As Petrobras scandal spreads, economic toll mounts for Brazil

ITABORAÍ, Brazil (Reuters) - For the 20 men hanging on at the Pousada do Trabalhador, a 600-bed boarding house on the dusty outskirts of this boom town northeast of Rio de Janeiro, the dream that Brazil's oil wealth would bring a better life was over. Their jobs at Comperj, a $15-billion oil refinery being built here in Itaboraí by state-run energy giant Petrobras (PETR4.SA), are gone, and their employer - a mid-sized engineering company - bankrupt. The men are the latest victims of Brazil's biggest-ever corruption scandal, a multi-billion dollar graft scheme involving Petrobras, engineering companies and politicians that is battering the world's seventh-largest economy. Petrobras' size - it is Brazil's biggest company - amplifies the scandal.

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