Brazil

Former billionaire Eike Batista was fined 1.4 million Brazilian reais ($429,000) Wednesday by Brazil’s market regulator for failing to provide shareholders with timely information while his industrial empire was collapsing in 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Batista plans to appeal the fines, one of his attorneys said. Once Brazil’s richest person, Mr. Batista over the last two years has sold assets and dismantled his group of companies to pay debt. He also is on trial on market-manipulation and insider-trading charges related to his oil company, charges he has denied.

Oleo e Gas Participações SA, a Brazilian oil company under bankruptcy protection, on Monday said it suspended payments for an oil-production vessel to bankrupt ship-leasing company OSX Brasil SA for six months, Reuters reported. Oleo e Gas, formerly known as OGX Petroleo e Gas Participações SA, said in a statement that it made the decision after being unable to come to an agreement on Friday over future payments to OSX for the OSX-3 floating production, storage and offloading ship (FPSO) in a hearing before a bankruptcy judge in Rio de Janeiro.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities across Brazil on Sunday to express their ire at President Dilma Rousseff, raising pressure on her as she grapples with an onslaught of challenges including an economy mired in stagnation, a sweeping bribery scandal and a revolt by some of the most powerful figures in her governing coalition, the International New York Times reported. The protests, organized to coincide with commemorations of the re-establishment of democracy 30 years ago after a long military dictatorship, reflect rising disenchantment with Ms.

Brazil’s currency slid to a 10-year low against the dollar on Wednesday as concerns grew that a corruption scandal at state-run oil group Petrobras engulfing the country’s political elite threatens to scupper the government’s austerity drive, the Financial Times reported. The real fell 2.2 per cent against the dollar to R$2.9947 after the senate leader Renan Calheiros of the PMDB, the main coalition partner of President Dilma Rousseff, blocked an important fiscal measure in congress that is seen as essential to helping reverse Brazil’s growing budget deficit.

President Dilma Rousseff ’s administration, fearful of a potential loss of Brazil’s investment-grade debt rating, is stepping up austerity measures, angering supporters and exacerbating an already painful economic slowdown, The Wall Street Journal reported. The government on Thursday announced a cap on government spending and investment, as well as additional tax increases for businesses, moves aimed at shoring up Brasília’s deteriorating finances. The new measures will limit federal spending to 75 billion Brazilian reais ($26.3 billion) from Jan.

As a virtual monopoly in a country with some of the most promising offshore oil reserves in the world, Petrobras has a web of relationships with most of the global leaders in the sector, the Financial Times reported. Those linked to the growing scandal, which some estimate cost Petrobras up to $20bn, will potentially face scrutiny not only from Brazilian investigators but also from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice.

Creditors of Eneva SA stand to lose as much as 65 percent of their investment in the Brazilian power producer as part of a bankruptcy protection plan unveiled on Thursday. Rio de Janeiro-based Eneva, which in December filed for protection from creditors after failing to honor part of 2.33 billion reais ($822 million) in debt, offered a lump sum of 250,000 reais to each unsecured creditor, according to a securities filing. Creditors who accept the largest discounts will be given top priority when it comes to repayments, the filing said.

The accusations of corruption at Brazil’s state-controlled petroleum giant Petrobras have already led to a political scandal and a change in management. Now, the problems are threatening other Brazilian companies and may even tip the country into recession, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. It would be hard to overstate Petrobras’s importance in Brazil.

Brazilian police said they seized seven cars, including a white Lamborghini, and $32,490 in cash, computers, watches and other items on Friday from embattled oil and mining tycoon Eike Batista, who is on trial for insider trading in Rio de Janeiro, Reuters reported. Batista resigned as chairman of Oleo E Gas Participações SA , the flagship firm in his once-expansive EBX conglomerate on Jan. 27, two months after the trial started. The company formerly known as OGX is emerging from Latin America's largest-ever bankruptcy restructuring.

A judge in Rio de Janeiro has ordered the freezing of all of embattled businessman Eike Batista ’s financial assets and ordered the seizure of up to 1.5 billion reais ($547 million) of his physical assets, including real estate, The Wall Street Journal reported. The orders cover the assets of Mr. Batista’s sons, Thor and Olin Batista, and those of his former wife, Luma de Oliveira, and his current girlfriend, Flávia Sampaio, Judge Flávio Roberto de Souza said in an interview.