Brazil’s Petrobras has approved settlements with four U.S. investors related to an ongoing corruption investigation.
The state-owned company said on Monday that its board of directors approved the conclusion of settlements to end four individual lawsuits filed before the Federal Court of New York by New York City Employees Retirement System, Transamerica Income Shares, Inc., Internationale Kapitalanlagegesellschaft and Lord Abbett Investment Trust – Lord Abbett Short Duration Income Fund.
The terms of the settlements are confidential.
Several investor and retirement funds have filed suit against Petrobras in a bid to recoup losses that were allegedly caused by a corruption scheme tied to Petrobras contracts.
The probe, known as Operation Car Wash, has also landed several former Petrobras executives and Brazilian politicians in jail.
The four individual lawsuits were consolidated for purposes of judgment with twenty-three other individual actions and class action filed against Petrobras before the Federal Court of New York.
Including the latest agreements, Petrobras has reached settlements in 19 individual actions from a total of 27 that were consolidated with the class action.
Petrobras had already entered into settlements to end other fifteen individual lawsuits before the Federal Court of New York that were announced in October and November of last year.
Petrobras said that, as a result of agreements reached and the stage of negotiations in progress with other plaintiffs of individual actions, the company currently expects the total amount of the provision for 2016 to be $372 million.
The company added that $364 million had already been provisioned on September 30.
Petrobras added that it can not make a reliable estimate of the outcome of the class action.
