Brazilian federal police are investigating potential irregularities in a military program that aims to build a nuclear-powered submarine in partnership with France by 2023, newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Wednesday.
Folha said police searched for documents that could prove their suspicions of fraud in the program. The search was part of a wider probe that led to the arrests on Tuesday of two executives involved in building a nuclear power plant for state-run utility Eletrobras.
Federal police did not respond to a request for comment on whether they were investigating the submarine program. The newspaper did not say how it had obtained the information.
Former President Luiz Inacio da Silva’s government agreed in 2008 to purchase five submarines, including a nuclear-powered one, from France for 6.7 billion euros. The submarines were to be made by French shipbuilder DCNS in a joint venture with Brazil’s Odebrecht SA at a Navy base on Sepetiba Bay, south of Rio de Janeiro.
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