Brazilian construction magnate Marcelo Odebrecht received a sentence of 19 years in prison linked to the country's biggest scandal that also involved Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The former chief executive of South America's biggest construction company was arrested in June 2015 along with Andrade Gutierrez construction company boss Otavio Azevedo.

On Tuesday, a Brazilian court handed down his sentence of 19 years and 4 months imprisonment after finding him guilty of bribing Petrobras officials to gain an advantage over contracts with the government.

Marcelo Odebrecht's Link to Petrobras

Odebrecht is considered one of the country's most influential businessmen and among the dozens who was dragged into the Petrobras controversy.

Before his sentencing, the 47-year-old construction conglomerate was convicted of paying bribes worth over $30 million to Petrobras officials in order to gain an advantage over its competitors.

However, Odebrecht's legal counsel dubbed the decision as "manifestly unjust and unfair because it does not have any basis in the evidence produced," they said. "The sentence produced can only be seen as a serious miscarriage of justice or as the pure will of the judge," they added.

The Car Wash Probe

The two-year investigation which has been dubbed as the "Car Wash Probe" uncovered how the suspects worked "to collaborate systematically to manipulate Petrobras tenders for the construction of large-scale works from 2006."

According to Curitiba judge Sergio Moro, the cartel formed by Odebrecht with other companies paid Petrobras officials to gain the power to decide who wins contracts with the oil company with the "highest possible price."

"The contractors, united in something that they called a 'club', previously agreed among themselves who would be the winners of the Petrobras contracts, manipulating the prices presented during bidding," Moro wrote in his ruling.

Ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's Involvement

Brazil's ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was taken into custody for questioning regarding his role in the scam, which ran during his presidency between 2003 and 2010.

Apparently, Lula is accused of taking bribes of about $8 million in the form of donations to the Lula Institute, one of his charity projects.

Since he was involved, his successor, Dilma Rousseff, has also been dragged into the issue, particularly because she was the chairperson of Petrobras during the entirety of the scam.

She has not been officially charged in anything linked to the scandal but Rousseff faces possible impeachment as opposition against the Worker's Party grows stronger with the emergence of the Petrobras issue.