Investigations into Brazil’s embattled construction giant Odebrecht SA are exposing a larger network of graft in Latin America than was already revealed in a massive anticorruption settlement, according to prosecutors in several countries, The Wall Street Journal reported. Since the firm admitted in December to paying nearly $800 million in bribes, authorities across Latin America have launched new investigations that are beginning to ensnare former high-ranking officials and other companies beyond Odebrecht.

Pharol SGPS SA, the controlling shareholder of Brazil's debt-laden telephone carrier Oi SA, said in a statement on Tuesday that Rafael Mora had resigned as Pharol's executive director and a member of Oi's board, Reuters reported. João do Passo Vicente Ribeiro, previously named as Mora's alternate on Oi's board, will take his board seat, according to a Pharol press representative. The statement did not give a reason for Mora's resignation. Read more.

A São Paulo court granted Brazilian homebuilder PDG Realty SA bankruptcy protection on Thursday, the company said in a securities filing. PDG sought protection from creditors last week to enable it to restructure its debt, Brazil's second publicly listed builder to do so in less than six months, Reuters reported. PDG's gross debt was 5.4 billion reais ($1.75 billion) at the end of September, according to a quarterly earnings report. Read more.

Brazil’s government can’t waive Oi SA’s debt with a local regulator and state-run banks, the communications minister said, denying the phone carrier a lifeline that would have helped it pull out of the biggest bankruptcy in the country’s history, Bloomberg News reported. “The government can’t let go of resources, they are public resources, debt with the public administration," Science and Technology Minister Gilberto Kassab said Sunday in an interview in Barcelona, Spain. The debt with the regulator is Oi’s main problem with the government, said Kassab, who also oversees communications.

Brazilian homebuilder PDG Realty SA said it was seeking protection from creditors by filing on Wednesday to restructure its debt in court, the country's second publicly listed builder to do so in less than six months, Reuters reported. PDG's gross debt was 5.4 billion reais ($1.75 billion) at the end of September, according to a quarterly earnings report. The company had 235 million reais of cash on hand at the time.

Grupo BTG Pactual, the Brazilian lender that slashed its workforce in 2016 and sold off assets to survive a liquidity crisis, is investing in Chile with plans to start lending, Bloomberg News reported. Rodrigo Oyarzo joined BTG to head the new credit business, according to Juan Guillermo Aguero, BTG’s chief executive officer for Chile. The idea is to use the Sao Paulo-based company’s banking license in Chile, obtained in 2014, to provide more “strategic” loans to clients tied to mergers and capital-markets transactions, Aguero said.

PDG Realty SA, the Brazilian homebuilder struggling with a cash crunch, is considering surrendering buildings and land given as collateral to creditors ahead of a potential in-court reorganization, two people directly involved in the plan said. São Paulo-based PDG hired restructuring advisory firm RK Partners in November to come up with a rescue plan, Reuters reported. Terms of the plan contemplate giving creditors control of some assets guaranteeing debt issued by about 700 special purpose vehicles created to fund projects, the people said.

Changes in Brazil's telecom law currently under debate in the Senate are not being taken into account by debt-laden carrier Oi SA as it devises its in-court reorganization plan, Oi Chief Executive Marcos Schroeder said on Tuesday. Speaking at an industry event in Brasília, Schroeder said the imminent reforms will have no economic effect on the company's reorganization in bankruptcy court, Reuters reported. The bill had been scheduled to become law last December but was held up in the Senate after opposition legislators filed a motion to submit it to a vote by the full house.

The recent bump in oil prices isn’t enough to help Petroleos de Venezuela SA as it faces its fourth consecutive year of declining production, Bloomberg News reported. The company’s crude output is expected to fall this year as it failed to raise cash for investments and after Venezuela agreed to cut 95,000 barrels a day for six months as part of a deal struck by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other non-members to lift oil prices, analysts say.

Brazilian politicians inflated growth estimates to facilitate an agreement between the federal government and Rio de Janeiro to resolve the state’s financial crisis, raising doubts over the viability of the deal. The projections, even if proven true, would still leave the state running a deficit by 2021, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly, Bloomberg News reported. The deal was crucial as it sets a precedent for other states in financial difficulties.