Odebrecht facing $2.1 billion fine

 THE BRAZILIAN construction giant Odebrecht S.A   is to sign an agreement with prosecutors in which it will pay about the biggest fine ever leveed on a corporation  ($2.1 billion) .

After the signing of the agreement, the company can again compete for government contracts.

The Prosecutor’s Office has  refused to make a statement and Odebrecht also declined to comment reports Reuters  news agency.

Reuters said that  the agreement would be the most expensive in the world, surpassing a 2008 agreement  in which the German group Siemens handed over $1.6 billion to US and European authorities for paying bribes to obtain government contracts. The agreement also calls for the company to recognize plea deals negotiated between prosecutors and dozens of Odebrecht executives. Marcelo Odebrecht, the former chief executive of the group, , has already been sentenced to 19 years in prison. The country’s largest engineering company was accused of paying bribes to government officials to receive contracts from oil company Petrobras and  other state-owned entities. The agreement is key to the restructuring of Odebrecht’s $30 billion debt.

Odebrecht Panama has been linked to the movement of bribes through the Panama banking system.