The biggest corruption scandal in Latin America’s history

This is Comperj.

The biggest petrochemical complex in Brazil.

It’s located in Itaboraí, a small city in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

The multibillion dollar project launched in 2008 and the plan was to open in 2011.

Thousands of Brazilians moved there to work.

But it’s 2018, and Comperj never opened.

Construction of the complex stopped in 2015, after it became a symbol of the largest corruption

scandal in Brazil’s history -- Operation Car Wash.

Hundreds of prominent Brazilians including CEOs, members of Congress and even a former

President have been implicated.

Some of Brazil’s largest companies lost billions of dollars and the country slid further

into recession.

Four years since it broke, the scandal is still rippling through Brazil, leaving places

like Itaboraí devastated in its wake.

Itaboraí was the perfect place for one of Brazil’s most ambitious energy projects.

It had the space for 2 refineries and a petrochemical plant - spanning 45 square kilometers.

It’s also close to Brazil’s newly discovered natural gas fields off the coast of Rio and

Sao Paulo.

When the project launched, it was estimated that Comperj would generate 200,000 direct

and indirect jobs in the area.

Itaboraí became a boomtown.

In 2010, 50,000 people moved there, 160 new businesses opened, and Itaboraí’s population