Odebrecht

Odebrecht S.A. (odɛˈbɾɛ(t)ʃ), officially known as Novonor, is a Brazilian conglomerate, headquartered in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, consisting of diversified businesses in the fields of engineering, construction, chemicals and petrochemicals. The company was founded in 1944 in Salvador by Norberto Odebrecht, and is active in the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Its leading company is Norberto Odebrecht Construtora. Odebrecht S.A. is a holding company for Construtora Norberto Odebrecht S.A., the biggest engineering and contracting company in Latin America, and Braskem, the largest petrochemicals producer in Latin America and one of Brazil's five largest private-sector manufacturing companies. Odebrecht controls Braskem, which by revenue is the fourth largest petrochemical company in the Americas and the seventeenth in the world. The name Odebrecht has become shorthand for an unprecedented regional bribery scandal. Between 2001–2016, Odebrecht paid USD $788 million in bribes across Latin America. Odebrecht has also been central to the Operation Car Wash scandal. On 19 June 2015, Brazilian authorities arrested the former CEO, Marcelo Odebrecht, in connection with their ongoing probe into bribes paid to the Brazilian oil giant, Petrobras. On 7 March 2016, he was sentenced to 19 years and 4 months jail, for paying over US$30 million in bribes to executives of Petrobras, in exchange for contracts and influence. That year, the U.S. Department of Justice fined the company $2.6 billion in what was the largest corruption case ever prosecuted under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In June 2019, the group filed for bankruptcy, seeking to restructure US$13 billion in debt. They eventually filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy just two months later on August 26, 2019. In July 2022, an agreement between Novonor and Marcelo Odebrecht was signed, with the agreement, Marcelo ceases to be a shareholder in the company and ends a legal battle that started in 2020. Norberto Odebrecht Construtora Ltda.