Ex-Brazilian billionaire Batista re-arrested

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian ex-billionaire Eike Batista, who has been under house arrest pending an appeal of a 30-year jail sentence, was arrested again on Thursday as part of a sprawling corruption probe, officials said.

Batista, once the richest man in the Latin American country, was detained in Rio de Janeiro after a judge issued an order for his arrest, federal police told AFP.

Judge Marcelo Bretas also ordered the arrest of Batista´s associate, Luiz Arthur Correia, along with four others, G1 news site reported.

They are suspected of insider trading and money laundering, G1 said.

An emblem of Brazil´s boom years, Batista amassed a fortune with investments in mining and oil that in 2012 put him in seventh place on Forbes´s list of the world´s wealthiest.

But by 2013 a downturn in the commodities market wiped out a fortune that had been estimated at $30 billion.