Brazil prosecutors focus on foreign firms after legal setback

Brazilian prosecutors are increasingly turning their attention to bribery by foreign companies in the country’s biggest-ever corruption case, a lead prosecutor said in an interview, adding that only one such company had signed a leniency deal so far.

Deltan Dallagnol, 35, a relentless anti-corruption advocate, said companies that bribed employees of state-run oil company Petrobras in exchange for contracts could see their executives jailed and face steep fines or bans from future contracts in Brazil.

“Foreign companies are becoming an ever-larger part of our investigation,” the Harvard-educated Dallagnol said late on Tuesday in an interview from the southern city of Curitiba, where the top floors of the public prosecutors’ building are draped with a huge “Corruption no!” banner.

Prosecutors have counted 285 foreign companies that have done business with people who are under investigation in the Petrobras probe, though they say that does not mean as many firms are being investigated.

The foreign focus illustrates both the strides the landmark investigation has made as it has rocked Brazil’s political and business establishment but also its limits after the Supreme Court blocked prosecutors’ pursuit of other state-controlled companies and government ministries.
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