Engineering firm says cooperating with police in Brazilian fraud probe

ben adhoc

December 14, 2015 10:29 AM

Slooten said no Arcadis workers were arrested. The company said in a statement federal authorities visited Arcadis offices in Brazil and the home of one of its managers on Friday.

Arcadis says cooperating with police in Brazilian fraud probe

Dutch engineering firm Arcadis said on Monday it was providing information to Brazilian police in support of an investigation into suspected misuse of funds at a major water management project in Northern Brazil.

Arcadis did not specify whether it may also be targeted in the probe into the São Francisco project.

"We are also not clear on that," said spokesman Joost Slooten. The company acts as manager for the project in a 50/50 joint venture with Brazil's Concremat.

Brazilian police arrested four people in the probe on Friday, saying they had evidence companies working on the project had diverted funds to fictitious companies.

Slooten said police asked and were given documentation. He said the company would continue to cooperate with authorities and had opened its own internal assessment of the situation.

Work to divert the São Francisco, Brazil's second-longest river, has been underway since 2006, and the estimated cost has nearly doubled since then to 8.2 billion reais from 4.8 billion reais.

ben adhoc