Former Broskem President Grubicich sentenced to 20 months in US prison Companies

Grubicich, 64, is due to pay $ 2.2 million (R $ 12 billion) in damages. The sentence handed down by New York District Judge Raymond Diary was reported on TV Bloomberg.

In April, Grubichi was accused of being part of a corruption scheme that raised $ 250 million (approximately $ 1.4 billion at current prices) to bribe Petropras to get interested deals. He was CEO and board member at Braskem and has held various roles in Odebrecht.

Broschem, one of the largest petrochemical companies in the United States, was controlled by Odebrecht (now renamed Novonor), and Petroprose was a partner.

The process is in the United States as a result of a conditional agreement signed by Odebrecht and Braschem with Brazilian and US authorities under Operation Lava Jato. Grobicic accused the US Department of Justice (DoJ) of being involved in a scheme to bribe Brazilian government officials between 2002 and 2014 in violation of the Foreign Corruption Procedures Act (FCPA).

He was denounced by U.S. authorities in February 2019 and arrested in November of that year when he tried to enter the country for a recreational trip.

The protest was held in secret by the court, so the non-whistleblower in Brazil did not know he was a target and could be arrested when he left the country. He lasted until April 2020 after posting a $ 30 million (PRL 168 million) bond.

At the time of his arrest, he was accused by US prosecutors of creating two seats in the company. This information was contained in the Proscamen relaxation agreements signed with the Brazilian and US authorities.

Court documents from the United States and Brazil state that the bribe of $ 250 million handled by Proscam was deposited in petrochemical bank accounts in Brazil, New York and Florida.

“As CEO of Public Trade, Grubicich and other senior Braschem executives were involved in a large-scale, sophisticated international fraud and bribery scheme that later lied to U.S. shareholders and officials to cover up their criminal conduct,” said Acting Attorney General Nicholas L. McWhite of the DoJ Criminal Division.

“Grubicich abused his trusted position as CEO of Broskem, thus facilitating and concealing the payment of millions of dollars in bribes so that Broschem could increase its profits and benefit its senior executives, including Grobic personally.” Eastern District of New York.

Broskem appears in one of the appendices of the relaxation agreement with the information company, which had its own department to handle the bribe.

Even in 2006, the company says, Pedro Novis, chairman of the board of directors of Pedro Chemicals and one of the executives who agreed to sign a petition agreement with Lava Jato, approached Grosbic, then chairman of Proskem. Grubicich, according to the account, expressed the need to create a box two mechanism.

The text of the process states that “the goal is to meet the demands of the political party to fund election campaigns for candidates who adhere to the organizational agendas of the Proschem and the petrochemical industry.”

The document states that it was clear to Nowis that this was an unofficial support: “with the aim of consolidating the relationship base with political leaders and contributing to resolving strategic issues in Broskem’s interests.”

Other whistleblowers, including those convicted of criminal activity such as former Petropras director Paulo Roberto Costa and money changer Alberto Youssef, Marcelo Odebrecht, said in an agreement with the Federal Ministry of Public Works that the contractor was never involved in bribery paid by Prosperm to Petropros. And this type of negotiation was done with Grubicich, when he was in charge of petrochemicals.

By blaming, the executive said he conspired to divert hundreds of millions of dollars from Braschem into a secret fund and, as the company’s chief executive, agreed to pay bribes to Brazilian government officials, political parties and others in Brazil. To guarantee the maintenance of the contract for a significant Petrobras petrochemical project.

The administrator also admitted that he had falsified Proscamen’s books and records by misrepresenting deposits with shell companies as payments for legal services. He signed false certificates filed with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency that regulates the U.S. securities market), and among other things, petrochemicals’ annual reports represent the financial position of the company fairly and accurately.