Organização Odebrecht

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Organização Odebrecht

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1981
Seat Salvador da Bahia , Brazil
management Ruy Lemos Sampaio ( Chair of the Board , COB), Luciano Guidolin ( CEO )
Number of employees 58,000 employees worldwide
sales 89.762 billion BRL
Branch Construction, chemistry, petroleum, bioenergy, logistics, real estate, waste disposal companies
Website www.odebrecht.com (en)
As of June 2019

The Organização Odebrecht (dt. Organization Odebrecht ; also Odebrecht Group ) is a family-run conglomerate with headquarters in Salvador da Bahia , Brazil , as well as the holding company of the main company Construtora Norberto Odebrecht , which operates in 25 countries worldwide in the field of engineering , construction , petrochemical , chemical , Energy , infrastructure , transport and logistics , real estate , environment , ethanol and sugar . The company is responsible for the strategic direction of the group. In June 2019, the parent company Odebrecht SA filed for bankruptcy .

With 79,000 employees, the group was one of the largest in Latin America in 2019 . Odebrecht set "new standards in the matter of bribery payments [...], which even by Latin American standards assumed gigantic proportions" (Süddeutsche Zeitung). In 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice estimated that Odebrecht paid $ 788 million in bribes from 2003 to 2018 in Latin America alone; He is said to have earned three billion US dollars with the deals so initiated.

history

The roots of the Brazilian Odebrecht Group go back to the German immigrant and cartographer Emil Odebrecht , who immigrated from Greifswald to the Itajaí Valley in 1865 and was involved in road and railroad construction and land surveying. Direct descendants of the family were later involved in founding the Organização Odebrecht. Today it is headed by the company Construtora Norberto Odebrecht, which was founded in 1944 in Salvador da Bahia by Norberto Odebrecht . Norberto Odebrecht was the son of Emílio Odebrecht , a grandson of emigrant Emil Odebrecht.

Initially, the Odebrecht group expanded from Bahia to other northeastern states, in the 1960s to southeast Brazil and from 1979 to other countries. For growth outside of Brazil, partnerships with large foreign companies and infrastructure groups often served as a springboard, particularly in the chemical and petrochemical industries.

In 2017, it offered engineering and construction services in most of Latin America , Central America , the United States , Angola , Portugal and the Middle East . From Brazil, petrochemical products are exported to over 98 countries on all continents. Parts of the company are involved in the transport sector in Portugal, as well as in diamond mining and oil production in Africa, especially in Angola. Odebrecht provides u. a. Services for oil production in the North Sea .

In terms of sales, Odebrecht was one of the largest non-governmental companies in Latin America in the 2010s. Except for parts of the listed subsidiary Braskem SA , the Odebrecht Group is still privately owned today. In 2001 Odebrecht bought the majority of the shares in Chemiewerke Braskem SA as part of the privatization.This part of the business did not fall under the parent company's bankruptcy filing in June 2019.

In Brazil, Odebrecht was on the one hand a pioneer in the field of entrepreneurial social activities (see the section on social commitment ). At the same time, the group of companies is associated with corruption scandals (see the section on corruption scandals ). CEO Marcelo Odebrecht was sentenced to 19 years in prison on March 8, 2016, in connection with the Petrobras affair . The group then announced that it would work with the judiciary in matters of bribery.

Mass union protests against the increase in the highway toll for trucks in Peru at the beginning of 2017 were mainly directed against the company Odebrecht, which operates as a highway operator in Peru.

Business activity

The main business areas are chemicals and petrochemicals and construction. It is one of the global players in Brazil.

The group develops and manages public infrastructure projects in collaboration with private and government partners. Since 2007 there has been increased investment in the bioenergy sector based on sugar and alcohol and power generation. Furthermore, Odebrecht is active in oil and gas production, waste disposal, as well as in Portugal in transport and in Angola in real estate and mining.

The state of Ecuador expropriated Odebrecht (a regional airport and two hydropower projects totaling USD 800 million) in September 2008 and sent troops to evict Odebrecht employees from the country.

In the 2009 financial year, the group achieved more than half of its sales on the domestic market. Nevertheless, Odebrecht is the leading Brazilian company in the export of services, especially to other emerging and developing countries. Outside of Brazil, Odebrecht generates its sales primarily in the rest of Latin America, including the Caribbean (2009: 21.3%) and in Africa (11.3%), especially in the former Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique . North America and Europe only accounted for 5.1% and 4.0% of sales in 2009, respectively.

Group structure

Odebrecht SA is essentially divided into the following subsidiaries:

  • Braskem - operates chemical & petrochemical plants
  • Construtora Norberto Odebrecht - Construction / Infrastructure
  • Odebrecht Óleo e Gás - Oilfield services
  • Odebrecht Plantas Industriais e Participações - Services for the manufacturing industry
  • Odebrecht Engenharia Ambiental - waste management
  • Odebrecht Realizações Imobiliárias - real estate development

social commitment

In all areas of the company, employees are subjected to special training and further education programs. In addition, vocational school teaching is promoted and opportunities for expanding and improving professional knowledge and skills are offered. The Foundation Fundação Odebrecht supports education, health, environmental projects and cultural initiatives.

Corruption scandal

According to investigations by the US judiciary, the Odebrecht group paid up to 785 million US dollars in bribes in twelve countries in order to receive construction contracts. The company maintained a kind of "bribe department" which regularly paid high-ranking politicians from across the continent. The investigation against the group came to light through the operation "Lava Jato" (car wash) under the direction of judge Sérgio Moro, which initially concerned the Brazilian oil giant Petrobras . Then the investigation was extended to the construction sector. Other construction companies also bribed politicians. In 2018, there were investigations in Brazil against a third of the ministers in office at the time, including President Michel Temer and ex-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva . The investigation was carried out against 8 ministers, 24 senators and 39 deputies.

In an international corruption lawsuit, Odebrecht and its subsidiary Braskem, which is active in the chemical industry, agreed to pay a fine of 3.5 billion US dollars (3.35 billion euros) on December 22, 2016. This would have been the largest fine to date that those involved in the process would have ever agreed in an international corruption case. As the US Justice Department announced, Odebrecht was only able to pay 2.6 billion US dollars. The subsidiary Braskem should take over $ 957 million. Argentina, Venezuela, Peru and Colombia announced investigations to identify suspected bribes. Arrest warrants were issued for 14 suspects in the Dominican Republic, including bribes over $ 92 million.

In April 2017, the U.S. federal district court for New York's Eastern District sentenced Odebrecht to pay $ 2.6 billion. The bulk (US $ 2.4 billion) of the penalty determined by a settlement with the judicial authorities of several countries goes to Brazil, followed by Switzerland (US $ 116 million) and the USA (US $ 93 million).

In mid-December 2017, the Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas was found guilty of having accepted $ 13.5 million in the first instance.

In 2019, the judiciary of his country investigated the former Peruvian President Alan García on suspicion of accepting illegal campaign donations in the amount of over 100,000 US dollars. In return, García is said to have initiated the award of state building contracts to the company. When the authorities tried to arrest him on April 17, 2019, García tried to commit suicide and died a few hours later in hospital from his injuries.

Web links

Commons : Organização Odebrecht  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ODEBRECHT SA'S BOARD OF DIRECTORS odebrecht.com, accessed on June 18, 2019 (English)
  2. Corporate structure Construtora Norberto Odebrecht ( Memento from September 11, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). on www.odebrecht.com.br (English)
  3. Odebrecht: Odebrecht no mundo . on www.odebrecht.com (Portuguese)
  4. Odebrecht: Negócios . on www.odebrecht.com (Portuguese)
  5. a b Brazilian scandal group threatens bankruptcy , DW, June 18, 2019
  6. a b c Sebastian Schoepp, SZ, Munich / Rio de Janeiro: Lubricant for the continent . In: sueddeutsche.de . January 24, 2018, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed April 18, 2019]).
  7. Bodo Bost: From Western Pomerania to Brazil and into the world . In: Tópicos , ISSN  0949-541X , vol. 49 (2010), issue 3, pp. 26-27, here p. 26.
  8. History of Odebrecht (company homepage, Portuguese)
  9. ^ Adriana Justi, Bibiana Dionísio: Justiça Federal condena Marcelo Odebrecht em ação da Lava Jato. In: O Globo G1 , March 8, 2016 (Portuguese).
  10. Latin America's Pandora's Box. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , February 6, 2017.
  11. Violent protests against higher tolls in Peru . In: Faz.net , January 13, 2017, accessed on the same day (video report).
  12. Die Welt: A new petrochemical giant is emerging in Brazil
  13. http://portal.wko.at/wk/format_detail.wk?AngID=1&StID=543029&DstID=0&titel= (link not available)
  14. Concession contract high-speed train Lisbon-Madrid ( Memento from January 30, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) (Portuguese)
  15. Website Odebrecht Angola Lda ( Memento from September 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  16. Reuters report on expropriation in Ecuador. Reuters , accessed May 6, 2017
  17. Odebrecht SA - SWOT Analysis May 14, 2010 ( Memento from September 7, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (English)
  18. Program "Education for Work" page 23 (Portuguese)
  19. publications Norberto Odebrecht (Portuguese)
  20. André Cabette Fábio: Odebrecht Group: corruption to the end of the world . In: The time . April 14, 2017, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed April 19, 2019]).
  21. US Department of Justice : Odebrecht and Braskem Plead Guilty and Agree to Pay at Least $ 3.5 Billion in Global Penalties to Resolve Largest Foreign Bribery Case in History , December 21, 2016.
  22. Corruption at Odebrecht: Identify countries in Latin America. ( Memento from December 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: Südwest Presse , December 23, 2016.
  23. ^ NZZ: 14 arrests in the wake of the Odebrecht scandal , May 30, 2017
  24. ^ Bribery scandal: Brazilian company Odebrecht sentenced to billions in fine. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 17, 2017.
  25. NZZ, December 15, 2017, page 2
  26. Alan García: Peru's ex-president shoots himself before arrest and dies. Die Zeit , April 17, 2019, accessed on April 18, 2019 .