Brazilian beverage company under investigation for bribery
In its Form 6-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 12, 2019, Ambev S.A., a soft drink manufacturer and brewing company based in Brazil, disclosed that it had received a letter from the Brazilian Securities Commission requesting information about the company’s involvement with a consulting company, Projeto Consultoria Empresarial e Financeiro Ltda, which is owned by Antonio Palocci, the former Brazilian Minister of Finance. Attached to the Brazilian authorities’ information request was a letter published in a Brazilian newspaper that alleges that Ambev paid bribes to Palocci and to former presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff for the purpose of preventing a tax increase on alcoholic beverages. Ambev is the largest brewer in Latin America and one of the largest beer producers in the world. It is a subsidiary of Interbrew International B.V., which is a subsidiary of Anheuser-Bush InBev.