Spanish police detain suspect in Brazilian corruption case

Spanish Civil Guards on Tuesday confirmed the arrest of a man considered to be the financial brain in the Brazilian corruption scandal involving the state-owned oil company Petrobras.

The 43-year-old man, who has been identified as R.T.D, was arrested at a hotel in the center of the Spanish capital of Madrid in a joint operation between the Spanish Civil Guard and Interpol.

The man with joint Brazilian and Spanish nationality was confirmed to have arrived in Spain from the United States "several days ago," after hiding in the United States following his flight from Brazil in April of this year.

R.T.D was the lawyer in the construction company 'Odebrecht' and faces charges of money laundering, bribery and forming part of a criminal organization and was the subject of an international arrest warrant.

Before leaving Brazil for the United States, he was being investigated in an operation named Lavajato for his role in laundering money (around 17 million U.S. dollars) from Petrobras to several political parties in Brazil.

He is also thought to have paid commissions for the award of public and private works contracts both in Brazil and in other countries.

Operation Lavajato was opened in 2014 to investigate possible money laundering and the misuse of public money from Petrobras by political parties and members of the government. The case played a major role in the impeachment of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. Endit