This archive report was first published on 11 August 2019.
On August 10, 2019, Brazilian businessman Eike Batista was arrested in Rio de Janeiro on suspicion of insider trading and money laundering, according to the news portal G1.
Appeals Court judge Simone Schreiber later ruled that the detention of the magnate, once considered Brazil's richest man, 'violated the Constitution... and the principle of presumption of innocence.'
As reported by the G1 news site, a Batista attorney stated that his client will be released on Sunday morning.
Ex-billionaire Eike Batista, 62, had been under house arrest pending an appeal of a 30-year jail sentence, which was handed down in 2018 for corruption and money laundering.
He was found guilty of paying a Sh1.7 billion (USD 16.5 million) bribe to former Rio governor Sergio Cabral.
Batista amassed a fortune with investments in mining and oil, which in 2012 put him in seventh place on Forbes's list of the world's wealthiest.
However, a downturn in the commodities market in 2013 wiped out a fortune that had been estimated at Sh3.1 trillion (USD 30 billion).
