Published: March 5, 2018 |

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Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) has secured a preliminary approval from a US district court for its proposal to pay $2.95bn to settle a class action lawsuit filed by its US investors in the country.

The Brazilian state-controlled oil company said that the ruling from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) is another major step towards resolving the charges put up against it following the Operation Car Wash.

From March 2014, Petrobras has been affected by the Car Wash investigation in Brazil which probed into bribes given by contractors to executives of state-controlled firms and politicians in return of public projects.

Last month, Petrobras reached a settlement in the class action with concerned parties while adding that signing of the agreement for that does not mean its admission of any wrongdoing or misconduct.

Petrobras, in a statement, said: “The agreement is intended to resolve all pending and prospective claims by purchasers of Petrobras securities in the United States and by purchasers of Petrobras securities that are listed for trading in the United States or that cleared or settled through the Depository Trust Company.”

The Brazilian oil firm said that the members of the class action lawsuit will be informed about the terms of the settlement proposal.

Eventually, it will be the court’s call whether to give final approval of the settlement, which is due to be made on June 1, 2018. The final approval will be after the court goes through any objections raised by the class members on the proposal before concluding if the terms are fair and reasonable.

Petrobras had agreed to pay the settlement approval in three installments with the first of them, around $983m due to be paid within 10 days of the preliminary approval from the court and the second one within 10 days of final approval.

Source: Energy Business Review

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