Redação JOTA

Having started its operations in Panama in 2004, Odebrecht revealed that it had paid a total of US$ 59 million in bribes given to the country’s authorities, between 2010 and 2014, in exchange for a range of favours: speeding up payments, overcharging public contracts and being favoured in public biddings. According to a testimony given by André Luiz Campos Rabello, Odebrecht’s former head of operations in Panama, relatives of former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli received part of this money. His brother, Mario Martinelli, and his sons Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares were accused of receiving US$ 11 million and € 9 million (approximately US$ 10 million) via offshores companies run by Odebrecht.

In his testimony to then-judge Sérgio Moro, in 2016, former Odebrecht Group executive Hilberto Silva Filho detailed how the money changed hands and stated that resources from the company’s slush fund were transferred to accounts held by the São Paulo-based JR Graco Assessoria e Consultoria Financeira Ltda company, created as a front for Odebrecht’s bribery schemes. One of the company’s partners was Olívio Rodrigues Junior, who also turned state’s evidence.

“All slush fund payments that went to my team were made in foreign currencies, overseas, in the bank accounts of offshore companies controlled by us. From these accounts we would transfer the money to companies owned by Olívio Rodrigues, who was responsible for making the payments. Olívio’s many offshore companies, that were used to make the payments, were primarily located in Antigua and Panama [for example, the Klienfeld Services Limited account, kept at Antigua Overseas Bank Ltd and the Shellbill Finance S.A. account, opened in Panama]”, explains Silva Filho, who headed the Structured Operations Sector, which managed and distributed the bribes paid by the company. Luiz Eduardo Soares, also a former employee of the sector, stated that he was responsible for organising the payment of bribes in the country.

PUBLIC CONTRACTS WITH POSSIBLE IRREGULARITIES
<ul>
 	<li>Cinta Costera 3 (land reclamation project)</li>
 	<li>Segment 2 of the Corredor Via Brasil avenue</li>
 	<li>Segment 1 of the Corredor Via Brasil avenue</li>
 	<li>Improvements to Domingo Díaz Avenue</li>
 	<li>Preservation of Panama City’s Historical Heritage</li>
</ul>

panama-canal-823221_1920

<img width="300" height="91" class="wp-image-187115 aligncenter" src="https://www.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-300x91.png" alt="" srcset="https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-300x91.png 300w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-440x134.png 440w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-680x207.png 680w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-284x86.png 284w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-549x167.png 549w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-219x67.png 219w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-359x109.png 359w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-412x125.png 412w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-380x116.png 380w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-200x61.png 200w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a.png 726w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
This content was produced in partnership by JOTA and Transparency International Brazil.
Having started its operations in Panama in 2004, Odebrecht revealed that it had paid a total of US$ 59 million in bribes given to the country’s authorities, between 2010 and 2014, in exchange for a range of favours: speeding up payments, overcharging public contracts and being favoured in public biddings. According to a testimony given by André Luiz Campos Rabello, Odebrecht’s former head of operations in Panama, relatives of former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli received part of this money. His brother, Mario Martinelli, and his sons Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares were accused of receiving US$ 11 million and € 9 million (approximately US$ 10 million) via offshores companies run by Odebrecht.
In his testimony to then-judge Sérgio Moro, in 2016, former Odebrecht Group executive Hilberto Silva Filho detailed how the money changed hands and stated that resources from the company’s slush fund were transferred to accounts held by the São Paulo-based JR Graco Assessoria e Consultoria Financeira Ltda company, created as a front for Odebrecht’s bribery schemes. One of the company’s partners was Olívio Rodrigues Junior, who also turned state’s evidence.
“All slush fund payments that went to my team were made in foreign currencies, overseas, in the bank accounts of offshore companies controlled by us. From these accounts we would transfer the money to companies owned by Olívio Rodrigues, who was responsible for making the payments. Olívio’s many offshore companies, that were used to make the payments, were primarily located in Antigua and Panama [for example, the Klienfeld Services Limited account, kept at Antigua Overseas Bank Ltd and the Shellbill Finance S.A. account, opened in Panama]”, explains Silva Filho, who headed the Structured Operations Sector, which managed and distributed the bribes paid by the company. Luiz Eduardo Soares, also a former employee of the sector, stated that he was responsible for organising the payment of bribes in the country.
PUBLIC CONTRACTS WITH POSSIBLE IRREGULARITIES
<ul>
<li>Cinta Costera 3 (land reclamation project)</li>
<li>Segment 2 of the Corredor Via Brasil avenue</li>
<li>Segment 1 of the Corredor Via Brasil avenue</li>
<li>Improvements to Domingo Díaz Avenue</li>
<li>Preservation of Panama City’s Historical Heritage</li>
</ul>

Summary of the facts

The documents presented below are official and were obtained by searching the websites of Brazil’s justice system’s organs. They may not be related to the facts described above, seeing as they may refer to cases that still haven’t been fully examined.
<ul>
<li>Sentence given by then-judge Sergio Moro, in which Marcelo Odebrecht, Paulo Roberto Costa Renato Duque, among other Odebrecht and Petrobras executives, are convicted. Three offshore companies set up in Panama are mentioned in said sentence. Excerpts:</li>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">“Maranelle Investment, an offshore company based in Panama, holder of an account at Safra Sarasin Bank, in Geneva, Swtizerland, is controlled by Mário Frederico de Mendonça Goes and was used to transfer bribe money to accounts controlled by defendant Pedro Barusco and to the Services Executive Board”.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">“Renato de Souza Duque allegedly opened two secret bank accounts in the Principality of Monaco, one on behalf of offshore company Milzart Overseas, created in Panama, and another for offshore company Pamore Assets, also created in Panama. Both accounts were set up at Julius Baer Bank, at the Principality of Monaco”.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
 (<a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1k7JLonCOf2xjkE0CXLtUEsibXNobPrMN">Court ruling</a>)
Date of document: September 21, 2015
Produced by: Ruling by Curitiba’s 13th Court (by then-federal judge Sérgio Moro) 
<ul>
<li>In a ruling given by then-federal judge Sérgio Moro, there is mention of a transfer of over US$ 1 million in less than three months (between May 19, 2009 and August 3, 2009) to an account in Switzerland, by an offshore company from Panama called Constructora Internacional del Sur, that allegedly was used by Odebrecht.  <a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HB4dbSEd4kn6ealO2xj4qREvguSQBQFT">Ruling</a>)</li>
</ul>
Date of document: March 9, 2015
Produced by: Ruling by Curitiba’s 13th Court (by then-federal judge Sérgio Moro)
<ul>
<li>In an e-mail from August 2007, Marcelo Odebrecht sent a note to the company’s board members regarding contracts in Mexico that were of interest to the company, asking them to give it to his father (Emílio Odebrecht), “to be handed to the seminarist” (a likely reference to Gilberto de Carvalho, then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s head of cabinet). The Federal Police agent that wrote the report points out that “three days after the message was sent, Lula went on a state visit to Mexico and four other countries (&#8230;) [Panama included], which explains Marcelo’s rush to deliver the note&#8221;.  <a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Q87kekc3WdtcsdRPtQ9kJmepxqyZnOa6">report written by a Paraná state Federal Police agent, analysing the contents of a hard disk drive apprehended from</a> Marcelo Odebrecht’s secretary, Darci Luz)</li>
</ul>
Date of document: September 13, 2016
Produced by: Paraná state Federal Police
<ul>
<li>In a hard disk drive apprehended from one of Odebrecht’s offices, there are numerous coded notes. Some of them mention Panama, such as the following:</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Attention base: P. Wetzel, Imp. BR&#8230;</li>
</ul>
Citi vs Panama
Contributions for Marta
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Panama’s Ambassador brother RR</li>
</ul>
Citi vs Panama: e-mail GM
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Precautions image publication Swiss</li>
</ul>
Panama
Businessman/our share. agribiz.
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Marta?</li>
</ul>
Tadeu, MMX, Vacari
Sabesp and others
Copa partnership with the Germans or the Portuguese
Pol./strategy SP
Pes Pref SPvsPanama
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Agenda RD</li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li> Trip to Cuba +</li>
</ol>
2.Visual identity for LE Eng. and Const. activities++
<ol start="3">
<li> Bra-Mex Institute Project (L. Cárdenas) +++</li>
<li> Abreu e Lima documentary +++</li>
<li> Lula+HC quarterly meetings &#8211; Preparation +++ (*)</li>
</ol>
6.Ven in Mercosur +++
<ol start="7">
<li>Panama political project +</li>
</ol>
8.Restructuring, Simplification of area RI CNO ++++
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Opport. for Panama jail</li>
</ul>
André vs talks with Gov vs Canal
Bouygues/Canal
ICA Panama contract
Room for Astaldi
KBR + Parsons
Answer Bougys.
Port/DPW vs MJ
Panamanians training
Energy Op. Panama PCHs
EA: Alt. salt:
FG: Baba? CClI
JP/BJ: EO vs Constran
Palocci: cta Rennau + 3
EA: Paul vs Cylela vs Marina
LT: JDirceu vs Nicaragua
JP/BJ: harbour market
(<a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Q87kekc3WdtcsdRPtQ9kJmepxqyZnOa6">report written by a Paraná state Federal Police agent, analysing the contents of a hard disk drive apprehended from</a><a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hiz4qXNVZ0OmJ9VkGW2QwbT-f-gs6dlE"> Marcelo Odebrecht’s secretary, Darci Luz</a>)
Date of document: August 23, 2016
Produced by: Paraná state Federal Police
<ul>
<li>In an e-mail from September 2007 sent to Marcelo Odebrecht and others, former Odebrecht manager Marcos Vasconcelos Cruz seems to imply that the company set up the auction notice for the Panama Bay sanitation contract, which it won. (<a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13tTPntohk9Ihus_FdBMfUh1W_-ImqCss">report on the analysis of apprehended hard disk drives and flash drives</a>)</li>
</ul>
Date of document: June 7, 2016
Produced by: Paraná state Federal Police
<ul>
<li>In an information of charges from March 2015, the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Curitiba mentions Panamanian offshore companies: Maranelle, supposedly controlled by businessman Mario Góes (suspect of operating the Petrobras money siphoning scheme), and Rhea Comercial Inc, whose representative allegedly was Pedro Barusco, a former Petrobras manager.   (<a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MOuT6VJFE1-sc4k7PIIfc3w0bqRHOpvJ">Charges filed</a>)</li>
</ul>
Date of document: March 16, 2015
Produced by: Public Prosecutor’s Office
<ul>
<li>In the preventive detention warrant for former Petrobras board member Jorge Zelada, drafted in June 2015, the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Curitiba reports that the former executive was the sole beneficiary of offshore company Rockfield International, based in Panama. The company had an account at a bank from the Principality of Monaco and the balance, at the date of the warrant’s issuing, was € 11.5 million (approximately US$ 13 million).  (<a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ly3uTNhx6Ed7-N9FqzNc8aBBuynoUaW_">Warrant from the Public Prosecutor’s Office</a></li>
</ul>
Date of document: June 9, 2015
Produced by: Public Prosecutor’s Office in Curitiba
<ul>
<li>In a document accompanying the preventive detention warrant for former Petrobras manager Celso Araripe de Oliveira, drafted in June 2015, a Curitiba Federal Police report points out that the corruption scheme in the state-owned company had been widespread for years and mentions the case of another former manager, Pedro Barusco. &#8220;Even though BARUSCO does not know exactly how these payments were made, he does mention that the amounts given from ODEBRECHT to him were received via PEXO CORPORATION’s account, originating from deposits made by CONSTRUCTORA INTERNACIONAL DEL SUR, both based in Panama&#8221;.  (<a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aCn1OG6OgSYxioOyj3wDe1A5GQPV4_jn">Federal Police report</a>)</li>
</ul>
Date of document: July 20, 2015
Produced by: Public Prosecutor’s Office in Curitiba
<ul>
<li>In the preventive detention warrants for former Petrobras managers, Glauco Legatti and Roberto Gonçalves, drafted in June 2015, the Federal Police in Curitiba points out that Legatti was visited many times by former Odebrecht board members, such as Márcio Faria, and by an alleged financial operator in the corruption scheme, Bernardo Freiburghaus. The Federal Police’s report mentions that Faria, Freiburghaus and others set up bank accounts in Panama and in five other countries, in the name of 16 offshore companies created in Panama and in other three countries. According to the Federal Police, throughout 115 wire transfers involving these bank accounts, over R$ 1 billion were laundered, using the exchange rate of the time (1.9 million Swiss francs plus US$ 313 million).  (<a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aCn1OG6OgSYxioOyj3wDe1A5GQPV4_jn">Federal Police report</a>)</li>
</ul>
Date of document: October 9, 2015
Produced by: Federal Police in Curitiba
<ul>
<li>In a preventive detention warrant and other measures, drafted in June 2016, the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Curitiba reports some facts discovered in the investigations made on how the Panamanian company Mossack Fonseca was used, in Brazil, to set up offshore companies that, in turn, were used to launder money siphoned from Petrobras. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, “part of the public agents and operators in the scheme that defrauded Petrobras’ public biddings, which, through a cartel composed of the largest civil construction companies in the country and calls itself ‘the club’, covered up the illegally-acquired assets by using offshore companies set up by the Panamanian company Mossack Fonseca’s Brazilian branch (&#8230;).</li>
</ul>
 (<a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bu1fEOPVSzWbBsTtONMg3eKvXSpIr29N">Arrest and break of confidentiality warrants issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office</a>)
Date of document: June 17, 2016
Produced by: Public Prosecutor’s Office in Curitiba
<ul>
<li>PET 6729 – Sole Number: 0002529-10.2017.1.00.0000 &#8211; STF</li>
</ul>
December 14, 2016
In Brazil’s Supreme Court, this motion has Justice Edson Fachin as judge-rapporteur, and handles the testimonies given by several Odebrecht former executives. In one of them, Marcelo Bahia Odebrecht, then-chairman of Odebrecht, recounts the transfer of the company’s Structured Operations Sector (the sector responsible for handling the bribery payments) in 2014 to the Dominican Republic.

Documents 

Marcelo Odebrecht’s testimony (PET 6729) on transferring the “bribery department” to the Dominican Republic and the corporate link to Panama at the onset of Operation Car Wash. The goal was to evade investigations in Brazil. Odebrecht’s former chairman also stated that the transfer of the company’s corporate link to Panama was done to prevent information from going through the United States. He also stated that the company’s corporate decision-making system was decentralized, which allowed corporate leaders to negotiate bribes without his knowledge.
Video file: 
<iframe title="Depoimento de Marcelo Bahia Odebrecht, presidente da Odebrecht - PET 6729 - parte 3" width="720" height="540" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N5fFMskW3Lo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/16qXTYg2kykqVCh37suk6oSY9k69tvLSk5dgK1KCtfo0/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Text: </a>
INFORMANTS
<ul>
<li>André Luiz Campos Rabello (former Odebrecht head of operations in Panama): responsible for operations in Panama and main informant on public biddings that might have been of interest to the company in the country. He is the main informant on Panama.</li>
<li>Olívio Rodrigues Junior (former partner in the JR Graco Assessoria e Consultoria Financeira Ltda company, which was used to pass on the Odebrecht Group’s bribes): Olívio set up the front company used to operate the flow of Odebrecht’s bribe payments abroad.</li>
<li>Luiz Eduardo Soares (former Structured Operations Sector employee): was responsible for organising the payment of bribes in Panama.</li>
</ul>

Videos and Transcriptions 

<img width="300" height="91" class="wp-image-187115 aligncenter" src="https://www.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-300x91.png" alt="" srcset="https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-300x91.png 300w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-440x134.png 440w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-680x207.png 680w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-284x86.png 284w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-549x167.png 549w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-219x67.png 219w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-359x109.png 359w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-412x125.png 412w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-380x116.png 380w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a-200x61.png 200w, https://images.jota.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2de9ceae86c124493f021b4fb9b5017a.png 726w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
This content was produced in partnership by JOTA and Transparency International Brazil.
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Countries:
<a href="https://www.jota.info/especiais/international-cooperation-in-the-odebrecht-case-argentina-29052019">Argentina</a>
<a href="https://www.jota.info/especiais/international-cooperation-in-the-odebrecht-case-panama-29052019">Panama</a>
<a href="https://www.jota.info/especiais/international-cooperation-in-the-odebrecht-case-dominican-republic-29052019">Dominican Republic</a>
<a href="https://www.jota.info/especiais/international-cooperation-in-the-odebrecht-case-peru-29052019">Peru</a>
<a href="https://www.jota.info/especiais/international-cooperation-in-the-odebrecht-case-mexico-29052019">Mexico</a>
<a href="https://www.jota.info/especiais/international-cooperation-in-the-odebrecht-case-guatemala-29052019">Guatemala</a>
<a href="https://www.jota.info/especiais/international-cooperation-in-the-odebrecht-case-colombia-29052019">Colombia</a>
<a href="https://www.jota.info/especiais/international-cooperation-in-the-odebrecht-case-venezuela-29052019">Venezuela</a>
<a href="https://www.jota.info/especiais/international-cooperation-in-the-odebrecht-case-ecuador-29052019">Ecuador</a>