According to the chief prosecutor of Operation Car Wash, Deltan Dallagnol, the leniency agreement provided the “largest shock absorber in the history of the world.” [24] Odebrecht and Braskem pleaded guilty and would pay fines of $3.5 billion, or R12 billion, of which 80% would go to Brazil. [25] While the leniency agreement with prosecutors odebrecht already protected against prosecution, the agreement announced Monday offers additional legal protection to the company. In a letter to the Brazilian company`s general counsel last month, U.S. prosecutors said the company had not fulfilled obligations under the Plea agreement. Prosecutors said the company had not taken up the monitor`s recommendations and had not implemented a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of certain anti-corruption laws. When negotiating an agreement with the Ministry of Justice (DOJ) corresponding to the Ministério Público Federal in Brazil, the priority for companies is to avoid pleading guilty. “If a company admits to criminal behavior, the legal and financial consequences are very serious. In some cases, it can ruin a company in the markets where it operates,” he said. That`s how he arrived at Arthur Andersen, one of the five largest audit firms in the United States, before being convicted of obstruction of justice in the Enron case in the early 2000s. Years later, the conviction was overturned in the Supreme Court, but the company never managed to regain its previous position. According to the lawyer, the rules of clemency negotiated following the laundromat had “the merit of imposing on the capitalists a coup de barre of capitalism”. After the disclosure of antitrust practices by some of the largest construction companies in the country, in agreement with politicians from all parties, “some of these companies have entered into leniency agreements under conditions that put them in an unfavorable situation in their market,” he explained.
Odebrecht is struggling to secure funding and secure new contracts in the midst of the investigation. Comptroller General Wagner Rosario said the leniency contract would make it easier for the company to track public procurement. Cueva listed some of the challenges related to consolidating leniency agreements in the country: the best-case scenario is that the DOJ proposes not to immediately take legal action and finds that the company can escape prosecution, provided it cooperates with the Department of Justice, verifies its practices, and behaves for the period set out in the agreement. . . .
