Quick Facts
Biography
Joesley Batista (born 8 December 1972) is a Brazilian businessman. He is responsible for the expansion and internationalization process of JBS S.A., the largest meat-packing company in the world, and one of the main agribusiness companies in Brazil.
Career
Chairman of JBS S.A.
He serves as chairman of JBS S.A.. Listed in 2016 among the 70 main billionaires of Brazil by Forbes magazine.
2016: Operation Car-Wash charges
In July 2016, Batista was included as a suspect in the investigations of Operation Car Wash. The Brazilian Federal Police charged him for alleged bribes made by his company, JBS S.A., to the former president of the Brazilian parliament Eduardo Cunha. The bribes were paid for the liberation of resources from the FI-FGTS.
2017: Temer bribery allegations
On May 17, 2017, the newspaper O Globo published that Batista provided recordings made on March 7, 2017, of a dialog between he and the Brazilian president Michel Temer, where Batista represents that he was paying for the silence of Eduardo Cunha, who is currently in jail, and former target in the investigation. The news resulted in some protests and calls for Temer's resignation, with the Brazilian stock market also facing a drop. On May 19, 2017, JBS admitted to paying bribes to the three Brazilian presidents Michel Temer, Dilma Rousseff and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, spanning the previous 14 years. All three presidents denied accepting bribes. However, he has material evidence of an audio recording catching president Temer green-lighting the Batistas to pay a monthly allowance to former House Speaker, Eduardo Cunha in exchange for his silence. JBS told prosecutors they had paid a total of $123 million in bribes to Brazilian politicians in recent years. Also Batista is said to have recorded senator and former presidential candidate Aecio Neves of a centre-right party requesting two million reais in bribes. The federal police filmed the payment to the senator’s cousin. The money was then tracked to a bank account of a company belonging to Zeze Perrella, a PSDB senator from Minas Gerais. To the press the former head of CVM referred to testimony that asserted JBS had bribed 1,829 politicians. Temer alleged JBS doctored the recording of him talking to Joesley Batista to make money from the scandal through trading shares, and accused the Batista of insider trading. JBS denied illegal shares.
As a result of this bribes, Batista and JBS allegedly obtained funding from the BNDES of over R$10 billion at below market rates. As compensation for the recordings, the Brazilian Federal Police set Batista, his brother and other directors of JBS S.A. free of charges, having to pay a penalty of R$225 million. Joesley Batista decided to move to the USA. The agreement obtained by the Batista brothers is applicable only to their physical persons. The Brazilian authorities are still negotiating the penalty to be applied to J&F, the holding of JBS S.A.. Former negotiations suggest that the penalty will be close to R$11 billion, amount that was refused by JBS holding company. As of May 22, CVM was demanding $3.4 billion from JBS as part of a promised leniency deal, according to the press. In May 2017, JBS retained law firm Baker McKenzie to negotiate possible criminal charges with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
2017: Insider trading investigation
Prior to the release of the recordings, Batista and his brother Wesley Batista sold several shares of JBS S.A. and bought over USD 1 billion. The release of the recordings resulted in substantial reduction of the stock price of JBS S.A. shares and in the reduction of the value in the Brazilian Real. The Brazilian Securities Commission ("CVM") is investigating the Batista brothers for insider trading.