Engineer was director of Supply at Petrobras and returned around R$ 79 million to the state company.
Former Petrobras Supply Director dies at 68 Supply Director Paulo Roberto Costa, one of the main whistleblowers of corruption schemes in Operation Lava-Jato, The cause of death was not disclosed.
Costa passed away on Saturday afternoon, the 13th.
The engineer became nationally known for having been arrested within the scope of Lava-Jato, in 2014, and for having been a whistleblower of corruption schemes in the state-owned company.
Known as ‘bomb whistleblower’, Costa, who would have been nominated for the position by the PP, was arrested after money changer Alberto Youssef, another target of the operation and his business partner.
In a plea bargain agreement signed with the Federal Public Ministry, Costa revealed illicit enrichment schemes that benefited politicians and confessed to having received bribes from contractors who carried out a cartel in the oil company. The ex-executive denounced, among others, the ex-minister of the Civil House Antonio Palocci, the ex-governor of Rio de Janeiro Sérgio Cabral and the ex-governor of Maranhão Roseana Sarney.
He also provided information that led to investigations into the current Civil House Minister Ciro Nogueira (PP) and former senators Romero Jucá (MDB-RR) and Edison Lobão (MDB-MA), in addition to Senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL). ). All denied involvement with irregularities at the time.
At the time of signing the agreement with the Attorney General’s Office, Costa waived around US$ 23 million held in Swiss accounts, which were blocked at the time, in addition to another US$ 2.3 million in Cayman. At the time, the former director returned R$79 million to Petrobras. Losses from corruption schemes were calculated at the time at R$ 1.3 billion.
The schemes revealed by Lava-Jato and in which Costa participated included the payment of bribes by contractors such as OAS, Odebrecht (now Novonor) and UTC.
Costa was from Paraná, from Telêmaco Borba. An engineer who graduated from the Federal University of Paraná, he joined Petrobras in 1977. He was a career employee and, before taking over the supply director of the oil company, a position he held between 2004 and 2012, he was director of Gaspetro in the late 1990s.
Years after signing the denunciation, in 2018, Costa was on the verge of having his agreement annulled at the request of the Federal Public Ministry. Costa allegedly omitted in his accusation a scheme that would involve the alleged payment of US$ 31 million in bribes to Petrobras employees between 2009 and 2014, especially in the area of buying and selling oil and derivatives.
Amelia Warner
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