruption scandal at the state-run oil company.

 According to a complaint filed late Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, Petrobras' “pervasive bribery and money laundering scheme” caused the Gates Foundation and another plaintiff, WGI Emerging Markets Fund LLC, to lose tens of millions of dollars by investing in the company.

“Indeed, the scandal still seems to escalate by the day - as more guilty pleas, more arrests, and more secret bank accounts are uncovered,” the complaint said.

Petrobras is facing a raft of U.S. class-action litigation claiming that years of corruption, including bribery, inflated the value of more than $98 billion of its stock and bonds.

Created in 2000 by Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, the foundation focuses on improving education and health and reducing poverty.

The foundation is suing on its own, suggesting it believes it might recover more of its losses on Petrobras' American depositary shares that way. A Brazilian affiliate of Petrobras auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is also a defendant.

Westwood Global Investments LLC, a Boston-based firm, manages investments for the foundation and the WGI fund.

Petrobras' market value has plunged more than 90% from nearly $300 billion seven years ago. It took a $17 billion writedown in April for overvalued assets. Prosecutors have said more than $2 billion of bribes were paid over a decade, mainly to Petrobras executives from construction and engineering companies.

The Seattle-based foundation is among the world's largest charitable organizations, with a $41.3 billion endowment.

Top Comments

Disclaimer & comment rules
  • Bisley

    Anyone buying stock in a state-run company should have enough sense to understand that all such companies are corrupt and mismanaged. Buying shares in such an enterprise is not investment, but gambling -- there should be no legal recourse against what should be recognized as a part of the game.

    Sep 26th, 2015 - 02:53 pm 0
  • Brasileiro

    Agreed.

    Sep 26th, 2015 - 03:13 pm 0
  • Chicureo

    The Gates are not a couple to piss off as they can make the Brazilian government suffer with their unlimited legal resources.

    “Petrobras' market value has plunged more than 90% from nearly $300 billion seven years ago.” This is a unforgivable crime against the people of Brazil led by Lula and Dilma.

    Sep 26th, 2015 - 05:35 pm 0
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