The company was founded in 1944 in Salvador by Norberto Odebrecht, and is active in the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Odebrecht controls Braskem, which by revenue is the fourth largest petrochemical company in the Americas and the seventeenth in the world.

[6] On 7 March 2016, he was sentenced to 19 years and 4 months jail, for paying over US$30 million in bribes to executives of Petrobras, in exchange for contracts and influence.

[15] Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies (lower house of the Congress of Brazil) Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ), was investigated for allegedly receiving more than US$40 million in kickbacks and bribes.

[17] Former Minister of Mines and Energy Edison Lobão (PMDB) was investigated for receiving more than US$50 million in bribes from Petrobras and arrested 19 October 2016 and held in custody due to what the justice department of Paraná state called "a concrete possibility of flight given his access to hidden resources abroad, as well as double nationality.

[20] On 4 March 2016, former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was detained and questioned as part of a huge fraud inquiry into the state oil company Petrobras after his house was raided by federal police agents.

Dozens of executives and politicians were arrested or investigated on suspicion of overcharging on contracts with Petrobras and kicking back part of the money for bribes and electoral campaign donations.

[26] At least $92 million of the bribes Odebrecht has admitted making were paid in the Dominican Republic, and 14 people were charged with bribery or money laundering.

[25] The Dominican Republic announced in February $184 million in fines — twice the amount of its illicit payments to win public works contracts between 2001 and 2014.

This investigation detailed how Odebrecht would have made bribes to presidents, former presidents and government officials of 12 countries: Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, United States, Guatemala, Mexico, Mozambique, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic and Venezuela, during the last 20 years, to obtain benefits in public contracting.