Agencies/Sau Paulo


Police on Friday seized a piano, the equivalent of $45,700 in cash, six cars and other possessions from the home of Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, once Brazil’s richest man, who is on trial for insider trading.
“They’ve left him without even enough money to buy bananas for his three-year-old son,” Batista’s attorney Sergio Bermudes told the Globo G1 news site, describing the confiscations as “an act of savagery”.
The seized cars included a Lamborghini and a Porsche.
Police also carted off a century-old jewelled Faberge egg, 16 watches and a sculpture, as well as computers and cell phones.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that judge Flavio Roberto de Souza said in an interview that he is looking for evidence that Batista has sent money abroad.
In September, authorities froze $635mn in stocks belonging to Batista. This week it also blocked funds belonging to his close family members and took even more of his possessions, seizing computers, cellphones, watches and other items of value from the business tycoon.
Batista, who has denied any wrongdoing, is accused of stock-market manipulation by using privileged information last year to sell off company stock.
The former magnate, once among the world’s richest men, made his fortune from mining and oil, amassing some $30bn.
He faces up to five years in jail for allegedly deceiving investors by shelving a plan to invest $1bn in his oil company OGX, whose production targets proved wildly over optimistic after several wells came up dry.
OGX filed for bankruptcy protection in October last year amid debts of a reported $5bn.
The case comes with Brazil reeling from another major corruption scandal, allegedly involving billions of dollars of kickbacks at state-owned oil giant Petrobras.
The head of state-owned Banco do Brasil was appointed Friday as new chief executive of scandal-plagued semi-public oil company Petrobras.
Aldemir Bendine will replace Maria das Gracas Foster, who resigned Wednesday along with five directors of the oil giant, which is engulfed in a massive corruption scandal.
The appointment of a new head for Brazil’s largest firm did not appear to placate investors.
One business analyst told TV channel GloboNews that Benedine’s appointment was a “disappointment” because he is a representative of the government. The market had reportedly expected a chief executive with closer ties to the private sector.
Petrobras stock was down about 7% toward the end of Friday trading on the Sao Paulo stock exchange. The share price had previously dropped sharply with the expectation of Bendine’s appointment.
Bendine faces the task of lifting Petrobras from the worst crisis in the company’s history.
The company has been under fire since last year, when police and the courts launched an investigation into a political kickback scheme that allegedly lasted eight years and amounted to at least $3.7bn embezzled from company contracts.
According to the allegations, the scheme illegally skimmed 3% from every contract signed by Petrobras from 2004-12 to bribe company officials and finance political parties, including president Dilma Rousseff’s ruling Workers’ Party (PT). According to one suspect cited by Brazilian media, the PT got between $150mn and 200mn in the scheme.
The investigation has so far led to the arrests of three former Petrobras directors, several other company officials and officials of other firms that did business with the oil giant.
Rousseff initially stood by Foster, a personal friend. But Foster’s position was undermined when Petrobras last week issued third-quarter earnings two months late because of the investigation. Foster told investors that illegal practices and administrative errors would force the company to write off the value of its assets by an estimated $32.8bn.
The firm’s problems have already had other concrete consequences, as Petrobras has cut back its investment budget for this year from $16.6bn to 12.2bn.
Two ratings agencies, Moody’s and Fitch, have downgraded Petrobras debt in recent days - Moody’s from Baa2 to Baa3, Fitch from BBB to BBB-.
Rousseff was chairwoman of the Petrobras board of directors when many of the investigated transactions are believed to have taken place.