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Brazilian Police arrest business tycoon Eike Batista

Xinhua, January 31, 2017 Adjust font size:

Brazilian Federal Police arrested former billionaire Eike Batista on Monday morning in Rio, as he disembarked from a flight from the New York City.

The police had been trying to arrest Batista since last week. Policemen arrived at his house on Thursday only to find out that Batista had fled Brazil late Tuesday, leaving the country with a German passport - the businessman has dual citizenship.

Batista's lawyers denied that he had been trying to avoid justice, and said Batista had a scheduled business meeting in New York. The Brazilian Police alerted Interpol, which put him on an international watchlist. The police feared that Batista would manage to get to Germany, which does not have extradition treaties with Brazil.

On late Sunday, Batista took a plane back to Rio, saying he wanted to "answer to Justice" and "settling things down."

Batista, who used to be Brazil's richest man before his oil company OGX went bankrupt, leading to the collapse of his whole business empire, is accused of paying hefty bribes to the Rio de Janeiro authorities in exchange for favors to his business. Batista's EBX Group made several contracts with the public sector in Brazil.

According to the Federal Prosecution Office (MPF), Batista engaged in actions of corruption by paying a bribe of 16.5 million U.S. dollars to former Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral. Cabral is already in jail for other accusations, but was also indicted in this case. Enditem