AS THE founder and boss of BTG Pactual, a Brazilian investment bank, André Esteves has been a shrewd and hyperactive dealmaker. But on November 25th some of those deals appeared to sour, when he was arrested in Rio de Janeiro as part of a vast bribery investigation centred on Petrobras, Brazil’s state-controlled oil-and-gas giant.
Prosecutors allege that Mr Esteves and Delcídio do Amaral, a prominent lawmaker from the party of Dilma Rousseff, the president, tried to help Nestor Cerveró, a former Petrobras director who has since been convicted of corruption, to escape trial. According to the police, Mr Esteves was willing to stump up 4m reais ($1.1m) to spirit him out of the country. Messrs Esteves and Amaral protest their innocence.
What interest, if any, Mr Esteves might have had in putting Mr Cerveró beyond the reach of the law is unknown. Mr Esteves has always insisted that BTG’s investment in Petrobras assets in Africa is spotless. So, he has said, was its involvement with Sete Brasil, a troubled firm that built oil rigs for Petrobras.
Mr Esteves’s predicament nevertheless puts pressure on the...Continue reading
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