JPMorgan suspected of bribes in Brazil: media

Brazilian authorities are looking into the alleged involvement of JPMorgan Chase & Co in bribery and money laundering schemes in the nation’s energy sector, the Reuters news service reported September 22.

Citing court documents and law enforcement sources, Reuters reported that authorities are looking at a JPMorgan purchase in 2011 of some 300,000 barrels of fuel oil from Petrobras, the Brazilian energy company known formally as Petroleo Brasileiro.

“The country's federal police are working to determine if JPMorgan secured shipments of Petrobras fuel at artificially low prices by routing bribe payments to employees on Petrobras’ trading desk though a network of middlemen, according to the people and documents that relate to the investigation,” the report read.

The so-called Operation Car Wash probe refers to allegations of corruption at Petrobras, which was accused of taking bribes in exchange for lucrative contracts.

The US Justice Department in 2019 found that TechnipFMC and its US subsidiary paid bribes to Brazilian officials. The company agreed to pay more than $296mn in total to resolve the charges.

Scotland’s John Wood Group in June agreed to pay a $177mn settlement to resolve Brazilian corruption and bribery charges related to Amec Foster Wheeler, which Wood acquired in 2017. Amec acquired Foster Wheeler in 2014 and Wood said the issues in question occurred before those acquisition dates.

Reuters was unable to solicit comments from JPMorgan or Brazil’s federal police. Petrobras responded to the news agency by saying it has "zero tolerance in relation to fraud and corruption."