Oil trading firms with ties to UK named in Brazil's Car Wash corruption scandal
Vitol, Glencore and Trafigura feature in report by campaign group Global Witness
Three global oil trading companies with strong ties to the UK face being dragged into Brazil’s “Car Wash” investigation, after a report raised questions about their connections to businessmen named in the vast corruption scandal.
Vitol, Glencore and Trafigura, which boast combined annual revenues of more than half a trillion dollars, feature in a report by campaign groups Global Witness and Public Eye that uncovers links to men accused or convicted of involvement in the bribery scandal.
The Car Wash controversy has had seismic effects in Brazil, shaking the country’s institutions to the core and leading to the imprisonment of a president, as well some of the country’s most prominent business figures.
It involved executives from the state oil company, Petrobras, who were found to have pocketed kickbacks on multi-billion-dollar deals arranged by intermediaries – with some of the money routed to political parties.
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