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| Eike Batista, Once Brazil’s Richest Man, Is Sought in Corruption Inquiry | Eike Batista, Once Brazil’s Richest Man, Is Sought in Corruption Inquiry |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| RIO DE JANEIRO — The Brazilian police announced on Thursday that they were seeking the arrest of Eike Batista, the oil and mining tycoon who was once the country’s richest man, in an expansion of the vast corruption investigation that has ensnarled dozens of politicians and business leaders. | |
| Police officers went to Mr. Batista’s mansion in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday morning but did not find him there. Sérgio Bermudes, a lawyer for Mr. Batista, said his client was out of the country, either in the United States or the Cayman Islands, to seek access to blocked bank accounts. | |
| The arrest warrant could signal a new phase in the downfall of Mr. Batista, 60, whose prominence on the global stage had long been associated with Brazil’s booming economy. His personal wealth reached $34.5 billion as recently as 2012, but his fortunes, and those of Brazil, crashed amid falling global commodities prices. | |
| “Eike was a symbol of that moment of nationalist exaltation when the stars seemed to be aligning for Brazil,” said Gerson Moraes, a professor of ethics at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in the Brazilian city of Campinas. “But it turns out he was involved in the same old rotten schemes involving large corporations and the Brazilian state.” | |
| The brash industrialist, who had publicly proclaimed that he would become the world’s richest man, assembled a sprawling empire including mines, offshore oil fields, a port complex and even Rio’s landmark Hotel Glória. Mr. Batista cultivated close ties with government officials, and he received more than $4 billion in loans and investments from the national development bank. | The brash industrialist, who had publicly proclaimed that he would become the world’s richest man, assembled a sprawling empire including mines, offshore oil fields, a port complex and even Rio’s landmark Hotel Glória. Mr. Batista cultivated close ties with government officials, and he received more than $4 billion in loans and investments from the national development bank. |
| In 2008, Mr. Batista raised more than $3.6 billion in a public offering for his oil company, OGX, at a time when Brazil’s economic prospects looked bright. But the company sought bankruptcy protection in 2013 after producing a small fraction of the oil it had promised. | In 2008, Mr. Batista raised more than $3.6 billion in a public offering for his oil company, OGX, at a time when Brazil’s economic prospects looked bright. But the company sought bankruptcy protection in 2013 after producing a small fraction of the oil it had promised. |
| This is not the first time Mr. Batista has faced legal troubles. In 2014, he went on trial on charges of insider trading and stock market manipulation, but the case was suspended in February 2015 after the judge presiding over his trial was filmed driving Mr. Batista’s seized Porsche. | This is not the first time Mr. Batista has faced legal troubles. In 2014, he went on trial on charges of insider trading and stock market manipulation, but the case was suspended in February 2015 after the judge presiding over his trial was filmed driving Mr. Batista’s seized Porsche. |
| The judge was removed from the case. In November 2015, regulators barred Mr. Batista from serving as a corporate officer for five years. | The judge was removed from the case. In November 2015, regulators barred Mr. Batista from serving as a corporate officer for five years. |
| The new arrest warrant for Mr. Batista is an outgrowth of a multiyear inquiry into graft involving Petrobras, the state-owned oil company. Investigators are focusing on bribes paid to Sérgio Cabral, the former governor of Rio de Janeiro, where Petrobras is based. | The new arrest warrant for Mr. Batista is an outgrowth of a multiyear inquiry into graft involving Petrobras, the state-owned oil company. Investigators are focusing on bribes paid to Sérgio Cabral, the former governor of Rio de Janeiro, where Petrobras is based. |
| Mr. Cabral, who governed the state from 2007 to 2014, was arrested in November on suspicion that he and his wife pocketed millions of dollars in bribes from public works contracts. | Mr. Cabral, who governed the state from 2007 to 2014, was arrested in November on suspicion that he and his wife pocketed millions of dollars in bribes from public works contracts. |
| Federal prosecutors said in a statement that Mr. Batista had paid $16.5 million to Mr. Cabral in 2011 through offshore accounts in Panama and Uruguay. The tycoon sought to disguise the bribe as a deal involving the sale of a gold mine, the prosecutors said. | Federal prosecutors said in a statement that Mr. Batista had paid $16.5 million to Mr. Cabral in 2011 through offshore accounts in Panama and Uruguay. The tycoon sought to disguise the bribe as a deal involving the sale of a gold mine, the prosecutors said. |
| “In a sophisticated way, Eike Batista repeatedly used the simulation of legal dealings for the payment and concealment of illicit amounts of money,” the prosecutors said. | “In a sophisticated way, Eike Batista repeatedly used the simulation of legal dealings for the payment and concealment of illicit amounts of money,” the prosecutors said. |
| The Federal Police, Brazil’s equivalent of the F.B.I., said in a statement that 80 officers had carried out nine arrest warrants, taken four people in for questioning and performed 22 searches in Thursday’s operation. Among those arrested was Flávio Godinho, a former executive at one of Mr. Batista’s companies who now holds a senior executive post at Flamengo, a soccer club in Rio. | |
| The police also said that they had discovered on Thursday that Mr. Batista, who holds dual citizenship in Brazil and Germany, may have traveled to New York on the evening of Jan. 24 on an American Airlines flight using his German passport. | |
| Mr. Bermudes said that a judge in Rio had issued a request for his client’s arrest on Jan. 13, raising questions as to how Mr. Batista had been able to leave the country if the authorities were planning to apprehend him. | |
| “The police are in full contact with Interpol to locate him, to verify if he effectively arrived in New York,” Tacio Muzzi, an officer with the Federal Police, told journalists. “It still can’t be categorically affirmed that there was the intention to flee. This is being rigorously investigated.” | |
| José Vagos, a federal prosecutor, said investigators had yet to determine why Mr. Batista had bribed Mr. Cabral, who held sway for years over important decisions regarding infrastructure projects in Rio, where much of Brazil’s oil industry is based. | |
| Mr. Batista was already known to shower attention and privileges on Mr. Cabral. In 2011, the tycoon came under scrutiny for granting the former governor and members of Mr. Cabral’s family the use of a private jet for jaunts around and outside Brazil. | |
| Another prosecutor, Eduardo El Hage, said Mr. Batista was suspected of crimes including bribery and money laundering. | |
| The effort to arrest Mr. Batista comes at a time when the entrepreneur was seeking to revive his fortune through a venture aimed at selling an upscale brand of toothpaste called Elysium. |