Brazilian billionaire and owner of the Gherkin charged in bribery scheme

Joseph Safra accused of corruption in relation to a conspiracy to pay 15.3m reais ($4.2m) in bribes to Brazilian tax officials

The Gherkin is one of London’s most recognisable skyscrapers. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Rupert Neate and agencies in New York-Thursday 31 March 2016 

The billionaire owner of the Gherkin, one of London’s most recognisable skyscrapers, has been charged in an alleged plot to bribe Brazilian officials in an attempt to cut his family company’s corporation tax bill.

Joseph Safra, the world’s richest banker with an estimated $18.3bn (£12.8bn) fortune according to Forbes magazine, was on Thursday accused of corruption in relation to a conspiracy to pay 15.3m reais ($4.2m) in bribes to tax officials, Brazilian prosecutors said.

Safra, who bought 30 St Mary’s Axe – better known as the Gherkin – for a reported £726m in 2014, was charged over the alleged 2014 scheme designed to reduce the tax bill for Banco Safra, Brazil’s 10th biggest bank which he owns the majority of.

The Brazilian authorities said Safra was not directly involved with the alleged corruption scheme, but said there is evidence that an employee was acting on his instructions when he arranged the alleged deal.

The authorities said they had wire taps of conversations between a Safra executive, João Inácio Puga, and tax officials.

“He [Puga] limited himself to negotiating, interacting with the other
people under investigation,” the prosecutors said of the alleged
scheme. “But the decisions were taken by [what Puga called] the
‘staff’, that is, Grupo Safra’s majority shareholder and president,

Joseph Y Safra. Therefore, Puga was Joseph’s agent.”

A spokesperson for the Safra Group said: “The allegations being promoted by a Brazilian prosecutor are unfounded. There have not been any improprieties by any of the businesses of The Safra Group. No representative of the group offered any inducement to any public official and the group did not receive any benefit in the judgement of the tribunal.”

The charges filed are a follow-up to a Brazilian police inquiry, known

as “Operation Zealots”, into kickbacks by companies through lobbyists. Dozens of other Brazilian firms have also been under investigation for suspected kickbacks.

Safra and his family control the São Paulo-based bank as part of a international conglomerate operating in 19 countries.

When it bought the Lord Foster-designed Gherkin in November 2014, Safra Group said: “While only 10 years old, this building is already a London icon that is distinguished from others in the market, with excellent value growth potential. We intend to make the building even better and more desirable through active ownership that will lead to a range of enhancements that will benefit tenants.”

Safra is Brazil’s second-richest person after Jorge Paulo Lemann, who owns a big stake in Anheuser-Busch InBev, the brewing giant behind Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois.

Safra was born into a rich banking family in Lebanon. The family moved to São Paulo in 1952. He and father Jacob Safra founded Banco Safra in the 1960s