Former director of Brazil's oil giant found guilty of money laundering

Brazil's Supreme Court on Wednesday found the former director of supply in Brazil's state oil giant Petrobras guilty of money laundering and racketeering.

Paulo Roberto Costa, who has been under house arrest here, was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison, but he is expected to serve a reduced sentence of another year of house arrest for helping authorities identify other suspects.

The former executive was convicted for his role in a kickback scheme related to the construction of Petrobras' Abreu e Lima oil refinery in the country's northeastern Pernambuco state.

Another seven people involved in the scheme were also convicted, including Alberto Yousseff, a black-market money dealer believed to be one of the main operators of the long-running scheme, which was first uncovered last year.

Yousseff was sentenced to nine years and two months in prison for money laundering, but he will serve a reduced three-year sentence for cooperating with authorities.

In addition to the prison terms, the defendants have to pay a total of 18 million reals (6 million U.S. dollars) to Petrobras.

The defendants can still appeal the court's decision.

Both Costa and Yousseff are expected to be tried on other charges of corruption, and could receive additional jail time.

Petrobras has been at the center of a massive corruption scandal since late last year. Some 50 former and serving politicians are believed to have benefited from the scheme, according to the supreme court.

The scandal also hurt the oil giant badly, as the company announced Wednesday 21.587 billion reals (7.2 billion dollars) in losses in 2014, some 6.2 billion reals (2.1 billion dollars) siphoned off by the corruption scheme.