Billionaire Offshore Racer Eike Batista Loses 34.5 Billion?

[Bobcat]

Kinsler stacks ?

[Ratickle]

Nah, guess again.....

[jetcruzr]

Nice Lambo's......

Attachment 76568

The familiarity is that the picture is of Eike Batista in the engine compartment of my (his at the time) 41 Apache! I wish I could find some more pictures of the boat from when Eike owned and raced it.

[Ratickle]

BOATING; Brazilian Superboat Driver Finds Speed 'in the Blood'

By BARBARA LLOYD
Published: October 06, 1991

Taking risks is part of life for Eike Batista, a 34-year-old Brazilian entrepreneur who a decade ago combed the Amazon jungles in search of gold dust. He has since cashed in on his Indiana Jones life style, preferring instead a home at New York's Trump Plaza and a crack at the national offshore powerboat championship.

Batista drives Spirit of the Amazon, a 50-foot speed machine that has dominated the offshore powerboat circuit this year. His craft, which carries four 1,100-horsepower engines, is one of 10 Superboats expected to race today in the $75,000 New York Offshore Grand Prix on the Hudson River.

Twenty-six boats have registered to compete for national titles in four divisions, including the less powerful Open Class boats, and the Pro-1 and Pro-2 Classes. The 144-mile course consists of 18 laps of 8.04 miles each; the loop starts at Pier 45, south of Battery Park City, moves to 40th Street, and then returns back to Pier 45.

Batista flew here Friday from his home and business headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. As chairman of the board of TVX Gold, an international mining company, Batista is far removed from the days when his livelihood depended on single-engine aircraft and dirt runways.

His life now is a series of global meetings. A corporate executive who speaks five languages, Batista oversees gold mines in Canada, the United States, Brazil and Chile. As a sportsman, he is supporting the national powerboat racing circuit for the next three years with a guarantee of $5 million. As a driver, he leads this year's circuit in points. 'A Different Culture'

In a telephone interview from Rio de Janiero, Batista linked his success in Superboat racing with the fascination for going fast that, he said, is part of his Brazilian upbringing. "Speed is in the blood of most Brazilians," he said, noting that Brazilian Formula I race car drivers Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet are friends of his.

"Basically, there are no lines separating one lane from another lane on roads in Brazil," Batista said. "People drive as fast as they can go. There are official speed limits, but little enforcement. It's a different culture altogether."

The danger may also be part of what appeals to Batista about powerboat racing. "There is a lot of thrill in it," he said. "But I lived dangerously in my early gold-mining days."

The Superboats are capable of 130-mile-an-hour speeds, and are particularly difficult to maneuver here in the choppy seas created by lap racing in the river. Last year in New York, he and his Spirit of the Amazon team withdrew from the Hudson River race when the boat hit a submerged object. It was an "extremely dangerous" situation, said Batista, noting that the obstruction could have flipped the boat. The man may live for "the thrill in it," but he has no death wish.

When he realized the dangers in gold trading were becoming life threatening after a particularly frightening incident in 1980, Batista gave it up. The story is straight out of Indiana Jones. Carrying a loaded handgun and a bag of gold dust worth $200,000, he was preparing to board a small plane on a jungle runway. With him were two bodyguards. In the distance, he saw a man gunned down for offending a village chief whom Batista had relied on. Batista realized he could be next. 'He Doesn't Get Scared'

Batista left the jungle behind and used his experiences there to develop an international mining company. A degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of Aachen in Germany made Batista familiar not only with mining but with the mechanics of his boat. "I don't make any compromises with the equipment," he said. "A lot of racers don't understand their equipment."


Bobby Moore, the Spirit of Amazon's throttleman, said that Batista's knowledge of the boat was a great advantage. "He's aggressive as hell, and likes to win," said Moore. "He's also mechanically inclined, and that's important for a racer. It's really what makes him a step above the others. He doesn't get scared."

Moore, of Miramar, Fla., is a 28-year veteran of offshore racing who has crewed on four world champion teams. Moore was with Batista last year when Spirit of the Amazon won the world offshore title in Key West, Fla. Also in the boat are Randy Robinson of Miramar, crew chief and co-navigator, and Larry Williams of Kula, Maui, Hawaii, co-navigator.

Batista is a favorite in the New York race, especially in the absence of Chuck Norris, the movie actor, who won the event last year in a close match against one of his Hollywood counterparts, Don Johnson. Neither actor has participated in the racing circuit this year.

Behind Batista in overall points is Powerboat Marine Products, a Superboat owned and driven by Russ Wilkin of Fort Wayne, Ind. If Wilkin should win today's race, Batista must finish in at least seventh-place to beat Wilkin for the national title.



http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/06/sp...od.html?src=pm

[Serious News]

Eike Batista, Brazil’s playboy salesman, fights for his fiefdom

By Joe Leahy and Samantha Pearson

The business adventurer who symbolised the nation’s ascent now faces bankruptcy, write Joe Leahy and Samantha Pearson

If Eike Batista was a superstitious man, he would probably track the start of his spectacular fall from grace to one night in March last year, when his eldest son appeared on the news in a blood-spattered white
T-shirt. Twenty-year-old Thor had been driving his father’s Mercedes – the one the Brazilian oil and mining baron normally displayed in the living room of his Rio de Janeiro mansion – when he ran over and killed Wanderson Pereira dos Santos, a 30-year-old labourer, on the city’s impoverished fringe.

Though it had nothing to do with business, the horrific accident was a bad omen. Mr Batista, then Brazil’s richest man, was at the peak of his fortune, estimated by Bloomberg at $34.5bn. Within months, scepticism was mounting over whether the recent offshore oil discoveries of OGX, his flagship oil company, would be as productive as it claimed. They were not. On October 1, it missed a payment on its $3.6bn in bonds. Mr Batista has until next Thursday to secure a restructuring. The company is already preparing a bankruptcy filing in case talks are unsuccessful. This would trigger Latin America’s biggest corporate debt default.


The rest of the article http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/aa4f24b0-3...44feab7de.html

[Serious News]

31 October 2013

Written by Wyre Davies, Rio de Janeiro correspondent

Batista oil firm in bankruptcy

Once listed as one of the top 10 wealthiest people in the world, Eike Batista boasted he would one day become the richest person on the planet.

In little over a year, he is thought to have lost almost his entire fortune.

OGX, the huge oil exploration company he controlled, has sought protection from bankruptcy.

It was from a luxurious art deco building in the heart of Rio de Janeiro, overlooking Botafogo Bay and Sugar Loaf mountain, that Batista ran his vast empire.

Now, like the rest of the family silver, it is up for grabs as Batista's dreams crumble.

Batista's rise mirrored that of Brazil itself. His corporate videos showing how, by selling commodities to meet insatiable Chinese demand, he became very wealthy.

"[In 10 years] I think I could be worth about $100bn (£62bn)," said Batista with a shrug of his shoulders during an appearance on American Public television.

"$100bn!" responds the interviewer, almost incredulously.

"Yes, that's right," confirmed the man who, a little more than a year later, would be facing one of the biggest losses in corporate history.

Hotel owner Sergio Rangel Soares The thousands of jobs we thought would be created, simply haven't materialised”

Making his first millions in mining, Batista wasn't modest about where he wanted himself and Brazil to be.

All ending in the suffix X, representing the multiplication of wealth, his companies had elevated him to super-rich status by 2012.

Through those companies Batista liked to control almost every aspect of his business, not just the mining or the exploration but also infrastructure as well.

He built huge oil tankers, bought trucking companies but the icing on the cake was a massive new super port at Acu, five hours' drive north of Rio de Janeiro.

It was to be a port for Brazil, attracting not just the biggest ships in the world but big multinational companies which would help develop the immediate area around Acu as the most important industrial park in the region.

Today, work at the super port has virtually ground to a halt.

Already sold off, like many of Batista's other assets, it's unlikely to be anywhere near as grand or create as many jobs as he had promised.

In the local community, they had convinced themselves Batista and his grand plans would bring unlimited benefits.

"When the port project started, we had huge expectations," says hotel owner Sergio Rangel Soares.

"But the thousands of jobs we thought would be created, simply haven't materialised."

Soares now says he is trying to survive on an unrealistic 30% occupancy rate.

Many other businesses, he said, have already gone under but even if the new American owners at the port manage to resurrect just a fraction of what Batista had promised it would be something.

Batista's oil exploration company, OGX, which was to have used this vast Acu facility, has now filed for protection from bankruptcy after being unable to meet a $45m interest payment.

Alarm bells began ringing earlier this year when the company's reserves proved to be hopelessly over-exaggerated and Batista's promises to investors about the validity of the oil fields were way off the mark.

Batista himself has lost more than $30bn, sliding off the Bloomberg index of billionaires. His dream of becoming the world's richest person has evaporated in the space of a few short months.

Prof Marcos Pedlowski, from Rio de Janeiro State University, is a long-term critic of the Batista "model", saying there was little substance to all the talk, bravado and promises.

Feeling somewhat vindicated after years of ridicule from others who though Batista was untouchable, Pedlowski says the Brazilian government should shoulder some of the blame for Batista's excesses - having helped him to expropriate vast areas of land and given him easy access to credit.

"He's partly to blame himself of course," says the professor as we stand on the beach near the eerily quiet Acu port complex.

Trucks come and go but, says Pedlowski, construction work has almost ground to a halt as new investors pick over what remains of Batista's empire.

"Everybody supported the idea that he could not fail. That was the image, not only provided by him but it was supported by the Brazilian government and the Brazilian press," says the professor.

The city of Rio de Janeiro, in particular, might feel the impact of Batista's demise more than most.

Batista was one of the biggest backers of Rio's regeneration ahead of the 2016 Olympics. His downfall may be seen by many as bad news for this city - but he has vowed to bounce back.

[Ratickle]

Batista Repudiates Pimco-Led Creditors in OGX Bankruptcy

By Juan Pablo Spinetto & Peter Millard - Oct 31, 2013 9:21 AM ET .

OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA (OGXP3)’s bankruptcy protection filing in Latin America’s largest corporate default is dimming the prospect holders of the world’s worst-performing bonds will recoup their ill-fated investment in Eike Batista’s oil ambitions.

OGX, which transformed Batista into Brazil’s richest man, submitted documents in a Rio de Janeiro court yesterday, culminating a 16-month decline that wiped out more than $30 billion of his fortune and left holders of $3.6 billion of the company’s bonds with losses of as much as 89 percent. OGX has total obligations of 11.2 billion reais ($5.1 billion).

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-1...on-demise.html

[Serious News]

Eike Batista May Be Too Big To Fail

Business Insider
By Linette Lopez
December 5, 2013 3:42 PM

You know what they say — if you owe the bank $1,000 the bank owns you. If you owe the bank a million dollars you own the bank.

Now turn that million dollars into billions, and make that bank thousands of investors, at least one very powerful sovereign wealth fund, and an entire country.

Put all that together and you have former Brazilian billionaire tycoon Eike Batista's situation.

After losing $2 million a day last year and having a $37-billion-dollar fortune evaporate before his eyes, after the bankruptcy of his flagship oil and gas company OGX (with its sister shipbuilding company OSX likely to follow)], after the sale of many assets/controlling stakes in the companies he built, Eike Batista is still asking investors for money to rebuild his empire.

And they are giving it to him.

Bloomberg reports that OGX creditors have agreed to give Batista $200 million so that he can continue developing the oil fields that, in part, were the start of his woes. Last year it became clear that Batista's fields would not produce the volume of oil expected. Batista's stock plummeted 90%. Bondholders, like PIMCO, didn't get paid in October. OGX went bankrupt.

Even before OGX was officially in the hole, Batista was asking creditors for around $250 million to keep the company afloat through April. Now he's got some of that, and he can use that money to start work at the Tubarao Martelo offshore field. It may hold as many as 108.5 million barrels of oil.

So Batista has that cash, and he's got a little debt relief from creditors too.

Mubadala, Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, has taken a 25% haircut on Batista's debt, taking it from $2.3 billion to around $1.6 or $1.7 billion.

Back in the spring of 2012, the fund made a deal to provide Batista with $2 billion, the details of which are still mostly unknown.

Meanwhile as goes Batista, so goes Brazil. The erstwhile billionaire's six companies — OGX, MPX, LLX, MMX, OSX and CCX — all held together under EBX, were once powerhouses on the Brazilian stock exchange, the Ibovespa.

However, as of Aug. 1, the six companies have lost a combined $9.7 billion in 2013. All 300 publicly traded companies in Brazil have lost $203 billion in the same period.

Three of Batista's companies — OGX, LLX, and MMX — have been among the 10 biggest losers in the Ibovespa Sao Paolo Stock Exchange Index.

And MMX, an iron ore company, has contributed to the Ibovespa's most recent malaise. This week the exchange sank lower than any other in the world. Its loss was prompted by sinking shares in Petrobras, Brazil's state oil company (paging Jim Chanos) and MMX's earnings, which posted wider losses than analysts expected.

So it isn't just Batista who's hoping a cash injection will revitalize his empire, it's all of Brazil as well.

[Serious News]

WORLD
Brazil's Eike Batista: From billionaire to bankruptcy

By Vincent Bevins

SAO PAULO, Brazil - A little over a year ago, Brazilian playboy Eike Batista was reputed to be the seventh-richest man in the world and was in the habit of boasting loudly that he'd soon be No. 1. By this week, he had become one of the world's biggest paupers. On Wednesday, his flagship oil company, OGX, filed for bankruptcy. A personal fortune once valued at $30 billion had collapsed into a personal debt estimated at more than $800 million. Some Brazilians, long since soured on his cocky persona, responded with glee on social networks to the news that Batista's yacht, the Pink Fleet, would soon be sold for scrap.

[Serious News]

Brazil ex-billionaire on trial for insider trading

RIO DE JANEIRO — Eike Batista, the flamboyant Brazilian tycoon once named No. 7 on Forbes' list of the world's richest people, went on trial Tuesday in an insider trading case that could make him the first person in the country to go to prison on such charges.

The 58-year-old former billionaire who once reveled in the limelight made a now-rare public appearance with his arrival Tuesday at a federal criminal court in Rio de Janeiro.

It's the latest chapter in a vertiginous fall that saw Batista's estimated $30 billion fortune evaporate over the past two years as his oil, mining, logistics and shipbuilding empire crumbled. Batista often used to say he hoped to dethrone Mexico's Carlos Slim to become the world's richest person, but now says he's $1 billion in debt.

Batista faces market manipulation charges in the sales of shares in two of his companies, including the OGX oil exploration and production unit that filed for bankruptcy protection last year. If convicted, Batista faces fines and up to 13 years in prison, but experts say he could get a lighter sentence as a first-time defendant.

Batista has insisted he's innocent, saying the shares he sold belonged to creditors, not him.

Experts say the trial marks a shift in Brazil, where the rich and powerful were long considered above the law. It follows a 2012 corruption trial seen as striking a blow against impunity when the Supreme Court convicted 25 top operatives of the governing Workers' Party in a cash-for-votes scheme.

"This (the Batista trial) is one more episode in what I see as the affirmation of the rule of law in the Brazilian democracy," said Paulo Sotero, who heads the Brazil Institute at the Wilson Center, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. "Impunity was so prevalent in Brazil it became part of the culture. Well, it looks like the culture is changing."

Batista used to invite the press to photograph his Rio mansion, with a Lamborghini parked in the living room. He posed during Carnival celebrations with his then-wife, a samba queen who donned a dog collar with "Eike" spelled out in rhinestones. His 2011 autobiography was a best-seller.

His ascent coincided with a commodities boom in Brazil that spurred annual growth reaching 7.8 percent in 2008 before it fall to current flat levels. After making No. 7 on the Forbes list in 2012, Batista then dropped to number 100 a year later and then off the list entirely a year after that.

The Batista family has tangled with the law in the past. One of Batista's three sons, Thor, was convicted on manslaughter charges last year in connection with the 2012 death of cyclist he struck with his Mercedes-MacLaren sports car. The judge sentenced him to two years community service and a 1 million real fine.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/marke...ing/ar-BBetZTH

[Serious News]

Eike Batista’s Trial to Begin Tuesday After Appeal Rejected


By
Luciana Magalhaes

Updated Nov. 17, 2014 3:56 p.m. ET

0 COMMENTS

SÃO PAULO—Former Brazilian commodities tycoon Eike Batista is set to stand trial in a Rio de Janeiro court Tuesday on criminal charges that he defrauded investors in a country that has has recently been rocked by corporate scandals.

Prosecutors accuse Mr. Batista, 58, of manipulating financial markets and taking advantage of privileged information to sell shares of his once-highflying oil firm before the stock price plunged. If convicted on all charges, the entrepreneur who once ranked among the world’s richest people could face up to 13 years in prison.

“This is the first case that a Brazilian businessman of this relevance will stand trial with enough proof indicating he could go to jail,” said Flavio Roberto de Souza, the judge who will preside over Mr. Batista’s trial.

The trial against Mr. Batista comes after federal police recently arrested some of Brazil’s most prominent construction industry executives over allegations of widespread embezzlement at state oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA. Key suspects in the case have testified that some of the money from large Petrobras contracts was channeled to Brazil’s ruling Workers’ Party. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has denied knowledge of the alleged scheme.

Once one of Brazil’s most celebrated entrepreneurs, Mr. Batista surfed on a wave of optimism that swept over Latin America’s largest economy as strong demand for raw materials from China fueled a commodities boom. Since 2006, he raised billions of dollars as he took public five startups over five years, creating a commodities empire through a network of companies with names ending in “X” to mean multiplication of wealth.

But Mr. Batsita’s wealth evaporated over the last two years after his flagship oil startup OGX Petroleo e Gas Participaces SA missed production targets, leading to the collapse of his industrial empire and forcing OGX to seek bankruptcy protection in 2013, Latin America’s biggest ever. In 2012, Mr. Batista boasted wealth of more than $30 billion. Following a string of operational and financial failures, he now claims that his debt is $1 billion more than his assets.

Federal prosecutors say that Mr. Batista allegedly manipulated markets by claiming to be ready to invest as much as $1 billion in 2012 to prop up OGX, but never putting up the money.

“His trial will give those investors some hope that there is justice in Brazil and that even powerful people can be convicted and go to jail,” said Marcio Lobo, a lawyer representing more than 40 minority shareholders of Mr. Batista’s oil firm, who collectively have lost close to $77 million with OGX’s collapse. Mr. Lobo, who also invested in the firm, has lost some $270,000, he added.

Earlier Monday, a Rio de Janeiro judge rejected a request by Mr. Batista’s lawyers to suspend the lawsuit against their client, thereby confirming the beginning of the highly anticipated trial on Tuesday.

Mr. Batista has denied any wrongdoing. In an interview last year, Mr. Batista denied that he misled investors about his prospects. “The main mistake was that the resources that were supposed to be there were not productive,” he told The Wall Street Journal. His lawyers said allegations against their client would be proven false.

In September, federal prosecutors ordered freezes on Mr. Batista’s assets to help cover legal costs, fines and damages to investors if he is found guilty of allegations. Close to $50 million in assets were frozen from his bank accounts.

For Mr. Lobo, events such as OGX’s collapse and the corruption allegations hitting Petrobras show the fragility of Brazil’s market regulations, which discourage local investors from putting their money into the local exchange. But analysts said Mr. Batista’s case is an exception in a country where insider trading allegations are usually settled with the payment of fines.

“It was easy to find evidence” to justify a trial, Judge de Souza said. He expects to reach a verdict by early 2015.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/eike-...252918?tesla=y

—Paul Kiernan contributed to this article.

Write to Luciana Magalhaes at Luciana.Magalhaes@dowjones.com

[Serious News]

Brazilian Tycoon Eike Batista’s Trial Gets Underway

Brazilian commodities tycoon Eike Batista could face 13 years in jail

Disgraced Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista’s trial began in a Rio de Janeiro court Tuesday. Batista, 58, is facing criminal charges of manipulating financial markets and abusing privileged information to sell shares of his oil companies before the stock collapsed. If convicted, Batista, who was once one of the richest people in the world, is looking at up to 13 years in prison.

Brazilian federal prosecutors say that Eike Batista manipulated stock markets by claiming he was going to invest up to $1 billion to prop up OGX in 2012, but never coming through with the cash.

Statement from trial judge

Unlike in the U.S., judges in Brazil sometimes comment on cases before and during the trial. “This is the first case that a Brazilian businessman of this relevance will stand trial with enough proof indicating he could go to jail,” said Flavio Roberto de Souza, the judge who is presiding over Batista’s trial.





Brazil cracking down on white collar crime

Batista’s trial comes in the backdrop of Brazil’s federal police arresting several of Brazil’s most prominent construction industry executives on charges relating to embezzlement at state oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR). Several suspects have testified that some of the money from large Petrobras contracts was illegally sent to the ruling Workers’ Party. Current Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff says she knows nothing about the alleged kickback scheme.

The rise and fall of Eike Batista

Batista initially rode to multi-billionaire status on a wave of optimism that overtook Latin America’s largest economy in as strong demand for raw materials from China fueled a commodities boom. Beginning in 2006, he tool five startups public over five years, raising billions of dollars and building a commodities empire of companies with names ending in “X”, supposedly standing for multiplication of wealth.

However Eike Batista’s empire collapsed in 2012 after his biggest oil company OGX Petroleo e Gas Participaces SA missed production targets, leading to debt calls against his industrial holdings and forcing OGX to declare bankruptcy in 2013. Of note, Batista’s fortune was valued at more than $30 billion in early 2012. He now claims that he owes $1 billion more than his assets. Brazilian courts have frozen more than $50 million of Eike Batista’s assets.

http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/11/eike-batista-trial-2/

[Serious News]

Batista's ‘Megalomaniac Dream’ Makes Test Case, Judge Says

Former billionaire Eike Batista’s public persona makes his insider-trading trial a landmark case in Brazil, according to the judge hearing the case.

“Eike is a symbolic figure,” Judge Flavio Roberto de Souza told reporters in Rio de Janeiro after the trial’s first hearing yesterday. “I always say he was the poster boy of his own companies and with a megalomaniac dream of becoming the world’s richest man. To see a person with that type of attitude sitting on the accused bench is really a historic moment.”

The first session in a trial for alleged insider-trading and market manipulation against Batista, the world’s eighth-richest person in early 2012 before his empire of commodities and logistics companies collapsed, ended in a downtown Rio court yesterday after hearing three witnesses called by prosecutors. Souza set Dec. 10 and Dec. 17 for new hearings, when Batista may give testimony.

The trial’s opening day resembled a film set, with judge Souza, a Buddhist who meditates twice a day for about 40 minutes, competing with Batista’s legal team for the attention of several film crews present in the room. Just as his ascent to the top rung of the global rich list brought 58-year-old Batista legendary status, so has his sudden descent into the biggest corporate failure in South America.

The entrepreneur’s every move was scrutinized. When he got up from his seat and walked out of the courtroom midway through the proceedings, a stampede ensued as a group of camera-toting reporters joined in pursuit.

Testimony

“I’m only going to the toilet,” Batista, who was wearing a light-gray suit and purple tie, told those following him.

The hearing, which lasted almost three hours, heard testimony from Fernando Soares Vieira from Brazilian market regulator CVM, minority investor Aurelio Valporto and Mauro Coutinho Fernandes, an engineer who worked for Batista’s oil company, OGX Oleo & Gas Participacoes SA.

Batista, who had 230 million reais ($89 million) in Brazilian bank accounts frozen after the judiciary gained access to his tax and banking records, sat in the front row, either in silence or chatting with his advisers, including lawyer Sergio Bermudes.

“It’s going very well for Eike,” Ary Bergher, one of Batista’s lawyers, told reporters outside the court room. “There is still a long way to go and a lot of proceedings that need to be analyzed.”

Bermudes said the evidence presented by prosecutors in the trial was “inconsistent” and reiterated that Batista didn’t manipulate markets.

The entrepreneur’s lawyers have repeatedly said Batista is innocent.

Social Media

During the hearing, Batista’s defense urged the judge to hear the case behind closed doors, saying the presence of the media and others in the auditorium-like court hurt the ex-billionaire’s defense, which was “asphyxiated and strangled,” according to Bergher. The judge rejected the request.

After a particularly aggressive exchange between the entrepreneur’s lawyers and federal prosecutor Jose Panoeiro, Bergher gave his client a thumbs up and wink. Batista nodded his approval.

Batista’s trial overlaps with an unrelated probe into corruption at Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4), the government-run oil company, which has led to an uproar on social media and helped polarize voters in an election that saw President Dilma Rousseff win another four years in office last month. Petrobras has said it’s cooperating with investigations and is a victim.

A “fair” ruling for Batista’s trial will help Brazil improve its image among investors at a time when the country needs to recover confidence, said Pedro Dittrich, a partner at law firm TozziniFreire Advogados.

“This will certainly be an iconic case for Brazil because he invested billions and was the richest guy,” he said by telephone from Rio. “It’s important that the judiciary rules and rules right to give the market confidence.”

Second Case

The judge will also oversee a second case against the ex-billionaire, which originated in Sao Paulo and accuses him of forming a criminal organization, false representation and inducing investors on inaccurate grounds, Souza said. The fact that Batista doesn’t have a history of criminal behavior would mean he won’t face the maximum sentence allowed by law if he is found guilty, the judge said.

“The country is asking for a change, to have change of credibility in the established powers,” Souza told reporters. “This is a leading case for us because it’s the first time a defendant of international fame, with influencing companies, sits on the accused bench.”

While discouraged from expressing opinions about trials in interviews, judges in Brazil are allowed to discuss information that isn’t considered potentially harmful.

To contact the reporters on this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto in Rio de Janeiro at jspinetto@bloomberg.net; Tariq Panja in Rio de Janeiro at tpanja@bloomberg.net

[Serious News]