Former Director of Petrobras Says Rousseff Lied About the Purchase of Pasadena

06/03/2016 - 10h31

During a plea-bargain testimony released this Thursday the 2nd, former Petrobras director Nestor Cerveró accused Dilma Rousseff, the suspended president, of lying regarding the purchase of the Pasadena refinery.

He said he believes that Rousseff knew that PT politicians received bribes from the state-owned company.

Condemned in the so-called Lava Jato (Car Wash) operation, Cerveró has been under arrest since January 2015.

According to Cerveró, Rousseff's claim that she approved the purchase of the refinery, acquired by Petrobras in 2006, due to insufficient information, "doesn't correspond to reality". At the time, Dilma was Chairman of the Board of Petrobras.

In 2006, Petrobras purchased half of the Pasadena refinery from the Belgian Astra group for US$ 460 million. The partners subsequently fought over the cost of the renovation that Petrobras wanted to do at the refinery.

Petrobras made an offer of US$ 550 million for the rest of Pasadena but Astra was asking for US$ 1 billion. The partners ended up reaching an agreement for US$ 788 million. However, since this wasn't approved by Petrobras' Board, the deal didn't close and ended up in litigation in the United States.

Finally, after a legal battle that concluded in 2012, Petrobras ended up purchasing the other 50% of the refinery for US$ 885 million. In total, the Brazilian state-owned company ended up paying US$1,25 billion for a business that Astra had purchased for only US$ 42,5 million in 2005.

Cerveró claims that there "was a certain amount of pressure" on the board to approve the project.

According to the former director, Rousseff followed dealings related to Petrobras "closely" and was continuously present at the company and that she "knew in detail the business" of the state-owned company.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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