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Odebrecht to Pay Peru an Initial $8.9 Million as Graft Scandal Grows

by Reuters

   LIMA --

   Brazil's Odebrecht SA has agreed to pay Peru an initial 30 million
   soles ($8.9 million) in cash as it prepares to disclose details on
   bribes it gave local officials over a period spanning three
   presidencies, the attorney general's office said Thursday.

   The money, to be deposited in the coming days, is just part of what the
   family-owned engineering conglomerate will pay Peru in a broader
   settlement with prosecutors as they seek to uncover the people and
   companies involved in the kickback schemes.

   "This amount should in no way be understood to be the final amount,"
   the attorney general's office said in a statement, adding that the
   demand for cash upfront was "unprecedented" in Peru.

   Investigation spreads across region

   Odebrecht, facing mounting debt as it grapples with a fast-expanding
   graft scandal in Latin America, reiterated in a statement it was
   committed to cooperating with prosecutors in Peru.

   In a $3.5 billion international plea deal it signed in the United
   States last month, Odebrecht acknowledged making $29 million in corrupt
   payments to win public works contracts in Peru between about 2005 and
   2014, part of hundreds of millions in bribes it gave to high-ranking
   officials from Argentina to Panama.

   The revelation jolted Latin American elites and spurred criminal probes
   across the region as some countries, including Peru, barred Odebrecht
   from public contracts.

   Peru was the first country outside Brazil where Odebrecht has ventured
   and is the headquarters of its investment unit for Latin America,
   Odebrecht Latinvest.

   But the once-powerful company has come to symbolize the kind of white
   collar corruption that Peruvians feel is rarely punished.

   Protest turns violent

   As anger at Odebrecht has grown, lawmakers have called for authorities
   to seize its assets and terminate its natural gas pipeline contract as
   it tries to offload its majority stake.

   A protest against road fees imposed by an Odebrecht consortium turned
   violent in a shantytown in Lima on Thursday, with police firing tear
   gas at a crowd that set fire to tollbooths. Odebrecht led the
   consortium that won the road contract but now owns a quarter of the
   project after selling shares to Brookfield Asset Management last year.

   Odebrecht has committed to providing prosecutors all relevant
   information, the attorney general's office said.

   The investigation threatens to implicate officials in the governments
   of former presidents Ollanta Humala, Alan Garcia and Alejandro Toledo.
   Current President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was finance minister and prime
   minister under Toledo.