Brazil police probe possible Odebrecht bribes to Peru president

Brazilian police are investigating potential bribes of $3 million from Latin America’s largest engineering conglomerate Odebrecht to Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, court documents showed.

Documents seized from Marcelo Odebrecht, the former CEO of the family-run company, cite “Program OH,” which police said in the documents they interpreted as referring to the initials of the Peruvian president. They noted the funds were not allocated for any specific purpose.

Humala in a statement on Tuesday denied taking bribes and said he summoned Brazil’s ambassador to his offices late on Monday to request official information about the inquiry following initial news reports on the Brazilian court documents.

Peru’s attorney general’s office said that because of presidential immunity prosecutors would not be able to investigate Humala until after his term ends in late July.

Odebrecht has won contracts worth several billions in Peru in the past decade, including a $5 billion natural gas pipeline during Humala’s term after its sole bidding competitor was disqualified from a public auction at the last minute.

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