Batista brothers charged with insider trading
Joesley and Wesley Batista, the brothers who control Brazilian meatpacker JBS, have been charged with insider trading and market manipulation by the country’s public prosecutor’s office.
The prosecutors have stated that the brothers manipulated JBS’s shares, by trading in foreign currency, avoiding R$138 million in losses and making $100 million, before a plea deal they had negotiated with the Attorney General’s Office after an alleged conversation with President Michel Temer was leaked to the media.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the brothers had used “privileged information they had about the plea bargain agreement they had negotiated with the prosecutor general”, meaning they allegedly knew that the value of JBS shares would fall.
“Thanks to a deep knowledge of the business world, the business brothers knew that their ‘explosive plea bargain’, which reached the highest level of national politics, would have two consequences: the fall of JBS shares and the rise of the dollar,” said the prosecutor’s office in a statement.
Explaining the allegations, the prosecutor’s office said that the “illegal sale and purchase of shares took place between 31st March and 17th May”.
More specifically, the prosecutors alleged that the meeting in which Joesley Batista recorded the conversation with the now imprisoned Temer happened on 17th March, while on the 28th of that month, the brothers signed a confidentiality agreement with the prosecutor general.
The deal was signed on 3rd May, with the Federal Supreme Court approving the documents on the 11th, and on the 17th of that month, the information of the conversation was leaked to the press.
JBS has not yet released a statement.
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