Carlos Lima said the probe into corruption on projects for the
Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August was not limited to Porto
Maravilha, or the "Marvelous Port", a regeneration of the city's
waterfront that includes five high-rises bearing the name of U.S.
property mogul and presidential candidate Donald Trump.
"There are more," Lima said in an interview in his office in the
southern city of Curitiba on Monday. "There are leniency agreements
underway that talk about this, but until they are finalized we will
not know how many (projects) for sure."
Lima is a lead prosecutor on a task force that discovered a cartel
of engineering firms siphoning kickbacks from state oil firm
Petrobras <PETR4.SA> to political parties, a scandal fuelling a
crisis that could force President Dilma Rousseff from power.
His comments were the clearest indication yet that the Olympics has
become a focus of the two-year-old investigation.
The corruption allegations are not expected to hinder work on
infrastructure for the Games, which is nearly finished, but they do
further cloud an event set to start in the middle of Brazil's worst
political and economic crises in decades.
The lower house of Brazil's Congress, many of whose members are
themselves under investigation for corruption, voted on Sunday to
impeach Rousseff on charges she manipulated budget accounts.
If the Senate agrees to put her on trial, as seems likely, Rousseff
will be suspended for up to six months and would be unlikely to
return to power.
Five engineering firms are building most of the 39 billion reais
($11 billion) worth of venues and infrastructure needed for the
Olympics, the first to be held in South America. All five are under
investigation for price fixing at Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as
Petrobras is formally known.
Latin America's largest engineering conglomerate, Odebrecht SA
[ODBES.UL], which is at the center of the Petrobras scandal, is
involved in over half of all Olympic projects by value, according to
contracts reviewed by Reuters.
Court files made public last month showed police uncovered documents
from Odebrecht executives referencing 1 million reais in suspected
bribes connected to the Porto Maravilha project and other kickbacks
allegedly linked to a Rio metro line.
More than 20 corporate developments are planned to revitalize Rio in
the downtown Porto Maravilha area - the main legacy project of the
Games - including hotels and the five Trump towers.
They were announced in 2012 as the largest corporate development in
any major emerging nation. Trump only sold naming rights and offered
consulting on the high-rise project.
Lima said the investigation of Porto Maravilha, like other Olympic
projects, was now under the jurisdiction of prosecutors in Brasilia.
That is because they involve potential kickbacks to sitting
politicians, who under Brazilian law can only be judged by the
Brasilia-based Supreme Court rather than Federal Judge Sergio Moro
in Curitiba.
The change in jurisdiction will likely slow the investigation.
The Supreme Court has a backlog of some 50 politicians to
investigate on charges that they received bribes, though Rousseff is
not among them.
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"We collaborate, we work together, but the pace of the 13th district
is one thing, the Supreme Court is another," said Lima.
The prosecutor's office in Brasilia declined to comment.
POLITICIANS, WORLD CUP, OLYMPICS
Moro and the Curitiba-based prosecutors and police are famous across
Brazil for swiftly and aggressively handling its largest-ever
corruption probe. Their investigation has ensnared dozens of top
businessmen and was cited by many lawmakers who voted in favor of
Rousseff being impeached.
Plea bargains and leniency deals, relatively new legal tools in
Brazil, have been key to cracking the case and helping investigators
find hard evidence. However, defense lawyers and some independent
analysts have criticized the use of lengthy pre-trial detentions of
dozens of suspects.
Corruption allegations are now spreading to stadiums built for the
2014 World Cup and the Olympics, two events that were meant to
showcase Brazil's rise as a modern global economic power.
On March 22, the same day prosecutors publicly accused Odebrecht of
graft involving World Cup stadiums and Porto Maravilha, the company
said it would seek to collaborate with the investigation and aim for
a leniency agreement and plea deals for its executives.
The other four companies involved in much of the rest of the Olympic
work are OAS SA [OAS.UL], Andrade Gutierrez SA, Queiroz Galvao SA,
and Carioca Christiani Nielsen Engenharia SA.
Odebrecht, Andrade Gutierrez and Queiroz Galvao declined to comment.
The other companies did not respond to requests for comment. Lima
did not specify which company or companies had mentioned Olympic
projects in testimony.
The city of Rio de Janeiro is overseeing the bulk of the Olympic
construction projects, though a few are financed by the federal or
state government and Rio 2016, the local organizing committee,
handles some non-permanent structures like seating.
Rio's city government said the contracts were mostly funded with
private resources and that all bids were overseen by regulators. Rio
2016 referred Reuters to City Hall.
The International Olympic Committee did not respond to request for
comment.
(Additional reporting by Brad Brooks; Editing by Daniel Flynn)
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