Samsung Heavy Industries Shipyard in Geoje, South Korea (Photo: disclosure)
South Korean Shipyard Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) signed a transaction agreement with the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), Federal Comptroller General (CGU) and Federal Attorney General (AGU) under the ambit of Lava-Jato. The company will pay R $ 811.79 million for acts of corruption and money laundering to obtain a contract with Petrobras.
Former deputy and former mayor Eduardo Cunha was sentenced for the first time last year in a trial in which he was indicted by the MPF for taking a $ 5 million bribe from a shipyard between 2012 and 2014.
Of the amount to be paid by Samsung Heavy Industries within the scope of the loan, $ 705.9 million will be allocated to state-owned Petrobras. The remaining, R $ 105.89 million, will be paid to the federal government as fines provided for by the Administrative Reform Law (Law 8,429 / 92).
After joining Operation Gecko, the agreement has been signed for the first time in the realm of Lava-Jato, which meant the end of the task force, which signed 17 such agreements.
The shipyard, one of the largest in the world, had already agreed, in November 2019, to pay $ 75 million ($ 314 million at the time) in an agreement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ). The amount will be a compensation for the bribe of middlemen in Brazil by a Korean company. The agreement allocated half the money to the United States government, and the rest to the Brazilian government.
SHI admitted in US court that, between 2007 and 2013, it paid approximately US $ 20 million ($ 83 million at the time) in commission to a Brazilian arbitrator, knowing that a portion of that money was paid to Petrobras employees. The bribe was to guarantee profit in trade with the company.
In agreement with the MPF, in addition to fines and repairs, Samsung Heavy Industries Shipyard promised to “improve its governance and compliance policies, including control and inspection mechanisms,” in terms of conducting business in Brazil.
This laxity excludes or excludes the activities of representatives, employees, administrators of any company of the Samsung Group, which is already being investigated within the scope of Lava-Jato.
According to the MPF, “Other investigations initiated as a result of the facts mentioned, which may be characterized by administrative inconsistencies or violations of actions against the national financial system, include economic, tax, competition, corruption, embezzlement, money laundering.” ” Of money arising in crimes against public administration and the formation of a criminal organization ”.
Said, Samsung did not talk until the publication of this report.
