Jailed construction boss reveals operation Panama scam
MARCELO ODEBRECHT the jailed former head of Latin America’s biggest construction company has begun to talk in exchange for reducing his 19 years and four months sentence.
To date he has revealed that he paid former Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva more than $2 million in bribes. and secondly the evidence that would expose the transactions were hidden in Panama with dirty money.
The information was published on Saturday, Nov.12 by the Brazilian magazine Istoé, which describes “Operation Panama” citing Marcelo Odebrecht’s statement to Brazilian prosecutors.
After his arrest last June of 2015, he ordered his company to start an operation, denominated “Panama”.
It involved he explains, in promoting “a sweep of computers,to identify the most sensitive files and send them to the branch of the company in the Caribbean country.”
The objective – saya Istoé – was to “disappear”” any information capable of verifying the transfer of financial resources of Odebrecht to former President Lula.
At that time, the company was reluctant to deliver the information to prosecutors , but that changed, with the agreements over sentence reduction
In Panama, André Rabello the man who heads the local Odebrecht operation refused to provide information. He claimed he could not talk about issues related to the investigation conducted by prosecutors in Brazil, reports La Prensa.
