Rio de Janeiro, April 20 (EFE-RHC)-- A vice president of construction company Camargo Correa told Brazilian prosecutors that he paid $36 million in bribes to officials of state-controlled oil company Petrobras, the press reported, citing a document prepared by prosecutors.

Eduardo Hermelino Leite, who was arrested in November for his alleged role in the corruption case and was later released, cut a deal with prosecutors to reduce any possible prison time. Leite paid the bribes between 2007 and 2012 to two Petrobras officials, one who was in charge of services and the other of the oil company’s supply unit, Globo television reported.

Camargo Correa hired third parties as subcontractors to provide services to Petrobras, with the cost of the work being inflated to hide the illegal payments, Leite told prosecutors. Police have arrested five former Petrobras executives as well as owners and executives of construction companies that had contracts with Brazil’s largest company, which accounts for about 12 percent of the gross domestic product.

Investigators are still trying to determine how much money was siphoned out of Petrobras, with estimates putting the figure in the billions of dollars.