Brazil's Odebrecht signs contract with power utility

The giant Brazilian construction company at the center of Latin America's largest corruption scandal has signed a $174 million contract with the power utility company Furnas, which is a subsidiary of Brazil's electricity holding company, Eletrobras.

Odebrecht's contract was signed March 19 after a bidding process and disclosed Monday in the government's official gazette.

It is one of the few contracts that the company has gotten since the onset of the sprawling "Car Wash" investigation in 2014 that has ensnared many of Brazil's business and political elite on corruption charges.

The contract is aimed at boosting the capacity of Rio de Janeiro's Santa Cruz thermoelectric plant from 350 megawatts to 507 megawatts.