Graça Foster resigned as CEO of Petrobras on February 4, 2015, amid the fallout from the Operation Car Wash corruption scandal.
On February 4, 2015, Graça Foster announced her resignation as CEO of Petrobras, along with several other senior executives, amid the escalating Operation Lava Jato (Car Wash) corruption scandal that implicated the company in a vast bribery and money-laundering scheme involving contractors and politicians.
Although Foster herself was never personally accused of corruption, the scandal severely damaged Petrobras's finances and reputation, forcing a wholesale change in leadership to restore investor confidence. Her departure marked the end of a tenure of nearly three years during which she had overseen ambitious offshore pre-salt exploration projects amid falling global oil prices and mounting corporate debt.
Her resignation was a significant moment in Brazilian corporate and political history, symbolizing the broader reckoning of the country's political and business establishment with systemic corruption. Despite the scandal, Foster's legacy as a trailblazing woman in the energy sector, and as the first woman to lead a major national oil company, remained largely intact in the eyes of many observers, who separated her personal achievement from the institutional failures that led to her departure.