Avianca's majority shareholders arrested in Brazil on accusations of corruption

The majority shareholders of Colombia’s Avianca Holdings, brothers German and Jose Efromovich, were arrested in Brazil by the country’s federal police on Wednesday as part of the sprawling Car Wash corruption probe, authorities said. Prosecutors have accused the brothers of laundering money and bribing public officials in order to land ship-building contracts with Transpetro, the logistics unit of Brazilian oil company Petrobras. The accusations are unrelated to Avianca. The judge handling the case ordered the brothers to be detained and put on house arrest. The two will wear electric monitors and be forbidden from leaving Brazil. The judge said there was reason to believe that the two had created a corporate structure in Brazil and abroad to launder money, costing public coffers some 610m reais ($111m). The Avianca-branded subsidiaries in Brazil, Argentina and Peru have all folded since last year, while the Colombian carrier is going through bankruptcy restructuring. Avianca Holdings declined to comment. The Efromovichs retain a majority stake of just over 50% in the now-bankrupt company but do not have voting rights.<br/>