Ex-Billionaire Batista Wins Release Order From Brazilian Jail

(Bloomberg) -- A Brazilian Supreme Court judge has ordered the release from jail of Eike Batista, once the country’s wealthiest man.

Justice Gilmar Mendes granted a writ of habeas corpus Friday, overturning a preventative detention order issued by a lower court. In the order circulated by the Supreme Court press office, the judge wrote that the "danger the suspect represents to public order or criminal instruction could be mitigated by cautionary measures less serious than prison."

Batista, a commodities and logistics magnate once worth over $30 billion, was jailed in January while police investigated allegedly fraudulent contracts signed with Rio de Janeiro’s state government. Federal prosecutors accuse Batista of money laundering and corruption, including the payment of $16.5 million in bribes to former Rio Governor Sergio Cabral, jailed in November. Both are targets in the long-running Carwash investigation of kickbacks involving Brazil’s biggest builders and state-run oil producer Petrobras.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bruce Douglas in Brasilia Newsroom at bdouglas24@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vivianne Rodrigues at vrodrigues3@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson