NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Petrobras (PBR) - Get Report shares are down 3.8% to $6.17 in early market trading on Wednesday as Brazil's chief prosecutor asked the country's Supreme Court to investigate as many as 54 people for alleged involvement in a kickback scheme at the Brazilian oil company.

Investigators allege that clients overpaid Petrobras, which is state owned, for contracts and that the excess money was then funneled to the country's ruling Worker's Party and its allies, according to the BBC.

Exclusive Report:Jim Cramer's Best Stocks for 2015

The investigation includes politicians whose names have not yet been made public.

The investigation, nicknamed 'Operation Carwash', had been ongoing for months but was previously focused on corporate misconduct. Today's announcement officially expands that investigation into the political sphere.

The BBC estimates that the company has lost about $100 billion in value since September when the investigation into the company, which produces about 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, first gained steam.

Investigators believe that as much as $3.8 billion over at least a decade was involved in the scandal as about two dozen companies overpaid for service contracts with the company. Last month Brazil's prosecutor's office reportedly proposed that firms involved in the scandal collectively pay $1.5 billion in damages as well as yet to be announced fines.

In separate news, the company announced earlier this week that its board approved plans to divest about $13.8 billion in assets over the next two years, a sharp increase from the $5 billion to $11 billion in divestment the company had previously announced it would engage in.

The scale back is a result of the ongoing corruption investigation, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

TheStreet Ratings team rates PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER as a Hold with a ratings score of C-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER (PBR) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed - some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, attractive valuation levels and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow and poor profit margins."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 18.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 3.8%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share.
• PBR's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84 is somewhat low overall, but it is high when compared to the industry average, implying that the management of the debt levels should be evaluated further. Regardless of the somewhat mixed results with the debt-to-equity ratio, the company's quick ratio of 1.30 is sturdy.
• Net operating cash flow has decreased to $6,413.00 million or 18.05% when compared to the same quarter last year. In conjunction, when comparing current results to the industry average, PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER has marginally lower results.
• The company's current return on equity has slightly decreased from the same quarter one year prior. This implies a minor weakness in the organization. In comparison to the other companies in the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry and the overall market, PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER's return on equity is significantly below that of the industry average and is below that of the S&P 500.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: PBR Ratings Report