Former Pemex head accused of taking bribes

MEXICO CITY, August 14, 2017 – Former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya Austin has been accused of accepting USD 10 million in bribes from Odebrecht, Brazilian media reported Sunday.

Brazilian newspaper O Globo alleged that Lozoya had received payments from the world’s largest construction conglomerate between 2012 and 2016. In exchange for the bribes, Odebrecht is said to have been awarded a USD 115-million contract for work at Pemex’s Tula refinery.

In a response to Bloomberg later that day, Lozoya said, “I have never participated in acts of corruption. These publications have lied repeatedly on this and other issues, and have never proven their allegations.”

Lozoya resigned from Pemex in 2016 amid heavy financial losses and declining hydrocarbons production.

Odebrecht has been under heavy scrutiny across Latin America since Operation Carwash, a probe into the company’s Brazilian dealings that began in 2014.

Investigations of corrupt practices have quickly snowballed into the region’s widest-reaching bribery scandal, involving several politicians and businesses in countries including Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Guatemala and Argentina, as well as Angola and Mozambique. Investigators allege that Odebrecht paid around USD 800 million in bribes between 2001 and 2016.

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