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Rio Militias and Their Complex Empire of Legal Businesses

By Chris Dalby, Insight Crime, 8 January 2021 Insight Crime — As part of a mounting campaign going after criminal finances, police in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro have asked courts to seize control of legal businesses used by militia groups to launder money. This… Read More

Odebrecht fined $50mn in Colombia over corruption

Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which recently changed its name to Novonor, must pay a $50 million fine over corruption related to construction of a highway in Colombia, authorities announced on Monday. The company was fined “for implementing a system restricting free competition” related to a 520-kilometer (325-mile) section of the… Read More

Rio de Janeiro mayor charged with corruption

Rio de Janeiro’s outgoing mayor Marcelo Crivella, an ally of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been arrested and charged with corruption. Four carloads of police and prosecutors arrived at the mayor’s house in the affluent Barra da Tijuca neighbourhood before 6am. Prosecutors later filed corruption charges against… Read More

17th December 2020

Brazil pursues criminal probe of top Trafigura executives -sources

Brazilian investigators are pursuing the first criminal probe of current executives at commodities trading firm Trafigura on allegations they approved the bribery of employees at state-controlled oil producer Petrobras, according to three people familiar with the matter. The investigation has focused on two of the three top Trafigura here directors,… Read More

9th December 2020

Latin American crime cartels turn to crypto for money laundering

In April 2019, Mexican police arrested suspected human trafficker Ignacio Santoyo in a plush area of the Caribbean resort of Playa del Carmen after linking him to a prostitution racket extending across Latin America. Yet it was not the 2,000 women Santoyo is alleged to have blackmailed and sexually exploited… Read More

9th December 2020

‘An MBA in Corruption’: How Top Oil Trader Paid Bribes for Years

For years, the world’s largest oil trading firm has maintained that it has “zero tolerance” for corruption. Now Vitol Inc. has admitted that it was paying bribes through a network of shell companies and sham contracts. As recently as July 2020, while publicly repeating those assurances, Vitol was… Read More

4th December 2020

Energy Trader Vitol Paying $163 Million to Settle Corruption, Manipulation Charges

Swiss-based energy firm Vitol agreed to pay $163 million to settle criminal and civil charges that its employees paid bribes to gain an advantage when bidding for oil in Brazil, Mexico and Ecuador. Vitol’s deal with the Justice Department, announced Thursday in Brooklyn federal court, is the first in what… Read More

1st December 2020

SBM Offshore Faces Swiss Probe Over Legacy Bribery Allegations

Oil-services firm SBM Offshore NV is facing an investigation by the Swiss government into bribery allegations that the company said it has already paid hundreds of millions of dollars to resolve in three other countries. Amsterdam-based SBM Offshore said Monday that three of its subsidiaries had received notice of… Read More

24th November 2020

U.S. Justice Department Ends Oversight of Brazil’s Odebrecht

An independent monitor has certified Odebrecht SA’s antibribery compliance program, the Brazilian construction company said. The certification closes a 3½-year monitorship that was imposed on Odebrecht as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in December 2016. The settlement resolved allegations that the company paid hundreds… Read More

13th November 2020

CIMA fines Bank Cainvest $100,000

The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority has fined Cainvest Bank and Trust Limited $100,000 for failings in the bank’s anti-money laundering practices. The discretionary fine was for breaches of Cayman’s Anti-Money Laundering Regulations. The financial services regulator said it found instances where the bank had not applied customer due diligence and… Read More

13th November 2020

British fraud office secures assets linked to Brazilian bribery scandal

The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said on Thursday it had secured just under 1.2 million pounds ($1.6 million) from a Brazilian national implicated in Brazil’s “Operation Car Wash”, the country’s biggest bribery investigation that began in 2014. The SFO said it opened a civil recovery investigation into Julio Faerman… Read More

10th November 2020

Brazilian Bank Slapped With Record Money Laundering Fine in Paraguay

InSight Crime – Paraguayan authorities have announced historic sanctions against a major Brazilian bank in the latest case of Latin American governments cracking down on financial institutions that do not comply with anti-money laundering regulation. On October 29, Paraguay’s Ultima Hora announced that the Central Bank of Paraguay… Read More

5th November 2020

Bolsonaro’s Eldest Son, a Senator, Faces Money Laundering Charges in Brazil

Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, has been charged with graft and money laundering as part of an investigation into the theft of public funds. State prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro announced the charges in a brief statement issued late Tuesday night. They did not… Read More

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