Ex-billionaire sought in corruption probe

BRAZILIAN police and federal prosecutors issued a detention order against former billionaire Eike Batista and eight others yesterday amid a series of raids related to the country’s biggest corruption probe.

A police spokesman said Batista and other people had allegedly taken part in a $100-million (R1.3-billion) money-laundering ring being investigated in a larger probe known as “Operation Car Wash”.

The searches had taken place in Rio de Janeiro, the police said.

According to news channel Globo News, police raided Batista’s home in an upmarket neighbourhood of Rio, but failed to find him there.

Globo News said lawyers representing Batista had said he was travelling and planned to turn himself in on his return.

Efforts to contact Batista’s lawyers for comment were unsuccessful.

The police said a great deal of the $100-million laundered by the scheme had been repatriated into Brazil.

Once Brazil’s richest man, with a fortune calculated at about $35-billion (R468-billion) less than five years ago, Batista has been hit hard by the crash in Brazil’s decade-long commodities boom, which led to the collapse of his Grupo EBX – a conglomerate of mining, energy, shipbuilding and logistics companies.

The “Car Wash” scandal has centred on the cozy relationship between members of the former Workers Party administration and some of Brazil’s most prominent businessmen over contracts at Petróleo Brasileiro SA and other state firms. The investigation has undermined investors’ trust in Brazil’s companies just as its longest and harshest recession bites deep.

The collapse of Batista’s Grupo EBX has also been the target of fraud investigations.

More than 100 people, many from companies built up as national champions, and including Brazil’s most powerful building tycoon, Marcelo Bahia Odebrecht, have been convicted of corruption linked to kickback schemes, racketeering and moneylaundering.