Bill Gates' Foundation Sues Brazil's Petrobas After Corruption Scandal

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust has sued Brazil's Petrobras to recoup stock losses stemming from a corruption scandal at the state-run oil company.

According to a complaint filed late Thursday night in federal court in Manhattan, Petrobras' "pervasive bribery and money laundering scheme" caused the trust and another plaintiff, WGI Emerging Markets Fund LLC, to lose tens of millions of dollars by investing in the company.

"Indeed, the scandal still seems to escalate by the day—as more guilty pleas, more arrests and more secret bank accounts are uncovered," the complaint said.

Petrobras, whose formal name is Petroleo Brasileiro SA, is facing a slew of U.S. class-action litigation claiming that years of corruption, including bribery, inflated the value of more than $98 billion of its stock and bonds.