(Reuters) - Brazilian builder Odebrecht’s Peruvian unit has signed a deal with Peruvian authorities to pay a multimillion dollar fine that will allow it to continue operating in the country in return for providing evidence about officials it bribed, three sources related to the matter told Reuters on Saturday.
Two sources said the fine would amount to approximately $182 million to be paid over 15 years. It would also admit that it paid bribes to win six contracts related to four infrastructure projects, they added.
The third source said Odebrecht would pay a total of some $200 million and the deal would include reference to a fifth project for which it has already admitted paying bribes.
Odebrecht has been at the center of Latin America’s largest graft scandal since admitting in a 2016 plea deal with U.S., Brazilian and Swiss authorities that it had bribed officials in a dozen countries to secure public works contracts, including $30 million in bribes in Peru.
The three sources told Reuters that the plea agreement with the Peruvian authorities was signed in the early hours of Saturday, after 12 hours of final negotiations between representatives of the prosecutor’s office, the attorney general’s office and Odebrecht in Peru.
The agreement allows Odebrecht to continue operating in Peru in exchange for its executives giving evidence against Peruvian officials and politicians who allegedly received bribes over almost 20 years.
Odebrecht’s representatives in Peru declined to comment.
After Brazil, Peru has seen the greatest fallout from the Odebrecht scandal. All four of its most recent former presidents, and its opposition leader, are under investigation in
