Brazil's former richest man to stand trial on corruption charges

[SAO PAULO] Brazil's one-time richest man Eike Batista will stand trial on corruption charges along with an ex-Rio de Janeiro governor who allegedly took millions in bribes from the former billionaire.

Federal prosecutors on Friday levelled the charges against Batista, the former governor Sergio Cabral and seven other people accused for helping facilitate the alleged graft, and hiding the money by creating offshore shell firms for Batista, 60, who five years ago had a net worth exceeding US$30 billion and was considered one of the world's 10 richest people.

Federal judge Marcelo Bretas accepted the charges later on Friday, saying they were well backed by several documents.

Batista has been jailed since Jan 30 when he voluntarily returned to Rio from New York after four days as a fugitive.

In an emailed statement, prosecutors said the money was paid to ex-Rio de Janeiro Governor Sergio Cabral so that Batista's enterprises would win lucrative government contracts.

Those included Batista being part of the consortium that ran the Maracana stadium that hosted the 2014 World Cup final match and the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics, along with the construction of the US$3.7 billion Port of Açu, since 2013 controlled by Prumo Logistica, which is 74-percent owned by Washington, DC-based EIG Energy Partners.

Prosecutors allege Batista paid Cabral US$16.5 million in 2011 - about one-fourth in cash and the rest in stocks in state-run oil company Petrobras, the miner Vale and beverage company Ambev, now known as AB InBev.

Prosecutors also charged Cabral's wife, the lawyer Adriana Ancelmo, for receiving 1 million reais (S$455,758) from Batista for legal services they say were never offered. The judge also accepted the charges against her.

Cabral and his wife are already facing a separate trial on graft charges before Brazil's crusading anti-corruption judge Sergio Moro, a trial set to open next month.

In that case, Cabral is accused of leading a "criminal organisation" that took 224 million reais in bribes from construction firms in exchange for infrastructure contracts from 2007 to 2014, when he was serving as governor.

REUTERS