Rolls Royce refutes Brazilian bribery claims

The engineering multinational Rolls-Royce has been accused of paying at least $200,000 (£130,000, €176,000) in bribes to win a lucrative order from Petrobras, the state-owned Brazilian oil group at the centre of corruption allegations.

UK-based Rolls-Royce, the world’s second largest aircraft engine maker, was said to have bribed an executive while pursuing a $100m contract to supply gas turbines for Petrobras oil platforms.

Petrobras is at present beset by wider allegations that companies paid inflated prices for contracts and that funds were diverted to some of its directors and to the governing Workers’ Party and its allies.

In consequence, six senior officials of the company, including the chief executive, resigned.

The information on Rolls-Royce has been provided in court documents in Brazil by former Petrobras senior executive Pedro Barusco after he entered into a plea bargain on his arrest in November.

Rolls-Royce said it had not received details of the bribery allegations and had not been contacted by the Brazilian authorities.

The company added in a statement: “We have always been clear that we will not tolerate improper business conduct of any sort and will take all necessary action to ensure compliance, including co-operating with authorities in any country.”

Rolls-Royce is already being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office over bribery allegations in Indonesia and China. It appointed a lawyer to review its compliance procedures after the allegations were made.