(ATR) Construction executive Marcelo Odebrecht was sentenced to 19 years in prison as part of the ongoing Petrobras scandal.
Odebrecht was in charge of Odebrecht SA, one of the largest construction firms in Latin America. The firm was part of the consortium of companies that have done work on Olympic venues. Throughout the "Lava Jato" scandal Rio organizers have reiterated that the construction works were apart from the scandal, and to this date no link has been found.
Rio 2016 declined any new comment to Around the Rings, saying that it was not the organizing committee’s place to discuss verdicts that did not affect Olympic preparations.
Clarifying this position, Rio 2016 sport director Rodrigo Garcia said to ATR that "there is no information saying it will impact our side, and we have received information that says nothing has changed."
Odebrecht, OAS SA, Andrade Gutierrez SA, Queiroz Galvão SA, and Carioca Christiani-Nielsen Engenharia SA, are the five companies that won the most contracts for the Olympic developments. Executives from three of those companies have been jailed on corruption charges while the former chief of OAS was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his connection to the Petrobras scandal.
In December IOC officials reiterated that all Olympic contracts were negotiated with the city of Rio de Janeiro, not with the specific construction companies.
According to Sergio Moro, a federal judge based in Curitiba, Odebrecht and other associates helped form a cartel that they used to manipulate prices on Petrobras contracts. The profits earned from the set prices would be distributed to Petrobras executives, politicians, and construction executives to keep the scheme going.
"The contractors, united in something that they called a 'club', previously agreed among themselves who would be the winners of the Petrobras contracts, manipulating the prices presented during bidding," Moro said in his decision, reported by local media.
"They were able to, with no real competition, be contracted at the highest possible price."
Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro
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