SINGAPORE (Feb 3): Authorities in Brazil have filed charges against two individuals linked to Sembcorp Marine’s Brazilian subsidiary, Estaleiro Jurong Aracruz (EJA), in connection with certain drilling rig construction contracts with Sete Brasil in 2012, SembMarine revealed Monday.
The Ministério Público Federal in Brazil, which is in charge of crimes judged by federal courts and federal civil activities, has filed charges against Guilherme Esteves de Jesus for money laundering and against Martin Cheah Kok Choon for money laundering and corruption.
de Jesus is a former consultant of EJA, while Cheah is the former president of the SembMarine subsidiary.
In a regulatory filing on Monday, SembMarine stressed that the charges filed against Cheah and de Jesus are in their personal capacities and not against EJA.
SembMarine added that the company will be lodging a further suspicious transaction report with the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force.
Companies connected to de Jesus were engaged by the company’s subsidiaries as consultants in Brazil. The consultancy contracts have since been suspended “indefinitely”, SembMarine says.
Cheah had also been terminated as an employee of the group in June 2015.
The charges are part of ongoing investigations, dubbed Operation Car Wash, for alleged corruption which saw companies paying officials at Brazil’s national oil company Petrobras to win business contracts.
In 2015, de Jesus was accused of paying bribes to Brazilian officials on behalf of SembMarine.
The allegation was made by Pedro Jose Barusco, the Petrobras executive who reportedly alleged that Keppel Offshore & Marine’s former agent, Zwi Skornicki, had paid millions of dollars in bribes to Brazilian officials.
In a regulatory in July last year, Cheah was named for the first time as part of the probe, after news that the Brazilian federal police had conducted a search of EJA’s premises.
Shares in Sembcorp Marine closed 1 cent lower at $1.16 on Friday.
