Petroleo Brasileiro SA requested access to allegations made by a former executive of a kickbacks scheme involving the state-run oil producer in a scandal that threatens to influence the outcome of presidential elections.
Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based company is known, asked the judge investigating the so-called Car Wash money- laundering case for details of testimony given by former refining head Paulo Roberto Costa, it said yesterday in a statement. The oil producer also wrote to companies cited by Brazilian press as allegedly involved in kickbacks, Petrobras said, without identifying them.
Veja magazine reported on the weekend that a group of more than 30 politicians, including members and allies of President Dilma Rousseff’s Workers’ Party, allegedly received bribes linked to Petrobras contracts. The Sao Paulo-based magazine said the list of names was given by Costa during testimony to the federal public prosecutor.
Costa, who is in jail as the police investigate him for money-laundering, is collaborating with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence. The scandal, which has been on the front page of Brazil’s main newspapers since, is breaking four weeks before presidential elections, triggering comments by the three main candidates including incumbent Rousseff.
“It is in the best interests of the company’s management to see the completion of all ongoing investigations,” Petrobras said in yesterday’s statement. “Any irregular acts that may have been committed by a person or group of people, whether or not they are company employees, do not represent the conduct of the Petrobras institution and its workforce.”
Petrobras shares fell 4.9%, the most since Aug. 13, to 21.70 reais in Sao Paulo yesterday, reducing a year-to-date rally to 27%.
Silvio Sinedino, a Petrobras board member representing employees, said he requested that Costa’s reported testimony be discussed at a Sept. 12 board meeting.
“I want to know what management is doing to prevent the ongoing erosion of Petrobras’ image,” Sinedino said in a text message responding to Bloomberg questions.
Rousseff’s secretary general Gilberto Carvalho said the leaked information is an attempt to alter election results. The candidate for the opposition Brazilian Social Democracy Party Aecio Neves, who is in third place in the polls, said Rousseff, a former energy minister and former chairwoman of Petrobras, owes Brazilians an explanation.
Eduardo Campos, former governor of Pernambuco state and presidential candidate for the Brazilian Socialist Party, who died in a plane crash last month, was named by Costa as one of the politicians supposedly involved, according to Veja. The magazine didn’t give details on the alleged scheme, which also involves money-laundering, or provide proof to back up Costa’s allegations.
Petrobras “has been destroyed by its political use, corruption and handing out favors,” Marina Silva, who replaced Campos as presidential candidate, told reporters in Sao Paulo. She said Campos always supported the creation of a special committee to investigate irregularities within Petrobras.
The attempt to involve Campos in the scandal was a reaction to polls that show Silva ahead of Neves in the first-round and beating Rousseff in the runoff, Silva’s party, the PSB, said in a Sept. 6 e-mailed statement.
“There is no accusation worthy of honest consideration,” the PSB said. “There is only malice.”
In a Sept. 2-3 Datafolha poll, Silva had 34 percent support in the first-round, compared with 35% for Rousseff. Neves garnered 14 percent support in the poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. Silva would beat Rousseff in the second round 48% to 41%, the poll showed.
Brazil will hold a runoff between the two most-voted candidates in the Oct. 5 first-round if the frontrunner doesn’t get more than 50 percent of the vote.