Brazil-based petrochemical giant Braskem disclosed yesterday that it will pay a total amount of approximately US$957 million in penalties and damages to resolve a global settlement related to the massive corruption probe surrounding state-owned oil company Petrobras.

As Compliance Week previously reported, Braskem said in April 2015 that it was investigating allegations that two of its former executive officers made improper payments between 2006 and 2012 to Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras in exchange for raw-material supply agreements.

As part of the global settlement with Brazilian authorities, Braskem said it entered into a leniency agreement with the Brazilian Federal Prosecutors Office. “As a result of the agreements, the company will continue to cooperate with the competent authorities and implement improvements in its compliance system,” Braskem said. “The company will also be subject to external monitorship.”

Although Braskem did not clarify who those “competent authorities” are in its latest release, it did say in a filing earlier this month that it was “in an advanced stage of negotiation with the competent authorities in Brazil and in the United States and expects to execute, with these authorities, a resolution comprising the facts that involved the company in connection with the Operation Car Wash.”

In its latest filing, published Dec. 14, Braskem said “the remaining terms of the leniency agreement are confidential, but comply, in general terms, with the standards adopted in other cases by the Federal Prosecutors Office.”

Braskem added that it will keep the market informed of relevant updates to this matter.

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