A timeline of chaos, corruption, and corporate crimes.
APRIL 2024
THE BATISTA BROTHERS STAGE POWER GRAB AND SEIZE SEATS ON JBS BOARD
APRIL 2024
THE BATISTA BROTHERS STAGE POWER GRAB AND SEIZE SEATS ON JBS BOARD
2024
FEBRUARY 2024
JBS announces delays in its plans to trade shares on the New York Stock Exchange, claiming they will renew pursuits in the second half of 2024.
FEBRUARY 2024
New York Attorney General Letitia James files a lawsuit against JBS USA for misleading the public about its environmental impact and claims that it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 despite documented plans to increase production, as well as targeting consumers with fake sustainability claims to boost sales: “JBS USA’s greenwashing exploits the pocketbooks of everyday Americans and the promise of a healthy planet for future generations.”
New York is suing the world’s biggest meat company. It might be a tipping point for greenwashing
Letitia James’s lawsuit accuses JBS of deceiving customers about being climate-friendly – and the implications could be far-reaching.
READ ARTICLE2024
FEBRUARY 2024
JBS announces delays in its plans to trade shares on the New York Stock Exchange, claiming they will renew pursuits in the second half of 2024.
FEBRUARY 2024
New York Attorney General Letitia James files a lawsuit against JBS USA for misleading the public about its environmental impact and claims that it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 despite documented plans to increase production, as well as targeting consumers with fake sustainability claims to boost sales: “JBS USA’s greenwashing exploits the pocketbooks of everyday Americans and the promise of a healthy planet for future generations.”
New York is suing the world’s biggest meat company. It might be a tipping point for greenwashing
Letitia James’s lawsuit accuses JBS of deceiving customers about being climate-friendly – and the implications could be far-reaching.
READ ARTICLEFEBRUARY 2024
THE BATISTA BROTHERS ARE NAMED TO THE BOARD OF PILGRIM’S PRIDE
FEBRUARY 2024
THE BATISTA BROTHERS ARE NAMED TO THE BOARD OF PILGRIM’S PRIDE
Unlikely Allies Want to Bar a Brazilian Beef Giant From U.S. Stock Markets
Environmentalists and American meat producers alike are asking regulators to keep JBS, the world’s biggest meatpacker, off the New York Stock Exchange.
READ ARTICLEJANUARY 2024
A bipartisan group of 15 U.S. senators, including Cory Booker (D-NJ), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Jon Tester (D-MT), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), call on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler to scrutinize JBS’s IPO efforts, urging the agency to “protect the integrity of U.S. capital markets and the legal rights of U.S. investors by exposing the risks that JBS poses to potential shareholders, including its track record of corruption, human rights abuses, monopolization of the meatpacking market, as well as environmental risks.”
JANUARY 2024
A cross-party group of UK Parliamentarians, led by former Minister for Energy, Climate, and the Environment, Lord Goldsmith, call on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to reject JBS’s IPO for its destruction of the environment: “We implore you to reject the JBS IPO application and send a clear message that the United States stands firm in its commitment to combating climate change.”
Unlikely Allies Want to Bar a Brazilian Beef Giant From U.S. Stock Markets
Environmentalists and American meat producers alike are asking regulators to keep JBS, the world’s biggest meatpacker, off the New York Stock Exchange.
READ ARTICLEJANUARY 2024
A bipartisan group of 15 U.S. senators, including Cory Booker (D-NJ), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Jon Tester (D-MT), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), call on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler to scrutinize JBS’s IPO efforts, urging the agency to “protect the integrity of U.S. capital markets and the legal rights of U.S. investors by exposing the risks that JBS poses to potential shareholders, including its track record of corruption, human rights abuses, monopolization of the meatpacking market, as well as environmental risks.”
JANUARY 2024
A cross-party group of UK Parliamentarians, led by former Minister for Energy, Climate, and the Environment, Lord Goldsmith, call on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to reject JBS’s IPO for its destruction of the environment: “We implore you to reject the JBS IPO application and send a clear message that the United States stands firm in its commitment to combating climate change.”
JULY 2023
JBS PUSHES FORWARD WITH PLANS TO LIST ON THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE
JULY 2023
JBS PUSHES FORWARD WITH PLANS TO LIST ON THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE
2023
JUNE 2023
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) holds a hearing on cattle supply chains and deforestation of the Amazon, stating JBS is “nowhere near” its commitment to eliminate deforestation from its supply chain, looking the other way, and greenwashing its products at the expense of American agriculture: “American ranchers are forced to compete in a rigged game against a corporate giant that gets away with flouting the rules.”
JUNE 2023
The National Advertising Review Board announces its recommendation that JBS discontinue using claims of “Net Zero” plans and commitments for containing misleading claims and evidence of greenwashing.
JBS: Climate Chaos And Exploitation In The Amazon
Practices include bribery and corruption, price-fixing, forest destruction, forced labor and labor abuses, invasion and land grabbing of Indigenous and traditional territories.
READ ARTICLEBrazilian meat giant under fire for allegedly misleading investors
JBS sold more than $3 billion worth of ‘green bonds’ in the U.S., but a watchdog group says its impact on Amazon forests belies its pledges.
READ ARTICLEAPRIL 2023
U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) write to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to consider yet again initiating suspension and debarment proceedings against JBS: “The farmers, ranchers, and taxpayers of this country must be certain that USDA is willing to do its part to hold corporate criminals accountable.”
JANUARY 2023
Activist group Mighty Earth files a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that JBS is failing to meet its emissions targets and misleading investors after the company sold $3.2 billion worth of “green bonds” linked to the company’s sustainability goals in 2021.
2022
NOVEMBER 2022
A federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor finds that JBS used cleaning services that used dozens of children between the ages of 13 and 17 to clean its meatpacking facilities.
JUNE 2022
U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) writes to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack expressing concerns about the USDA awarding government contracts to JBS despite its criminal and civil cases for bribery, price fixing, and fraud: “While many Americans are struggling to put food on their tables, it is troubling to see taxpayer dollars going to a major agribusiness that has such an egregious record of legal violations.”
Children illegally hired for graveyard shifts cleaning JBS meat plants
Children are working dangerous jobs at JBS meat processing plants in Minnesota and Nebraska, hired illegally for overnight shifts and tasks that left a 13-year-old with caustic chemical burns, federal officials say.
READ ARTICLEJBS reaches 'icebreaker' settlement of beef price-fixing claims
JBS SA agreed to pay $52.5 million to settle litigation accusing meat-packing companies of conspiring to limit supply in the $63 billion-a-year U.S. beef market in order to inflate prices and boost profit.
READ ARTICLEFEBRUARY 2022
JBS agrees to pay over $50 million to settle antitrust litigation for limiting the supply of beef to inflate its prices and boost its profits. “If there were any doubt about the shenanigans Big Packers play to line their pockets at the expense of consumers and independent producers, look no further than JBS’ $52.5 million settlement in price-fixing litigation,” said U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in a statement.
2021
NOVEMBER 2021
JBS settles an additional $13 million settlement for its role in an industry-wide scheme to fix pork prices, paid to restaurants and retailers.
AUGUST 2021
U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) call on CFIUS a second time, urging a formal review of the transactions made by JBS, J&F Investimentos, and any other entities owned or controlled by the Batista brothers: “When foreign companies benefit from corrupt practices and spread them to U.S. markets, they jeopardize our economic security, present direct risks to our businesses, and undermine our efforts to fight corruption abroad.”
JBS SA’s $13 Million Settlement Approved in Pork Antitrust Case
Second of three JBS agreements gets nod from federal judge. Third, with consumers, brings total to $57 million if approved.
READ ARTICLE2020
JBS Settlement of Pork Price-Fixing Suit Is Worth $24.5 Million
JBS will pay, cooperate to resolve part of antitrust case. Suit alleges industrywide cartel scheme by top processors.
READ ARTICLEDECEMBER 2020
JBS SA pay $24.5 million to settle part of a proposed class action lawsuit alleging an industrywide price-fixing scheme.
OCTOBER 2020
The U.S. Department of Justice orders J&F Investimentos, JBS’s parent company, owned by the Batista Brothers, to pay over $256 million for its guilty plea in a criminal foreign bribery case under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: “Executives at the very highest levels of the company used U.S. banks and real estate to pay tens of millions of dollars in bribes to corrupt government officials in Brazil.”
JANUARY–APRIL 2020
Amnesty International uncovers JBS’s illegal cattle grazing, human rights abuses, and displacement of Indigenous peoples in protected Amazon land, while the company’s meatpacking facilities in the U.S. lead to widespread COVID-19 outbreaks and hundreds of preventable deaths due to negligence of CDC guidelines and inhumane working conditions.
“The Workers Are Being Sacrificed”: As Cases Mounted, Meatpacker JBS Kept People on Crowded Factory Floors
With coronavirus outbreaks at two-thirds of the company’s beef processing plants, employees are asking, “Why didn’t they help protect us?”
READ ARTICLE2019
U.S. senators call for probe of Brazilian meatpacker JBS
Two U.S. senators called on the U.S. Treasury on Tuesday to open an investigation into the world's largest meat processing company, Brazil's JBS S.A.
READ ARTICLENOVEMBER 2019
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) condemns the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s failure to investigate JBS’s funding and urges them to initiate suspension and debarment proceedings with JBS and its subsidiaries: “This relevant corruption and illegal behavior are directly related to the company’s entry to and consolidation of the United States meatpacking sector.”
OCTOBER 2019
JBS begins benefitting from taxpayer-funded bailout money as part of former President Trump’s financial relief program for farmers impacted by the trade war with China.
Ultimately, JBS receives $78 million in pork contracts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture – more than any other American pork producer.
JANUARY 2019
In light of JBS’s admitted criminal conduct, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) urge the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to investigate the company’s acquisition of U.S. entities: “The activities and operations of JBS S.A. have implications for our national security and the security of the American food system.”
This foreign meat company got U.S. tax money. Now it wants to conquer America.
JBS, a Brazilian company that is the largest meat producer in the world, has received $78 million in government pork contracts funded with the bailout funds.
READ ARTICLE2023
JUNE 2023
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) holds a hearing on cattle supply chains and deforestation of the Amazon, stating JBS is “nowhere near” its commitment to eliminate deforestation from its supply chain, looking the other way, and greenwashing its products at the expense of American agriculture: “American ranchers are forced to compete in a rigged game against a corporate giant that gets away with flouting the rules.”
JUNE 2023
The National Advertising Review Board announces its recommendation that JBS discontinue using claims of “Net Zero” plans and commitments for containing misleading claims and evidence of greenwashing.
JBS: Climate Chaos And Exploitation In The Amazon
Practices include bribery and corruption, price-fixing, forest destruction, forced labor and labor abuses, invasion and land grabbing of Indigenous and traditional territories.
READ ARTICLEBrazilian meat giant under fire for allegedly misleading investors
JBS sold more than $3 billion worth of ‘green bonds’ in the U.S., but a watchdog group says its impact on Amazon forests belies its pledges.
READ ARTICLEAPRIL 2023
U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) write to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to consider yet again initiating suspension and debarment proceedings against JBS: “The farmers, ranchers, and taxpayers of this country must be certain that USDA is willing to do its part to hold corporate criminals accountable.”
JANUARY 2023
Activist group Mighty Earth files a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that JBS is failing to meet its emissions targets and misleading investors after the company sold $3.2 billion worth of “green bonds” linked to the company’s sustainability goals in 2021.
2022
NOVEMBER 2022
A federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor finds that JBS used cleaning services that used dozens of children between the ages of 13 and 17 to clean its meatpacking facilities.
JUNE 2022
U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) writes to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack expressing concerns about the USDA awarding government contracts to JBS despite its criminal and civil cases for bribery, price fixing, and fraud: “While many Americans are struggling to put food on their tables, it is troubling to see taxpayer dollars going to a major agribusiness that has such an egregious record of legal violations.”
Children illegally hired for graveyard shifts cleaning JBS meat plants
Children are working dangerous jobs at JBS meat processing plants in Minnesota and Nebraska, hired illegally for overnight shifts and tasks that left a 13-year-old with caustic chemical burns, federal officials say.
READ ARTICLEJBS reaches 'icebreaker' settlement of beef price-fixing claims
JBS SA agreed to pay $52.5 million to settle litigation accusing meat-packing companies of conspiring to limit supply in the $63 billion-a-year U.S. beef market in order to inflate prices and boost profit.
READ ARTICLEFEBRUARY 2022
JBS agrees to pay over $50 million to settle antitrust litigation for limiting the supply of beef to inflate its prices and boost its profits. “If there were any doubt about the shenanigans Big Packers play to line their pockets at the expense of consumers and independent producers, look no further than JBS’ $52.5 million settlement in price-fixing litigation,” said U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in a statement.
2021
NOVEMBER 2021
JBS settles an additional $13 million settlement for its role in an industry-wide scheme to fix pork prices, paid to restaurants and retailers.
AUGUST 2021
U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) call on CFIUS a second time, urging a formal review of the transactions made by JBS, J&F Investimentos, and any other entities owned or controlled by the Batista brothers: “When foreign companies benefit from corrupt practices and spread them to U.S. markets, they jeopardize our economic security, present direct risks to our businesses, and undermine our efforts to fight corruption abroad.”
JBS SA’s $13 Million Settlement Approved in Pork Antitrust Case
Second of three JBS agreements gets nod from federal judge. Third, with consumers, brings total to $57 million if approved.
READ ARTICLE2020
JBS Settlement of Pork Price-Fixing Suit Is Worth $24.5 Million
JBS will pay, cooperate to resolve part of antitrust case. Suit alleges industrywide cartel scheme by top processors.
READ ARTICLEDECEMBER 2020
JBS SA pay $24.5 million to settle part of a proposed class action lawsuit alleging an industrywide price-fixing scheme.
OCTOBER 2020
The U.S. Department of Justice orders J&F Investimentos, JBS’s parent company, owned by the Batista Brothers, to pay over $256 million for its guilty plea in a criminal foreign bribery case under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: “Executives at the very highest levels of the company used U.S. banks and real estate to pay tens of millions of dollars in bribes to corrupt government officials in Brazil.”
JANUARY–APRIL 2020
Amnesty International uncovers JBS’s illegal cattle grazing, human rights abuses, and displacement of Indigenous peoples in protected Amazon land, while the company’s meatpacking facilities in the U.S. lead to widespread COVID-19 outbreaks and hundreds of preventable deaths due to negligence of CDC guidelines and inhumane working conditions.
“The Workers Are Being Sacrificed”: As Cases Mounted, Meatpacker JBS Kept People on Crowded Factory Floors
With coronavirus outbreaks at two-thirds of the company’s beef processing plants, employees are asking, “Why didn’t they help protect us?”
READ ARTICLE2019
U.S. senators call for probe of Brazilian meatpacker JBS
Two U.S. senators called on the U.S. Treasury on Tuesday to open an investigation into the world's largest meat processing company, Brazil's JBS S.A.
READ ARTICLENOVEMBER 2019
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) condemns the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s failure to investigate JBS’s funding and urges them to initiate suspension and debarment proceedings with JBS and its subsidiaries: “This relevant corruption and illegal behavior are directly related to the company’s entry to and consolidation of the United States meatpacking sector.”
OCTOBER 2019
In light of JBS’s admitted criminal conduct, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) urge the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to investigate the company’s acquisition of U.S. entities: “The activities and operations of JBS S.A. have implications for our national security and the security of the American food system.”
JANUARY 2019
JBS begins benefitting from taxpayer-funded bailout money as part of former President Trump’s financial relief program for farmers impacted by the trade war with China.
Ultimately, JBS receives $78 million in pork contracts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture – more than any other American pork producer.
This foreign meat company got U.S. tax money. Now it wants to conquer America.
JBS, a Brazilian company that is the largest meat producer in the world, has received $78 million in government pork contracts funded with the bailout funds.
READ ARTICLEFEBRUARY 2018
WESLEY AND JOESLEY ARE RELEASED AFTER SIX MONTHS IN PRISON
FEBRUARY 2018
WESLEY AND JOESLEY ARE RELEASED AFTER SIX MONTHS IN PRISON
2017
Brazilian tycoon arrested after lawyers send prosecutors the wrong tape
A Supreme Court judge accused the tycoon, Joesley Batista, of hiding evidence he was obliged to provide as part of a plea bargain agreement.
READ ARTICLESEPTEMBER 2017
The Batista Brothers are arrested for allegations of insider trading after they sold millions of dollars in shares and stockpiled U.S. dollars in the weeks before their plea agreement was made public.
The brothers were also found to have withheld evidence they were obliged to reveal to Brazilian prosecutors as part of their plea bargain.
MAY 2017
The Batista Brothers and JBS executives testify to the details of their corruption scheme, where they paid out more than $192 million in bribes to 1,900 Brazilian politicians, including at least $2.2 million to President Temer, in exchange for favors to JBS, such as cheap loans and investments from large development banks.
MAY 17, 2017: JOESLEY DAY
Joesley Batista meets with former President Michel Temer and, as part of his plea bargain, secretly records him endorsing hush money payments to a politician imprisoned for money laundering and tax evasion who could corroborate the President’s corrupt actions.
MARCH 2017
News of the leaked recording of the conversation with the President sends shockwaves through Brazil, causing the stock market to plunge nearly 9% and the Brazilian Real to plummet to its lowest value in 14 years.
A recording accidentally attached to an email is the latest twist in the world’s biggest corruption scandal
Brazil’s prosecutors broke the world’s biggest corruption scandal wide open with the help of one man.
READ ARTICLE2014
Operation Car Wash: Is this the biggest corruption scandal in history?
What began as an investigation into money laundering quickly turned into something much greater, uncovering a vast and intricate web of political and corporate racketeering
READ ARTICLEMARCH 2014
Brazilian authorities launch an investigation into black market money dealers, which leads to a vast and intricate web of corruption at the highest levels of Brazilian industry and government.
This becomes known as Operation Car Wash, the largest corruption probe in Brazilian history with the Batista brothers at the center.
2017
Brazilian tycoon arrested after lawyers send prosecutors the wrong tape
A Supreme Court judge accused the tycoon, Joesley Batista, of hiding evidence he was obliged to provide as part of a plea bargain agreement.
READ ARTICLESEPTEMBER 2017
The Batista Brothers are arrested for allegations of insider trading after they sold millions of dollars in shares and stockpiled U.S. dollars in the weeks before their plea agreement was made public.
The brothers were also found to have withheld evidence they were obliged to reveal to Brazilian prosecutors as part of their plea bargain.
MAY 2017
The Batista Brothers and JBS executives testify to the details of their corruption scheme, where they paid out more than $192 million in bribes to 1,900 Brazilian politicians, including at least $2.2 million to President Temer, in exchange for favors to JBS, such as cheap loans and investments from large development banks.
MAY 17, 2017: JOESLEY DAY
News of the leaked recording of the conversation with the President sends shockwaves through Brazil, causing the stock market to plunge nearly 9% and the Brazilian Real to plummet to its lowest value in 14 years.
MARCH 2017
Joesley Batista meets with former President Michel Temer and, as part of his plea bargain, secretly records him endorsing hush money payments to a politician imprisoned for money laundering and tax evasion who could corroborate the President’s corrupt actions.
A recording accidentally attached to an email is the latest twist in the world’s biggest corruption scandal
Brazil’s prosecutors broke the world’s biggest corruption scandal wide open with the help of one man.
READ ARTICLE2014
Operation Car Wash: Is this the biggest corruption scandal in history?
What began as an investigation into money laundering quickly turned into something much greater, uncovering a vast and intricate web of political and corporate racketeering
READ ARTICLE