Trafigura agrees to preserve email data of former executives charged in Brazil bribery case

Multinational trading company Trafigura told Brazilian federal prosecutors it will preserve the e-mails of two former company executives implicated in a bribery scheme with state-controlled oil giant Petrobras, according to a court filing. 

The filing was submitted today by Trafigura’s legal team to federal judge Gabriela Hardt. Hardt oversees the bribery lawsuit against Mariano Marcondes Ferraz and Marcio Pinto de Magalhães, the two former executives of the multinational company.

Documents attached to the filing show an exchange of letters between Trafigura do Brasil Consultoria and Trafigura Limited, based in London. On Jan. 30, Trafigura Limited replied to the Brazilian unit that “the e-mails currently on the Relevant Accounts are being preserved” — as federal prosecutors had requested after the data-protection matter was brought to their attention.

In January, Trafigura told Brazilian authorities it couldn’t disclose the emails of the former officials of the company because doing so could violate European data protection laws.

Trafigura told its Brazilian unit that “after consulting with our external legal counsel […] we have concluded that we will need to take further, detailed legal advice from local counsel in a number of jurisdictions (including, at least, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Switzerland) in order to understand whether and how historical e-mails can be transferred to Brazil in compliance with law."

On Dec. 14, Ferraz and Magalhães were charged with corruption offenses. The Lava Jato corruption task force is investigating bribery schemes involving multinational trading companies and Petrobras officials.