SAO PAULO / RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – Brazilian engineering group Odebrecht, whose name became synonymous with graft because of its role in the country’s Car Wash sweeping pollution investigation, is changing his name as he tries to turn the page on that pest history.
In a statement yesterday, Odebrecht said it was changing its name to Novonor, adding that the change was a “culmination” of a five-year transformation at the company, when the company changed its “internal processes and ways of operating, under strict leadership through ethics, integrity and transparency. ”
In 2016, the company pleaded guilty in the United States to charges related to graft, giving US, Swiss and Brazilian authorities about $ 2.6 billion in the largest ever foreign bribery penalty in the United States on the when.
Odebrecht confessed to bribe officials throughout Latin America for years, contributing to dramatic political upheaval in Brazil and across the region.
In July, a Sao Paulo provincial court approved a bankruptcy recovery plan for the company, which was weighed down by over 65 billion debt ($ 12.8 billion) of debt.