Panama: Brazil’s Odebrecht to Pay $59 Million in Bribe Scandal

FILE - Panama's President Ricardo Martinelli (left) shows Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (second from right) an extension of the coastal strip build by Brazilian company Norberto Odebrecht in Panama City, May 20, 2011.

Panama’s attorney general said Thursday that the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht has made a verbal agreement to pay $59 million in reparations for bribes it paid in Panama to win business in the country between 2010 in 2014.

The sum is the amount in bribes Odebrecht admitted paying to officials and intermediaries in the Central American nation in a plea agreement disclosed last month in a U.S. court.

Attorney General Kenia Porcell told reporters she had received “a formal verbal pledge” that the money would soon be delivered by Odebrecht, adding that the firm said it would cooperate “meaningfully” in Panamanian investigations into the case.

A spokeswoman for Porcell’s office said the payment was a reparation to Panama by Odebrecht.