Brazil’s police investigation into insider trading by the owners of the world’s largest meatpacker JBS SA has found that they made a profit by taking financial positions before details of their plea bargain deal with prosecutors became public, the head of the probe said on Tuesday.
Brazilian President Michel Temer was charged with obstruction of justice and racketeering on Thursday, according to a statement posted on the prosecutor general's office website, threatening to delay the government's economic reform agenda in Congress.
Brazil’s federal police detained the CEO of JBS SA, the world’s No 1 meatpacker, saying he used insider information to avoid hefty losses related to a plea bargain signed earlier this year. Wesley Batista, who has been at the helm of JBS since 2011, was detained under an arrest warrant against him and his younger brother Joesley Batista for suspected insider trading.
The former chairman of the world’s largest meatpacker, whose testimony implicated Brazil’s president in corruption, turned himself in to police Sunday after the country’s Supreme Court ordered his arrest.
Brazilian President Michel Temer faces a tougher battle to quash an imminent second corruption charge because he has lost support among disgruntled members of his governing coalition in Congress, the country's lower house speaker said.
Brazilian federal judge Sergio Moro, the man behind Brazil's largest ever corruption investigation, said there is still lack of interest from the country's political establishment to fight corruption, despite the political and economic crisis the practice sent the country into.
Brazilian President Michel Temer reached a 7.0% approval rate in June, sinking deeper from the 9.0% measured in April, the Datafolha Institute reported, as the sitting head of state contnues to come closer to Jose Sarney's all time record of 0%, registered in 1989.
The Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS says it has sold its units Mercosur members, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay to companies controlled by a rival meat processing company in Brazil. JBS said in a Tuesday securities filing that it sold meat processing plants in the three countries for US$300 million to Minerva in Sao Paulo state.
Brazilian media are reporting late Monday that the country's federal police have asked embattled President Michel Temer 84 questions related to an investigation of corruption allegations against him. Temer has faced growing calls to resign amid the scandal. He has 24 hours to reply to the questions delivered Monday afternoon.
Brazilian police have arrested Rodrigo Rocha Loures, a former congressman and close friend of President Michel Temer. Rocha Loures was seen in a video released in May carrying a bag with 500,000 Brazilian Reais (US$154,000).