Ex-president of Brazil's Petrobras jailed for 11 years

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 7 (Xinhua) -- A former president of Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in prison for corruption and money laundering, official sources said.

In what was the latest development of the sprawling investigation into the Petrobras corruption ring, federal Judge Sergio Moro found Aldemir Bendine guilty of receiving bribes from state construction giant Odebrecht when he was president of Petrobras from February 2015 to May 2016.

"The condemned took the responsibility of president of Petrobras amidst a corruption scandal and with the expectation that he would resolve existing problems. The last behavior expected of him was that he would become corrupt, putting in jeopardy once again the reputation of the company," Moro said.

Bendine ran the state-owned Bank of Brazil from 2009 to 2015, before being appointed by former President Dilma Rousseff to head Petrobras.

Bendine was arrested last July during a criminal investigation coded Car Wash. He was accused by Odebrecht's former President Marcelo Odebrecht of receiving bribes worth around 1 million U.S. dollars in exchange for the construction firm winning Petrobras contracts. Enditem