Operation Car Wash, the investigation into the misuse of funds within Brazil’s partially state-owned oil company Petrobras, is little over a year old—but it has already taken as many twists and turns as a Brazilian “telenovela.”
Federal judge, Sergio Moro, and federal prosecutors are investigating a complicated scheme in which construction companies allegedly bribed Petrobras executives in return for contracts. These contracts were said to have been inflated in order for kickbacks to go to politicians and political parties.
On June 19, Operation Car Wash entered into its 14th phase with the arrest of 12 executives from the construction companies Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez. These arrests involved the alleged payers of bribes, not just the recipients, and led to the imprisonment of some big fish—among them Marcelo Odebrecht, the CEO of Brazil’s fifth-largest company and a conglomerate with an international presence.
