Odebrecht Rebrands After Massive Latin America Graft Scandal

(Bloomberg) -- The Brazilian civil engineering and construction firm Odebrecht SA is rebranding, following years in the spotlight of political corruption schemes that rattled Latin America.

From now on, Odebrecht Engineering & Construction will be known by the initials “OEC” and feature green, blue and gray colors on its new logo, according to a statement on the company’s website. “The change reflects what the company calls its ‘Transformational Journey,’ with important advances in its governance,” it read.

The 75-year-old construction giant has been implicated in corruption scandals in countries across the continent, including Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru, where former President Alan Garcia killed himself on April 17 as police came to arrest him over claims he took bribes from Odebrecht. In Brazil hundreds of leading politicians and executives were locked up over the country’s biggest kickback scheme ever.

“We hope that the new logo and its campaign will serve as strong symbolic evidence that widens the perception of the process of transformation that we are going through,” Rodrigo Vilar, the person responsible for OEC institutional marketing, wrote in an email response to questions from Bloomberg News.

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

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Raymond Colitt at rcolitt@bloomberg.net

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