Brazil’s Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) has suspended its preliminary administrative proceedings for investigation against Seatrium’s wholly owned local subsidiary Estaleiro Jurong Aracruz (EJA).

Singapore’s Seatrium, formerly Sembcorp Marine, on Friday said it has been informed by the CGU that these proceedings have been suspended. EJA in late March found itself under the Brazilian authorities’ spotlight to investigate “alleged irregularities”.

Then-Sembmarine at the time said the launched proceedings “generally relate” to past conduct investigated in connection with the historic Operation Car Wash scandal, which involved contractors’ intermediaries paying bribes to secure rig-building contracts for Brazil’s national oil company Petrobras.

“The company will continue to cooperate and work with the Brazilian authorities. [We] will continue to monitor developments in Brazil with respect to the above and will make appropriate announcements in the event of any material developments,” Seatrium said on Friday.

A former consultant with connections to a Brazilian subsidiary of Sembmarine in 2020 was sentenced to jail time and fined for corruption following the Operation Car Wash graft probe.

Guilherme Esteves de Jesus was engaged as a consultant in 2012 by Sembmarine subsidiaries in Brazil and acted as an intermediary on contracts, including an order for the construction of drillships for Sete Brasil, a state-sponsored drilling company.

The drilling units, worth more US$4 billion combined, were to have been built at EJA’s yard in Brazil.