CEP Magazine (January 2021)

Brazil’s J&F Investimentos and JBS SA agreed to pay fines to the United States Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission for bribery and insider trading.^[1] J&F, owned by two Brazilian brothers, controls JBS, the largest meatpacking company in the world.

The brothers admitted to bribing Brazilian politicians in order to gain financing and other benefits for the company. The bribery scheme involved multiple subsidiaries of J&F, including Pilgrim’s Pride. The DOJ fined the company $256 million, but half of the full penalty amount was credited to fines paid to the Brazilian authorities.

J&F now has extensive holdings in the US, and as equity analyst Marco Saravalle told The Wall Street Journal,^[2] “The important thing about the company is that they have good operational assets and the executives are motivated to produce results for shareholders.”

1 Harry Cassin, “Brazil holding company agrees to pay $285 million to settle FCPA violations,” The FCPA Blog, October 14, 2020, https://bit.ly/3kItn8l.
2 Luciana Magalhaes, Samantha Pearson, and Jacob Bunge, “Meat Giant JBS’s Owner Settles U.S. Corruption Charges,” The Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2020, https://on.wsj.com/31WR0mf.

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