Operation Car Wash

…wide-ranging federal investigation (known as Lava Jato [“Car Wash”]) alleged that Petrobras executives and dozens of Brazilian politicians—most of them members of the ruling Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores; PT) and its allies—had received millions of dollars in bribes and kickback payments for contracts with Petrobras, principally from large construction…

…2014 under the code name Lava Jato (“Car Wash”). The massive scheme to defraud Petrobras—Brazil’s largest enterprise and a symbol of the country’s entrenched economic nationalism—did not fully come to light, however, until after the narrow reelection of President Rousseff on October 26, 2014. By the time of her second…