Corrupt Brazilian tycoon freed for house arrest

CURITIBA: Marcelo Odebrecht, the construction tycoon at the center of Brazil's biggest ever corruption scandal, was released from prison Tuesday to begin house arrest, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

Odebrecht, 49, left the prison in Curitiba after serving two and a half years behind bars. He will be given a monitoring bracelet and then return to his luxury home in Sao Paulo.

The former CEO of Latin America's biggest construction company still has seven and a half years to serve of his sentence for organizing the systemic bribery of politicians to gain influence and contracts for Odebrecht in Brazil and across the region.

The scandal has implicated President Michel Temer and many of the country's top politicians.