Wasn’t me

16 September 2013 By Christopher Swann

The collapse of the Brazilian tycoon’s $60 bln empire seems to be everyone’s fault but his own. He claims no “special knowledge.” Chiefs at firms like Lehman, Bear Stearns and Enron all passed the buck, too. Bruised investors can take a Batista comeback at his word, and avoid it.

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Eike Batista blamed oil executives at his explorer OGX for the collapse of the company, which has lost around 95 percent of its value over the past year, according to an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Sept. 16. Batista said executives misled him about the prospects for the company’s oil production to win bigger bonus checks.
“The motivation wasn’t necessarily to bring me the truth,” he said. “I am the owner of a big group. I alone can’t do it. Let’s say I can be the owner of a hospital, but without 50 surgeons in their areas you are nothing. I don’t have the special knowledge. You wouldn’t ask the owner of a hospital to operate on your kidney,” he added.

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