Brazil recovers money embezzled by oild giant's former executive

Brazil's federal prosecution office announced on Wednesday that it has recovered 182 million reais (58.3 million U.S. dollars) embezzled by Pedro Barusco, former executive of the country's troubled state oil giant Petrobras.

The money was recovered from a Swiss bank account under the name of Barusco, one of those involved in the huge corruption and money laundering scheme at Petrobras. He was also among the accused who agreed to reveal information about the scheme, collaborate with the police, and return the embezzled money in exchange for leniency.

Apart from the money embezzled by Barusco, Brazil has also managed to repatriate 45 million reais (14.4 million dollars) embezzled by other people involved.

A team of Brazilian representatives went to Switzerland last November to recover the money kept in several accounts of people who participated in the corruption scheme.

The amount recovered in the so-called Lava-Jato Operation, a federal police task force in charge of the investigations, hit a record high.

According to the authorities, the money will be later returned to Petrobras but conditions will be set on the use of it.

Petrobras has been rocked by a corruption scandal since investigators revealed late last year that construction and supply firms had been paying high-level executives kickbacks in exchange for major contracts.

The scandal is believed to have cost Petrobras some 2.1 billion reais (766.5 million dollars) between 2004 and 2012.

It has hurt the oil company's finances, with its credit rating already downgraded by rating agencies Moody's and Fitch. Endi