Brazil

Brazilian federal police carried out search-and-seizure requests Tuesday against several local politicians, including former President Fernando Collor de Mello, as part of an investigation into an alleged corruption scheme at state-run oil firm Petróleo Brasileiro SA, The Wall Street Journal reported. The police seized documents in the home and offices of several congressmen, including Mr. de Mello, according to a police spokesman. The spokesman declined to name the other politicians whose homes and offices were searched. From Mr.

Venezuela must refinance its foreign debt to improve government cash flow in the face of recession and soaring inflation, opposition leader Henrique Capriles said on Tuesday, but added a default would have "terrible consequences" for the country. The OPEC nation is struggling with the shrinking economy and chronic shortages of basic goods following last year's oil market rout, with bond payments taking up a growing portion of available hard currency. "We must sit down immediately and seek better conditions for debt payment," Capriles told a news conference.

Brazilian engineering and construction conglomerate OAS S.A. late on Friday unveiled a restructuring plan to a Sao Paulo court, the latest step in a plan to avert bankruptcy amid a corruption scandal at Petróleo Brasileiro SA, Reuters reported. The plan, which still needs approval by the court, laid out two scenarios for the restructuring of about 8 billion reais ($2.5 billion) in debt, both counting on proceeds from asset sales and a debtor-in-possession (DIP) loan. OAS had until June 22 to present a plan.

In a related story, the International New York Times reported that Brazilian police on Friday arrested one of the country’s richest men, Marcelo Odebrecht, as the fallout broadens in an investigation into corruption at the state-run oil giant Petrobras. The investigation, which is looking into whether subcontractors may have colluded with top Petrobras executives to overbill the company and pay bribes, has touched the highest levels of government and business. In the latest development, Mr.

Brazilian power producer Eneva SA, which filed for bankruptcy protection in December, said on Tuesday it failed to meet a debt payment on June 15 after one of its creditors refused to postpone the maturity date, Reuters reported. The company, which is controlled by Germany's E.ON and fallen Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, said in a statement the payments were linked to the Parnaiba II power project in the northeastern state of Maranhão, adding that negotiations with creditors were continuing. Eneva did not give a figure for the debt payment.

Dilma Rousseff stepped up her campaign to rescue Brazil’s flagging economy, announcing an infrastructure package worth almost R$200bn ($65bn) on Tuesday, the Financial Times reported. Brazil’s president outlined plans to sell to the private sector new concessions to build and operate nearly 7,000km of roads, as well as four large airports and a number of ports and railways. Ms Rousseff said the aim of the package was to “invest to revive economic growth”.

South America’s largest economy faces a difficult balancing act to avoid a potentially disastrous spiral of economic contraction as it seeks to control inflation, the Financial Times reported. Brazil’s planning minister Nelson Barbosa warned that he expected only a very gradual recovery from this year’s recession, in contrast with previous downturns during the past decade when the country immediately bounced back with rapid growth.

Thirteen Brazilian and international banks filed a lawsuit in New York on Tuesday against two units of ailing engineering and oil conglomerate Grupo Schahin to recover $371 million in overdue principal and interest on loans, Reuters reported. The lawsuit comes weeks after Schahin sought for protection from creditors in Brazil and the United States, and fired 2,500 workers as a corruption scandal at key client Petróleo Brasileiro SA hampered its efforts to refinance up to 6.5 billion reais ($2.1 billion) in debt.

Brazilian engineering conglomerate Grupo OAS expects revenue to shrink more than 50 percent by 2017 as it sells operations and refocuses on civil construction after filing for bankruptcy protection due to a bribery scandal at a state-run oil company, Reuters reported. The filing by OAS, the third-biggest builder in Brazil last year, was the highest-profile bankruptcy filing to follow a sweeping police investigation of a price-fixing and kickback scheme at state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras.

Another Brazilian company has fallen to the corruption scandal surrounding Brazil’s petroleum giant, Petrobras: Schahin Group requested on Friday a bankruptcy court’s protection for 28 of its subsidiaries.