Delcídio do Amaral and André Esteves, of BTG Pactual SA, taken into custody as part of Petrobras kickback scandal

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Brazilian police have arrested the ruling party’s leader in the senate and the head of Latin America’s biggest independent investment bank as part of a corruption investigation.

Banker André Esteves, the billionaire CEO and controlling shareholder of BTG Pactual SA, was arrested at his home in Rio de Janeiro.

Meanwhile in Brasilia, police arrested a ruling Workers’ party senator, Delcídio do Amaral, 60, a veteran lawmaker who runs the senate’s economic affairs committee and has been key to Dilma Rousseff’s efforts to impose austerity measures.

Brazil’s currency fell more than 2% on Wednesday as the corruption scandal centred on state-run oil firm Petrobras threatened Rousseff’s fragile coalition in Congress.

Amaral is among 50 Brazilian politicians under investigation for allegedly taking bribes in the kickback scandal. His arrest caused national shock – it is the first ever for a sitting senator in the country.

BTG Pactual confirmed the arrest of its chief executive and said the bank would cooperate with the investigation.

Antônio Carlos de Almeida Castro, a lawyer representing Esteves, said the banker “certainly” had not acted to obstruct the investigation.

Court representatives said Esteves, 47, had been arrested for five days, with a potential five-day extension. Amaral’s arrest has no time limit.

Esteves has steered BTG Pactual through the economy’s sharpest recession in 25 years, drawing on powerful connections in politics and global finance.

But BTG Pactual’s major deals with Petrobras have drawn the attention of investigators. They include the bank’s stake in Sete Brasil Participações SA, a supplier of oil-drilling platforms. BTG Pactual also bought a stake in Petrobras’s Africa unit a few years ago.

Last quarter, credit to oil and gas and infrastructure companies, which are the most affected industries in the widening graft investigation, accounted for about 16% of BTG’s loan book. That is the largest exposure among Brazil’s listed traded banks, according to Thomson Reuters data.



A spokesman for Brazil’s central bank said it was monitoring the arrest of Esteves to see if it would affect operations and trigger regulatory action. But BTG Pactual has solid liquidity indicators and continues to operate normally, it said. Esteves is worth about $2.2bn (£1.45bn), according to Forbes Magazine. BTG Pactual is Brazil’s sixth largest bank and Latin America’s largest independent investment bank.



Normal congress business has been suspended until senators meet to weigh their response to Amaral’s arrest. Under ­Brazil’s constitution, the senate can reject a supreme court decision to arrest a senator.

A supreme court judge, Teori Zavascki, said he authorised the arrest after seeing evidence that Amaral had planned the flight of Petrobras’s former international director, Nestor Cerveró, in return for his silence.

Zavascki said evidence also suggested Amaral had offered 50,000 reals (£9,000) in monthly assistance for Cerveró’s family, to be financed by Esteves. Cerveró was sentenced in August to 12 years in prison for corruption and money laundering.