More defendants are negotiating and signing plea bargain deals in a massive bribery case focused on Brazil’s state-run oil firm Petrobras as federal prosecutors prepare charges against higher-profile suspects, including politicians.
Petrobras’ former head of corporate services Renato Duque and Fernando Soares, a lobbyist who helped firms win drillship contracts with Petrobras and is accused of funneling bribes to the Brazil Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), are among those negotiating deals, lawyers for both defendants said.
More than 100 people have been indicted, the country’s most powerful engineering executives detained and dozens of lawmakers implicated in the case with prosecutors relying heavily on plea bargain deals, a relatively new legal tool in Brazil, to expand their investigation.
The push to keep building a stronger list of potential witnesses signals that prosecutors have their eye on even higher-level suspects in the price fixing and political kickback scheme.
Brazil Energy Insight 
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