RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Brazilians authorities carried out a wave of searches and detentions linked to the Odebrecht construction company on Tuesday, accusing it of having a department that oversaw payment of bribes on projects including an airport, a subway and a World Cup soccer stadium.
Prosecutors announced they had detained about 15 people, some of them company executives, as part of the “Car Wash” corruption probe that has centered on alleged kickbacks on projects as the state-run oil giant Petrobras .
The company’s former president, Marcelo Odebrecht, was sentenced this month to more than 19 years in prison for his role in the scheme, but Tuesday’s operation widens the scope of the probe into the construction firm – one of the main builders involved in this year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
It also opens further questions about Olympic projects and reinforces suspicions that projects linked to the 2014 World Cup were tainted by corruption.
The company has previously denied wrongdoing. On Tuesday, it issued a terse statement saying it was cooperating with the investigation.