Brazil’s Odebrecht Oil & Gas filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Friday to help implement a previously announced multibillion-dollar debt restructuring, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Odebrecht Oil & Gas, an arm of engineering conglomerate Odebrecht SA, sought chapter 15 protection, the section of the bankruptcy code that deals with international insolvencies, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. In May, Odebrecht’s oil and gas arm entered into an agreement with a group of creditors to restructure its financial debt. The reorganization plan, which covers $5 billion in debt, was filed with a court in Rio de Janeiro. Creditors representing more than 60% of the claims accepted the plan, the company said in a statement in May. Odebrecht is one of a number of conglomerates snared in a large corruption scandal involving state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras. Odebrecht signed a multibillion anticorruption settlement with Brazilian, U.S. and Swiss prosecutors in December following a two-year investigation of bribery of public officials that has sent politicians and executives from Petrobras and several construction companies to prison. The closely held construction firm admitted to violating foreign bribery laws.
