(Adds details throughout)
SAO PAULO, April 7 (Reuters) - Grupo BTG Pactual SA said Thursday an independent probe found no signs of illicit practices by former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman André Esteves, who was arrested in November for allegedly obstructing justice in a sweeping corruption investigation.
According to a final report on the probe, elaborated by international law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and local peer Veirano Advogados, there was no evidence that BTG Pactual or any of its employees participated in graft or any other illicit activities.
The billionaire financier, who was jailed on Nov. 25 and released late in December, had to surrender his executive posts at the bank he helped found in the light of the arrest and his alleged involvement in "Operation Car Wash," Brazil's biggest ever corruption investigation.
The situation triggered a massive slump in the price of BTG Pactual's shares and bonds, and massive client fund withdrawals.
Prosecutors said Esteves had worked along with a senior senator to obstruct an investigation involving state-controlled oil giant Petróleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras. Esteves, through his lawyer, has denied the allegations.
Units in BTG Pactual, a blend of voting and non-voting shares in the firm's investment-banking and buyout divisions, rose 2.6 percent to 17.24 reais on Thursday. Units have dropped 38 percent in the past six months.
(Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Additional reporting by Reese Ewing in São Paulo; Editing by Bernadette Baum)