HomeNewsBriefMultilateral Cooperation Positive Sign for Odebrecht Investigations
BRIEF

Multilateral Cooperation Positive Sign for Odebrecht Investigations

BRAZIL / 20 FEB 2017 BY JAMES BARGENT EN

Prosecutors from 11 countries have met to coordinate their response to the Odebrecht corruption case, in an unusually strong showing of multilateral cooperation that is a positive sign for the multiple investigations' chances of uncovering the company's collaborators.

On February 16, officials from ten Latin American countries and Portugal met in Brazil to exchange information and discuss investigations into the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which has admitted to paying out nearly $800 million in bribes, as well as Brazil's "Lava Jato" (Car Wash) corruption scandal.

The prosecutors ended the conference by putting out a joint statement committing to organizing bilateral and multilateral investigation teams to work the cases, reported La República. The statement also declared the different countries would make international judicial cooperation broader, quicker and more efficient and would also work together on recuperating the illegal funds involved.

The investigation, meanwhile, which has already embroiled top business and political figures in Peru, Colombia, and Argentina among others, continues to broaden.

This week has seen Peru's ombudsman call for investigations into Grana, Peru's biggest engineering conglomerate and Odebrecht's most important partner in the country. And the Colombian holding company Corficolombiana has requested official recognition as Odebrecht victims after denying all knowledge of the bribes the company was paying out, according to reports in Reuters.

InSight Crime Analysis

Corruption and bribery was a core part of Odebrecht's business model in the many countries in which they operated, and their collaborators can be found throughout the political and business elites of Latin America.

Given the transnational nature of the company's bribery network, it is an encouraging sign that the principal countries involved are cooperating to uncover who these collaborators are and what their role in the racket was. Such cooperation increases the chances of successful prosecutions while helping generate a more complete picture of the international flows of bribes -- and the money laundering schemes that concealed them.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Money Laundering

Investigations such as those into Odebrecht and the Lava Jato investigation have the potential to illustrate just how widespread corruption is in the region and how high it reaches, and the multilateral cooperation significantly increases their chances of success.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ARGENTINA / 7 MAR 2022

Paraguay has launched the biggest operation against cocaine trafficking and money laundering in its history, unleashing a scandal that has…

ARGENTINA / 18 MAY 2021

A judge in Argentina has been charged with running a corruption network that included lawyers and a slain customs official,…

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME / 2 JUN 2022

Peru – rich in biodiversity – is a hotspot for the wildlife trade. Reptiles, fish and birds are all trafficked…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…