Brazil-based construction giant Odebrecht on December 21, 2016 agreed to pay fines of at least $2.6 billion to US, Brazilian and Swiss authorities, in what the US is calling the largest foreign bribery case in history. The US Justice Department said the conglomerate pled guilty to paying hundreds of millions to bribe government officials in countries on three continents./ AFP PHOTO /
PANAMA CITY, Panama (AFP) — Panama’s government on Tuesday said it was barring the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht from future public tenders after the US Justice Department accused the company of bribes to secure business in Latin America.
In a statement read by the minister of the presidency, Alvaro Aleman, the government said it has decided to “adopt the actions necessary to prohibit the Odebrecht Group being awarded and attributed any future contract from public bidding processes.”
The announcement came the same day Panamanian prosecutors flew to the United States seeking information about alleged Odebrecht bribes to officials of the Central American country.
The US Justice Department recently reported that Odebrecht had paid bribes worth hundreds of millions of dollars to obtain contracts in nine Latin American countries.
It said the construction company paid more than $59 million in bribes to Panama between 2010 and 2014 to obtain contracts valued at $175 million.
Two sons of former president Ricardo Martinelli have denied Brazilian newspaper reports that they had received $6 million intended as a bribe from Odebrecht for their father.
Martinelli lives in voluntary exile in Miami. The Panamanian government has requested his extradition on allegations of espionage and corruption.
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