Facing an international arrest warrant Brazilian magnate Eike Batista said Sunday he would give himself up to authorities to “clean things up”.
Wanted over money-laundering accusations, Batista is the latest high-profile suspect in investigations linked to a vast bribery scandal at state oil firm Petrobras.
“I’m returning to respond to justice, as it is my duty,” Batista said in an interview broadcast by Brazil’s Globo TV, which was shot at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport.
It’s time “to help clean things up,” the mogul said before boarding a flight for Rio de Janeiro.
Batista, 60, is alleged to have paid a $16.5 million bribe to former Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral, who is already behind bars.
The cross-border agency Interpol last week issued a “red notice” alert for Batista after Brazilian police searched the oil and mining magnate’s home over the corruption accusations.
Batista reached number seven on Forbes magazine’s world richest people list in 2012. In 2011 he was said to be worth $30 billion.
But his fortune largely evaporated when his oil company OGX collapsed in 2013.
