JBS brothers to be tried for insider trading

Federal authorities in São Paulo accepted the charges lodged by federal prosecutors against Joesley Batista and Wesley Batista, partners at meatpacking giant JBS. They are to be tried for the crimes of market manipulation and insider trading.

“I deem there are sufficient signs that each of the charged is to be held accountable, which provides enough grounds for the advancement of criminal prosecution,” Federal Judge João Batista Gonçalves noted in his decision.

JBS executives and directors are believed to have profited $31.6 million from the purchase of dollars a few days before the plea bargain deal with the Prosecutor-General's Office was made public.

They are also reported to have sold $103.5 million in JBS shares while its executives negotiated the deal with the authorities. Prosecutors believe the executives knew that the plea bargain would cause the value of JBS shares to plummet and the dollar to hike, so they worked to mitigate the damage.

Wesley is mentioned as the one responsible for the purchase of dollars, which can bring his sentence to 18 years in jail. Joesley, in turn, allegedly orchestrated the market manipulation scheme and may spend 13 years in prison. The two brothers have been arrested since September 9 in São Paulo.

The prosecution also claims that there were no flaws in the way the Prosecutor-General's Office conducted negotiations. “Even though the collaborator signs a plea bargain deal in which he agrees not to commit any crimes, one cannot prevent them from being committed. This crime was perpetrated in the dark of the night, as operations are conducted first anonymously, but were detected by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil,” the document reads.

The plea bargain deals signed with individuals investigated under Operation Car Wash and under the probes involving JBS are based on a Brazilian law known as Law of Criminal Organizations. This piece of legislation mandates that the deal be deemed legitimate by a judge, who also attests to its compliance with the law as well as the person's willingness to cooperate.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira