BERN: Swiss government has frozen $400 million of assets in over 30 banks as the country’s attorney general probes money laundering related to Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s corruption scandal.
According to the Federal Prosecutor’s office” almost nine investigations have been opened since last April based on allegations of corruption involving eight Brazilian citizens”. More than $120 million of those frozen funds were released for repatriation to Brazil, it said.
“The Swiss criminal proceedings will continue with the aim of holding the perpetrators accountable and establishing the origin of the remaining frozen assets,” the Federal Prosecutors’ Office said in the statement.
Petrobras is mired in a corruption scandal in which company executives allegedly directed hundreds of millions of dollars from overpriced contracts to politicians. Disagreement about the corruption write down led to the departure of the state-owned company’s Chief Executive Officer Maria das Gracas Foster. More than 1 million Brazilians demonstrated on Sunday against corruption and President Dilma Rousseff.
