Brazilian ex-billionaire Eike Batista surrenders to Rio police

Fallen tycoon Eike Batista, who personified Brazil's economic boom and once boasted he'd become the world's richest man, was arrested today at Rio de Janeiro's airport after returning to face corruption charges.
Batista, who rose to become his country's wealthiest person and number seven in the world, with a fortune of $34.5 billion reported by Bloomberg in 2012, flew in from New York and walked immediately to a waiting police SUV.
The 60-year-old former oil and mining magnate is alleged to have paid a $16.5 million bribe to ex-Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral, who is already behind bars for allegedly taking bribes over World Cup and Olympics infrastructure projects.

As a brash, big-spending entrepreneur with a playboy lifestyle, Batista symbolized Brazil's surge to economic power under then-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. His downfall now represents a new landmark in a series of sprawling but interconnected corruption scandals enveloping much of Brazil's elite, including Lula himself.
Demonstrating the judiciary's resolve in that campaign, Supreme Court President Carmen Lucia today said she would allow the use of testimony by executives from the Odebrecht construction company in a massive bribery and embezzlement case centered on state oil company Petrobras.
The construction executives gave a mountain of what is expected to be politically explosive evidence as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors probing the Petrobras scandal. The contents of the evidence remains secret, but leaks have pointed to current President Michel Temer being implicated.

For Brazilians sick of top-to-bottom corruption in Latin America's biggest economy, every high-profile development in the anti-corruption fight is a cause to cheer.
Globo television broadcast extensive live coverage of Batista's arrival on a commercial flight from New York and his transfer under escort to a medical center to undergo exams.
He was then sent next to the Ary Franco prison in Rio which, like many in Brazil, is seriously overcrowded. It was not clear yet whether the ex-billionaire would get any special privileges.