Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras was a Brazilian state-owned oil company that refined, produced, and distributed oil, oil products, gas, biofuels and energy.
Rodrigo Garcia Berkowitz, a Brazilian citizen, worked as a trader of fuel oil and related products for Petrobras. Berkowitz also worked for Petrobras' Houston-based American subsidiary, Petrobras America Inc. Berkowitz's responsibilities included, among other things, buying feedstock and selling fuel oil to a U.S.-based refinery and selling fuel oil to Puerto Rico.
According to the documents in this case, between 2010 and 2018, several companies, including Vitol Inc., part of a consortium that was one of the largest oil distributors and energy commodities traders in the world, and numerous intermediaries engaged in a scheme to pay bribes to Berkowitz and other officials at Petrobras. In all, the scheme involved at least $14.4 million in bribe payments to the various officials.
On February 8, 2019, the DOJ filed a single count Information in the Eastern District of New York against Berkowitz alleging conspiracy to commit money laundering. On the same date, Berkowitz entered into a plea agreement with the DOJ, but it does not appear that the agreement has been filed into the docket, so its precise details are unknown. Berkowitz was scheduled to be sentenced on April 27, 2023, but that sentencing was canceled and no new date has been set.
This case is ongoing.
In a related proceeding initiated on February 14, 2023, the DOJ filed a seven count indictment in the District of Connecticut against Glenn Oztemel and Eduardo Innecco alleging conspiracies to violate the antibribery provisions of the FCPA and to commit money laundering as well as direct violations of the antibribery provisions of the FCPA and money laundering laws.
