Mr. Barusco, former official of Petrobras accept taking bribes

On Tuesday, during hearing Ex-official of Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras Mr. Pedro Barusco accepted that he took bribes. He told that he took around $100 billion worth of bribes and the present ruling party has taken almost twice as more as the corruption scandal.

In 2014, the Brazilian company was accused of raising the true contract value with a lobby of construction companies, using the amount to bribe ex-officials of the company and some local politicians. According to ABC News, the federal court accused that around $800 million worth of amount was used in the scandal to bribe the involved members.

During the hearing, Mr. Barusco spoke openly about the corruption scandal. According to WSJ report, he pointed out that he took his first bribe in the year 1997 and then in 1998, but the set of the practice became institutionalized and prevalent in 2003-04.Dilma Rousseff, President of Brail who was the chairperson of Petrobras from a time span of 7 years from 2003 to 2010 said he did not have knowledge regarding the scandal in his tenure.

As told by WSJ, Mr. Barusco exposed that he consistently met Workers Party treasurer in hotel rooms to talk about the bribes share. According to him almost $150 to $200 million was given to ruling party executives on the basis of contract percentage taken by Mr. Neto.

Earlier last month Mr. Neto was accused of involved in the scandal. An investigation had been started against him and the court put an allegation on Mr. Neto to have taken almost $150 million to $200 million altogether from ninety contracts Petrobras signed with the construction companies. The legal representative of Mr. Neto discarded the claim.

Reuters reported, Mr. Barusco stated, “I got a piece; they got a piece.” He also mentioned that he has made a deal among the state prosecutors of giving back $97 million. Furthermore, he deprive off having any information about how the practice initiated and thinks that Maia Gracas a former Chief Executive Officer is not guilty.

After all these , the current ruling party still deprived of any kind of misconduct, arguing that Barusco did not have any proof against them. They said the part only received donations and they will file a lawsuit against Mr. Barusco

The Brazilian energy giant claims to be a victim of the corruption scandal. Petrobras together with the economy of Brazil has been hurt badly due to the scandal. Company’s stock has tumbled by approximately 83%.