Brazil Magnate Sought In Fraud Probe: Prosecutors

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Brazil magnate sought in fraud probe: prosecutors

RIO DE JANEIRO, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Jan, 2017 ) - Brazilian authorities issued an arrest warrant for the country's former richest man Eike Batista on Thursday in a money-laundering probe, prosecutors said.

The former oil and mining magnate, 60, is the latest high-profile suspect in investigations linked to a vast bribery scandal at state oil firm Petrobras. The affair has netted numerous politicians and business executives and put pressure on President Michel Temer.

Prosecutors said in a statement that warrants were issued against Batista and eight other suspects including former Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral, who is already behind bars. "This operation deepens the investigation into a system set up by Sergio Cabral and the other suspects to cover up more than $100 million in bribes.

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paid into tax havens abroad," the statement said. It said Batista was suspected of paying a $16.5 million bribe to Cabral into a Uruguayan bank account in 2011. He has not yet been detained under the warrant because he is currently in New York.

Media cited Batista's lawyer as saying the suspect would return to Brazil and turn himself in. Batista reached number seven on the Forbes magazine world rich list in 2012. But his fortune evaporated when his oil company OGX collapsed. He already faces charges of stock trading offenses relating to OGX shares.