Page 11 - CORRUPTION LATAM

MONTT GROUP MAGAZINE - 2024
www.MONTTGROUP.cOM
CoRpoRaTE CRiMEs
tHe worSt caSeS oF corruption
Lava Jato, siemens and the panama papers have been some of the most renoWned scandaLs of money Laundering, conceaLment of fortunes, corruption, tax evasion and bribery. hoWever, at a certain point compLiance heLped turn braziL into the Latin american anti-corruption bastion and, Later, saved the german company siemens from disappearing.
There are several major corruption cases in Latin America in recent years, but perhaps few compare with Lava Jato, or the Odebrecht, Siemens and Panama Papers cases
The first is one of the most representative of Latin America, which involved dozens of politicians, businessmen and officials from 12 countries throughout the Region and even beyond, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama , Peru, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, to the United States, Angola and Mozambique.
For 20 years, the construction company Odebrecht, the largest in Brazil created in 1944, in the State of Bahia, which was consolidated during the years of the military governments, paid bribes to obtain benefits in public contracts, going so far as to create the Operations Division Structural in the Dominican Republic, with an entire system to properly manage corruption: personnel dedicated only to that; creation of encrypted accounts and simulated contracts, all to hide the money route. Led by the president of the construction company, Marcelo Odebrecht, alias “The Prince,”
later initially sentenced to 19 years in prison in Brazil, his construction company paid nearly US$788 million in bribes between 2001 and 2006 to secure more of 100 projects in 12 countries, which involved figures such as the current President of Brazil, Ignacio Lula da Silva; several former Heads of Peruvian States and politicians of that nationality.
The situation was dismantled thanks to an investigation that lasted three years, promoted by the United States Department of Justice and carried out in Brazil by the former Minister of Justice and former prosecutor, Sergio Moro.
It all started with Petrobras, the largest company in Brazil that belongs mainly to the State, and which is a source of pride for that country. However, in July 2013, the Federal Police of Curitiba discovered a money laundering network operating in Brasilia and Sao Paulo. The case exploded due to the system of compensated denunciation that prosecutor Moro applied. Thus, the authority discovered that the construction company Odebrecht was participating in a type of “cartel” with 15 other important companies in the country to fraudulently obtain tenders from
www.MONTTGROUP.cOM
päG :11