Brazil bribery probe expands to four JPMorgan fuel deals -documents and sources

RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) - A Brazilian police investigation of alleged bribery of Petrobras employees to fix the price of fuel sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co by the state-run oil firm has expanded from one deal to at least four over the course of 2011, according to documents and two law enforcement officials.

Previously unreported invoices related to fuel sale agreements between the two companies show one of the alleged intermediaries in the bribery scheme, known as Oil & Gas Venture Capital Corp (OGVC), received approximately $150,000 that year from another alleged intermediary named EGR Consultants to facilitate the purchase of roughly 826,000 barrels of fuel oil by JPMorgan, worth more than $80 million at the time.

The additional invoices are significant as Brazilian police have been working to determine if a 305,000-barrel JPMorgan deal facilitated by OGVC and EGR was a one-time arrangement or part of a pattern, which would raise the stakes of the investigation, according to two law enforcement sources in Brazil, who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing probe.

Reuters reported in September that Brazil's federal police are investigating whether JPMorgan routed bribes via intermediaries to employees on Petrobras' trading desk in order to secure shipments of fuel at artificially low prices. If true, this would likely violate Brazilian anti-bribery law.

Police were focusing on one shipment of 305,000 barrels of Petrobras fuel oil that JPMorgan purchased in 2011, Reuters reported at the time, citing court documents and two federal law enforcement officials familiar with the matter.

Petrobras, formally known as Petroleo Brasileiro SA , said in an email it has "zero tolerance in relation to fraud and corruption." The company added that it has aided Brazilian authorities with various corruptionrelated probes.

JPMorgan declined to comment on the alleged bribery scheme.

No charges have been brought in the probe and it remains unclear if any will be. Reuters has no independent evidence establishing that JPMorgan knew about the payments by EGR to OGVC or the alleged bribes to Petrobras employees.

The statute of limitations for paying or receiving bribes in Brazil depends on the severity of the crime, but can be up to 20 years and is commonly greater than 15 years, according to the nation’s federal legal code.