2017.11.2116:36:00UTC+00BRAZIL: Federal Police Execute Warrants Against Petrobras Subsidiary

The Brazilian Federal Police launched a new phase of the anti-corruption investigation Operation Car Wash and arrested Jos? Antonio de Jesus, a former manager of Transpetro, a Petrobras subsidiary, in the Northeast region.

According to the Federal Police, eight additional search and arrest warrants and five coercive driving orders are being conducted in the states of Bahia, Sergipe, Santa Catarina and S?o Paulo.

The 47th Operation Car Wash's phase has as its stated goal to investigate companies and associates in a scheme of illegal money transfers from contractors to a Transpetro employee in exchange for contracts. They are suspected of corruption and money laundering, among other crimes.

According to information from the Republic's Attorney Office in the Paran? state, the former manager of Transpetro, along with relatives and intermediaries, received R$ 7 million (US$ 2.15 million) between September 2009 and March 2014 through the scheme.

Jesus would have asked 1% of the value of the company's contracts with Transpetro as a commission, but the final adjustment was 0.5%.

According to testimonies and information obtained under plea-bargain deals between the prosecution and the engineering companies' involved, this amount was paid monthly to the Workers' Party (PT), separately from other graft payments discovered earlier from Transpetro's presidency to the PMDB - President Michel Temer's party.