Hugo Chávez awarded Odebrecht $11 billion in infrastructure contracts, and (surprise!) the projects were never finished:
Brazil Scandal Leaves Dreams Undone in Venezuela.Hugo Chávez contracted Odebrecht to build grand projects costing billions, but most remain frozen
The company paid $98 million to intermediaries for services in Venezuela, knowing the money would be passed as bribes to officials, according to a plea deal signed by the company and published in December by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Hugo and his friend Lula were involved,
Brazilian prosecutors accuse Mr. da Silva of illegal lobbying to win Odebrecht contracts in a number of countries outside Brazil, including Venezuela, according to a spokeswoman for the prosecutors. His lawyers deny any wrongdoing by their client, who also faces other charges in Brazil.
Mr. Odebrecht’s in the clink, Lula’s under investigation, and Hugo’s dead.
$5 says they’ll never find the missing $11billion.
Read the full article here.
UPDATE
Peru, on the other hand, wants cash up front: Peru demands cash from Odebrecht ahead of plea deal talks
Peru has demanded a “significant sum” of cash from Brazilian builder Odebrecht before starting talks toward a plea deal that would reveal the names of officials it bribed over a period spanning three presidencies, the attorney general’s office said Monday.
Hamilton Castro, lead prosecutor investigating the company, declined to specify how much Peru was seeking initially, but said Odebrecht would have to pay a bigger sum later in a final agreement after it provides details on crimes it committed in Peru.
Last month Odebrecht, a family-owned conglomerate at the center of Brazil’s biggest ever graft scandal, signed a plea deal in the United States. It acknowledged distributing hundreds of millions in bribes across Latin America, including $29 million in Peru from which it got more than $143 million in benefits.
. . .
Last week the government of President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said Odebrecht would be barred from bidding on public contracts thanks to new anti-graft rules and that it might sue the company for damages.
Smart moves.
