Share via Email


* Email To: (Separate multiple addresses with a semicolon)
* Your Name:
* Email From: (Your IP Address is 44.213.75.78)
* Email Subject: (personalize your subject)


Email Content:
Chick-News.com Poultry Industry News, Comments and more by Simon M. Shane

Legislators Raising Ethics Issues Regarding JBS

08/19/2021

Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) have addressed a letter to Secretary of the Treasury, Dr. Janet Yellen, requesting a review of acquisitions of U.S. companies by JBS S.A.  At issue are court disclosures that major shareholders Joesley and Wesley Batista, executives of J&F Holdings, the parent company of JBS S.A., were involved in national and foreign bribery.  JBS S.A. paid a penalty of $280 million to the U.S. Department of Justice to settle foreign bribery charges. The Batista Brothers were recently released from jail in Brazil.  It is a matter of record that the Batista brothers distributed more than $150 million to cabinet members, politicians, executives in the Brazil Development Bank, the Brazil Ministry of Agriculture, and many government agencies to obtain sweetheart loans used to purchase U.S. companies in addition to other concessions.

 

The letter to the Department of the Treasury is a repeat of a previous request in 2019 alleging JBS of “illicit financial activities”. Senators Menendez and Rubio have also requested the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to scruitinize JBS acquisitions in the U.S.  The legislators consider that there may be security concerns over concentration of ownership of U.S. food production by a company based in Brazil.


Wesley (left) and Joesely Batista

 

In a related matter, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has expressed concern over the intention of JBS to purchase the 20 percent of the shareholding in Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation that is not owned by the holding company in Brazil.  Grassley is an opponent of concentration of beef and pork production by four major companies including JBS subsidiaries JBS USA Pork and JBS USA Beef and Pilgrim’s Pride the Nation’s second-ranked broiler producer.


 
Copyright © 2024 Simon M. Shane