Brazil VP Urges Distinction Between Firms, Arrested Execs

Brazil's Vice President Michel Temer said on Friday there "must have been a reason" to arrest the chief executive officers of the country's two top engineering firms, but that it was important to distinguish between the executives and the companies, which are major employers in Brazil.

 

Federal police arrested Marcelo Odebrecht, head of Odebrecht SA, and Otavio Marques Azevedo, CEO of Andrade Gutierrez. Prosecutors said the two companies led a cartel of firms that overcharged state-run oil firm Petrobras and paid kickbacks to executives and politicians.