U.K. Gets $1.6 Million From Businessman Tied to Petrobras Affair
U.K. Freezes $6 Million London Home Tied to Petrobras Scandal
(Bloomberg) -- U.K. prosecutors received 1.2 million pounds ($1.6 million) from a Brazilian businessman who owns a west London apartment that authorities allege was purchased with funds from the Petrobras bribery scandal.
The Serious Fraud Office believes the property in Kensington was bought with money “linked to corrupt funds,” and won an order to freeze the ownership of the flat in January 2019. On Thursday, the SFO said it secured the funds in a settlement with the businessman, Julio Faerman.
Faerman had already agreed to pay $54 million to Brazilian authorities investigating bribery at the state-owned oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras.
The “civil recovery” investigation came to a light following a London court hearing where attorneys for Faerman unsuccessfully tried to get the SFO to drop requests for further information on his finances.
“We will not sit back and allow the United Kingdom to be a safe harbor for dirty money,” Liz Baker, an SFO official, said in a statement. “We will continue to investigate, confiscate and recover criminal assets which are held on our shores.”
Faerman’s lawyers didn’t return a request for comment left on their website.
Faerman, who worked as an agent for Dutch firm SBM Offshore NV to win contracts from Petrobras, signed a “cooperation agreement” with Brazilian authorities in 2015. SBM agreed to pay $238 million and its U.S. unit pleaded guilty to resolve allegations that it bribed officials in five countries, including Brazil.
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