Engineering conglomerate Odebrecht took out full-page ads in Brazil's main newspapers on Friday to apologise to Brazilians for its involvement in the country's biggest corruption scandal yet. The apology by Latin America's largest engineering firm was received with scepticism in a country with a history of political corruption and crony capitalism, and many Brazilians expressed their anger at the company on social media. In a long-awaited leniency deal, the family-owned firm signed a 6.7-billion real (about R27-billion) agreement with prosecutors on Thursday admitting guilt and offering information on bribes paid. More than 70 of its executives, including founding patriarch Marcelo Odebrecht and his jailed son and former CEO Marcelo Odebrecht, have agreed to make plea statements. The deal will allow Odebrecht to return to bidding for public-works projects from which it was banned for its role, along with other engineering companies, in the massive bribe and kickbacks scheme centred ...
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