Switzerland's attorney general's office (OAG) said in a statement that it had “convicted the Brazilian company Odebrecht and one of its subsidiaries of inadequate corporate organization in connection with the Petrobras affair.”

   

In total, the office said it was demanding payment from Odebrecht and its subsidiaries Construtora Norberto Odebrecht SA (CNO) and Braskem of over 200 million Swiss francs ($195 million, 187 million euros).

   

It pointed out that the penalty was “part of a coordinated conclusion to the proceedings, initiated by Switzerland and also involving Brazil and the USA”.

   

The OAG said that since 2014 it had been conducting around 60 criminal investigations into the massive corruption scandal rocking Petrobras, amid suspicion that huge portions of the funds scammed from the semi-state-owned Brazilian oil company were funnelled through Swiss banks.

   

It said its probes had enabled it to establish that “various companies in the construction industry paid bribes in order to secure contracts.”

   

“Investigators were able to trace the payments back, among others to Odebrecht SA and its subsidiary Construtora Norberto Odebrecht SA (CNO), which have their headquarters in Brazil,” OAG said.

   

It ruled that Odebrecht and CNO were “guilty of a violation of corporate criminal law” since “they did not take all reasonable organizational measures required to prevent the offences of bribing foreign public officials… and money laundering.”

   

Out of the 200 million-Swiss-franc sum, prosecutors ordered the two companies to pay 117 million in liabilities.

   

It also found that another company, Braskem, which is majority owned by Odebrect and which counts Petrobras as one of its shareholders, had “paid bribes via the same channels”.

   

But it said the Swiss proceedings against Braskem had been dropped — against a payment of 94.5 million Swiss francs — since that company was being prosecuted in the United States also for its actions in Switzerland.

   

In addition, the OAG said it had slapped the companies with a fine of 4.5 million Swiss francs.