RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil's judiciary on Wednesday said it was blocking the bank accounts of multimillionaire businessman Eike Batista after a judge ordered his accounts frozen amid charges of stock market manipulation.
Federal prosecutors had last week filed criminal charges against Batista and embarked on moves to freeze an estimated 1.5 billion reais ($635 million) of assets, including properties.
Brazil's central bank blocked 117.3 million reais ($49.7 million) in accounts belonging to Batista, once Brazil's richest and the world's eighth-richest person with a fortune of some $30 billion.
Now believed worth less than $100 million, Batista had insisted in a recent interview with Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper that his accounts are "a billion reais in the red."
Asked about alleged recent transfers of assets to relatives Batista told the paper that was merely "family planning -- everyone does it."
Last week, the Rio de Janeiro prosecutor's office revealed it was charging Batista for deceiving investors over a reported plan to invest $1 billion in oil company OGX only to renege on putting a share option at a given share price level.
He also stands accused of using privileged information last year to sell off company stock.
Comments
Comments are closed.