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WORLD NEWS Friday 27 January 2017

Once Brazil’s richest man, Eike Batista sought for graft

RENATA BRITO Tacio Muzzi, an inspector
Associated Press with the federal police, told
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — a news conference that if
Brazilian police issued an Batista doesn’t turn himself
arrest warrant Thursday for in soon, he will be consid-
a businessman famous for ered a fugitive from justice.
amassing and then losing a He did not give a specific
multi-billion-dollar fortune, deadline. He added that
the latest person caught Batista appears to have
up in a wide-ranging cor- used his German passport
ruption probe roiling Latin to leave Brazil.
America’s largest nation. Police learned overnight
Federal police asked Inter- that Batista might be out of
pol for help locating Eike the country, Muzzi said, but
Batista, whose lawyer says decided to go ahead with
he is in New York. Attorney attempting to execute the
Fernando Martins told the warrant. Globo Television
G1 news portal that Batista showed images of officers
would return as quickly as at Batista’s home in Rio de
possible to surrender to po- Janeiro early Thursday.
lice. Prosecutor Eduardo El
Batista is being sought for Hage told reporters that In this 2009 photo, Brazil’s businessman Eike Batista, left, and Rio de Janeiro’s governor Sergio
allegedly paying bribes to Batista paid $16.5 million Cabral attend a ceremony in which Batista donated R$ 10’000,000.00 (around US$ 4.5 US million
dollars) for the Rio 2016 Olympic games bid in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Federal police on Thursday,
former Rio de Janeiro state to Cabral in foreign bank Jan. 26 2017, issued an arrest warrant for Batista for allegedly paying bribes to former Rio state
Gov. Sergio Cabral, appar- accounts. Officials said Gov. Sergio Cabral to gain advantage in government contracts. Cabral is facing several corrup-
ently to gain an advantage Thursday that they were tion charges and was jailed in 2016. (AP Photo/Ricardo Moraes)
in government contracts. still investigating what the
The warrant for Batista was money was for.
one of nine issued Thurs- The inquiry is among many
day in connection with an that make up Brazil’s so-
investigation into the laun- called Car Wash probe,
dering and hiding of about a sprawling investigation
$100 million in foreign bank into the cozy relationship
accounts. The vast major- between politicians and
ity of that money, nearly businessmen, including the
$80 million, belonged to payment of billions of dol-
Cabral, said prosecutor lars in bribes.
Leonardo Freitas. He held The focus of the probe is
out the possibility that the on allegedly inflated con-
conspiracy could be even tracts with state oil giant
larger. Petrobras and other state-
“The wealth of the mem- run companies that yielded
bers of the criminal orga- billions of dollars for bribes
nization led by Mr. Sergio and election campaigns.
Cabral is an ocean not yet It has spawned hundreds
completely mapped,” he of cases and caught up
told a news conference. some of the country’s top
Cabral is facing several businessmen and top politi-
corruption charges and cians.
was jailed last year. In 2011, he was listed by
Batista was surprised to Forbes magazine as the
have been named in the world’s eighth-richest per-
probe and wanted to re- son and had boasted he
turn to Brazil to respond to would take the top spot
the charges, G1 quoted away from Mexican billion-
Martins as saying. Martins aire Carlos Slim. By 2013,
said he was discussing Ba- his fortune had crumbled
tista’s return with police, amid debts in his various
but that it wasn’t yet clear energy sector companies.
if his client would return At one point, he was $1 bil-
Thursday. lion in debt.q