Emails link Brazil-Petrobras scandal to Dominican Republic: Reports

Santo Domingo.- Emails seized by Brazil Federal authoritiesinvestigating the Petrobras corruption scandal reveal the pressures from thecompany Odebrecht with the presidency, during the terms of Luiz Inacio Lula daSilva and then Dilma Rousseff, and how the company profited by assigningcontracts and posts to certain people, Brazilian outlets report Tuesday.

O Globo and Estado de Sao Paulo, which published thecontent of the emails, report that pressure had an effect.

In the messages, the president of Brazil’s biggest constructioncompany, Marcelo Odebrecht, now in custody- had tried to directly influencewhat the two presidents would have said to heads of state of other countries.In a 2009 message to the construction company executives, then Development,Industry and Commerce minister Miguel Jorge, wrote that Lula"lobbied" for the company in meetings with foreign leaders.

Specifically, Odebrecht wanted to prevent the designation ofan executive secretary of the Mines and Energy Ministry, who was considereddetrimental to the company. "The documents show, for the first time thatLula’s chief of staff, Gilberto Carvalho, was one of the links between thecontractor and the President [Lula da Silva], as interpreted by the FederalPolice," O Globo reports.

Rousseff’s administration and president chief of staff GilesAzevedo, and Anderson Dorneles, her personal assistant, began to receive messagesfrom Marcelo Odebrecht.

Odebrecht’s mails were sent to Lula through AlexandrinoAlencar (also arrested), director of the company and closest to the thenPresident. Some messages were titled "Aide Memoire" other "AgendaLula."

Enter Dominican Republic

Documents obtained by police reveal that days before the June5, 2012, meeting between Rousseff and Dominican president Danilo Medina, Odebrechtsent Azevedo and Dorneles a note with suggestions for the agenda of themeeting. The Brazilian outlet quoted the email that claims to be"important" for Brazil’s president to "stress" two pointsin the conversation:

"The confidence he has in the Odebrecht Organizationto fulfill its commitments" and "the willingness through the NationalBank for Economic and Social Development [BNDES], to continue supportingexports of goods and services in Brazil, continuing infrastructure projects priorityfor the country."

Interviewed by Brazil’s media after the meeting, the DominicanPresident said Brasilia had given the green light to finance the constructionof two power plants in his country. The project was carried out with partialfunding from BNDES; between 2003 and 2015, Brazilian companies won contracts inthe Dominican Republic, with US$2.0 billion to be "disbursed for Odebrecht."