Brazil investigating possible corruption at Olympic venues

Record ID: 101925

  • Title: Brazil investigating possible corruption at Olympic venues
  • Date: 25th May 2016
  • Summary: AERIAL OF BMX COURSE IN DEODORO COMPLEX VARIOUS AERIALS OF CANOE SLALOM COURSE IN DEODORO COMPLEX
  • Embargoed: 9th June 2016 23:31
  • Keywords: Olympics Rio 2016 Rio de Janeiro corruption Brazil
  • Location: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
  • City: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: Olympics,Sport
  • Reuters ID: LVA0034JB5FEV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Brazilian investigators have expanded their probe into possible corruption around the staging of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this August to include all the venues and services financed with federal funds, a lead prosecutor told Reuters.
    Federal investigations have previously focused on "legacy" modernization projects not directly tied to the Games but this newly disclosed probe includes Olympic Park and the Deodoro area where Olympic venues are located, federal prosecutor Leandro Mitidieri said.
    The Olympics were meant to showcase Brazil's rise as a global power. Instead, they will take place as suspended President Dilma Rousseff faces an impeachment trial, the economy suffers its worst recession since the 1930s, an outbreak of the Zika virus prompts health concerns and a massive corruption scandal infuriates Brazilians.
    Mitidieri said his team is also investigating what happened to federal funds earmarked for cleaning Guanabara Bay, where Olympic sailing events will take place, and lakes that surround the main Olympic venues in western Rio's Barra neighbourhood.
    Those bodies of water have heavy sewage contamination and remain badly polluted despite promises to drastically improve them as a legacy achievement of the Olympics.
    Another team of federal prosecutors, along with federal police, is investigating whether the Rio de Janeiro state water utility company Cedae committed environmental crimes by not properly treating sewage in Rio's metropolitan area of 12 million people, Mitidieri said.
    Rio utility Cedae said it had not been notified about the investigation and could not make a comment without understanding more about the probe.
    Mitidieri would not say if his team had uncovered any proof of corruption - but he added that detailed announcements about the investigation's results would be made in coming weeks.
    Five construction firms are building most of the 39 billion reais (10.8 billion U.S. dollars) worth of venues and infrastructure needed for Rio's Olympics. The figure includes at least 1.76 billion reais ($490 million) in federal funds, according to documents from Brazil's federal accounting court.
    All five companies are caught up in an investigation into price fixing and kickbacks at state-run oil company Petrobras, a two-year probe that has seen scores of top executives and politicians jailed, charged or under investigation.
    The Petrobras investigation is what led federal police and prosecutors to begin looking at possible corruption tied to the Olympics.
    Federal authorities have already said they are investigating the Porto Maravilha project, an 8 billion real facelift of Rio's dilapidated port area, and also the expansion of the city's metro line to the Olympic area in Barra.
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