Hi, and welcome to another MLEX podcast. My name is Anna Raga and I'm Mlex's managing editor in London.

It's been more than four years since Brazilian law enforcers made their first arrests in what has become Brazil's largest corruption scandal involving state-controlled oil company Petrobras.

Federal prosecutors have unveiled a web of endemic bribery and other illegal activity involving payments of more than $5 billion to company executives and political parties.

The investigations have landed high-profile businessmen and politicians in jail and

have shaken the reputations and finances of some of the world's largest companies.

I'm here with Anapala Candil and Rodrigo Russo, Emlex's Brazil correspondence in Sao Paulo,

to talk about how the corporate landscape has changed in Brazil in the wake of the so-called Lava Jato probe. Hi, Napala, hi Rodrigo.

Hello, everyone.

Now, over the last few months, you've both been talking to compliance officers

in some of the companies at the heart of Lava Jato.

There seems to be a concerted effort across the country to turn the page and start with a clean slate.

Rodrigo, what are companies doing and have these companies really become evangelical about compliance

programs?

These companies must be evangelical about compliance programs.

When you talk about Lava Jato, you talk about private companies doing business with a state-controlled company. If you're caught in a

corruption probe, you might face the risk of a debarment sanction and this could

represent the death of a company. If you were a company, say in the construction

business, you heavily depend on government bits.

So it's fundamental that you put in place a good governance structure and compliance initiatives.

From what we've been discussing with compliance officers of these companies in Brazil,

they are trying everything they can. They are implementing

ethics hotlines so that employees and third parties can report wrongdoing. They

...