Leniency agreements () are defined under the Brazilian Anti-corruption Act in article 16. They target Brazilian companies and foreign companies with a presence in Brazil who are involved in corruption investigations. Under the law, companies are responsible for corruption and can face heavy penalties, a restriction on participation in future bids, confiscation of their assets, suspension of business activity, or dissolution.
Related agreements Brazilian companies have been involved in corruption investigations in countries outside Brazil, some in collaboration with Brazilian justice, and have paid fines in agreements reached in such procedures. The most notable case was the investigation of Brazilian construction corporation
Odebrecht carried out by the United States and Switzerland with the cooperation of the Brazilian government. As a result of the investigation into kickbacks paid to hundreds of politicians, including presidential candidates, as well as to judges on the
Supreme Federal Court, Odebrecht agreed to pay a record fine of R$6 billion ($ billion) in a leniency agreement. in a case described by
attorney general Deltan Dallagnol as the "largest damages agreement in the history of the world".
Examples Some leniency agreements signed by July 2018 include: •
SBM Offshore: R$1.22 billion ($ million) •
Odebrecht: R$2.72 billion ($ million) •
MullenLowe and FCB Brasil: R$53.1 million ($ million) •
Bilfinger: R$9.8 million ($ million) •
UTC Engenharia: R$574 million ($ million)
Comparison with plea bargains Clean Company leniency agreements in Brazil apply exclusively to
juridical persons, i.e., corporations or other business entities, but not individuals, and are not the same as
plea bargain agreements (
colaboração premiada) which apply only to
natural persons, i.e., people. Plea bargain agreements may be reached with executives or employees of those corporations to avoid personal fines or prison time. Individuals accused of involvement in corruption schemes may enter into plea bargains with the
Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) on their own. These individual agreements are known commonly as , and others may be more lax, and confuse the two; they may use the term
plea bargain (or
plea deal) for both. The first page of the affidavit between the United States Department of Justice and Odebrecht was filed in District Court in New York, and names it as a "plea agreement" (number 16-643), with the parties involved in the agreement named as "United States of America" and "Odebrecht, S.A., defendant", in which it specified a 25% reduction in penalties in exchange for the investigation assistance already provided and other remedies. == Related laws ==