The chief executive of Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, Graca Foster, resigned Wednesday along with the entire board of directors as the company reels from a massive corruption scandal, officials said.
Petrobras said in a statement that "its board of directors will meet Friday to elect a new leadership after the resignation of the CEO and five directors."
The state oil firm has been at the center of a political firestorm over allegations that a corrupt network stole $4 billion from its coffers over the course of a decade, filtering much of it to politicians including members of left-wing President Dilma Rousseff`s ruling coalition.
The investigation is also targeting the country`s largest construction firm, accused of bribing Petrobras executives to secure big contracts.
Rousseff`s office did not immediately react to the resignations.
Reports of Foster`s imminent resignation had been swirling in the Brazilian media since Tuesday.
Petrobras shares closed up more than 14 percent Tuesday on the Sao Paulo stock exchange as investors welcomed her likely departure.
The company`s shares were up more than 2.8 percent Wednesday morning.
Foster, 61, spent her career at Petrobras and was named CEO in 2012.
Rousseff, who is close to Foster, held a meeting with the chief executive in Brasilia on Tuesday evening.
The president had publicly voiced support for Foster in recent weeks.
But the chief executive`s position grew increasingly untenable as Petrobras repeatedly delayed the release of its third-quarter results.
They were finally published last Wednesday, but without undergoing an external audit or accounting for losses due to the corruption scandal.
Rousseff, who was sworn in for a new four-year term on January 1, chaired the Petrobras board from 2003 to 2010, when she stepped down to run for president.
That covers most of the period during which investigators say a corrupt network including executives in the construction industry inflated Petrobras contracts by up to six percent with illicit surcharges.
The extra cash would then be passed on to front companies to be laundered and paid out in bribes, prosecutors say.
