Angola turns blind eye to Brazilian firm’s confession that it paid bribes
Nairobi/Sao Paulo — Angola’s authorities have ignored the admission by a Brazilian firm that it paid $50m in bribes to secure contracts in the country, activists say, despite demands from watchdogs that it join international investigations into the corruption. Brazilian engineering conglomerate Odebrecht admitted to the illegal payments in Angola as one part of a guilty plea in December in New York court, in which it confessed to paying $788m in bribes, mostly across Latin America. The company has been at the centre of vast corruption investigations in its home country and eight other Latin American states where it has admitted making the illegal payments. CEO Marcelo Odebrecht was jailed for 19 years in 2016 for paying bribes. But in Angola, "there has been absolute silence", said anti-corruption campaigner Rafael Marques de Morais. Angola and Mozambique are the only two countries outside Latin America on the list of places where Odebrecht has admitted paying bribes. Marques de Mor...
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