Brazilian Billionaire Batista Surrenders to Police in Corruption Scandal

Political corruption - Brazilian style

By Ed Adamczyk 

Brazilian billionaire Joesley Batista, enmeshed in a corruption scandal and late in submitting an audio tape to the Brazilian Supreme Court implicating Brazilian President Michel Temer, surrendered to Sao Paolo police on Sunday. Photo courtesy of Joesley Batrista/Facebook

Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Brazilian billionaire Joesley Batista, accused of hiding evidence in a plea bargain case, surrendered to police in Sao Paolo.

Batista, former chief of JBS, the world's largest meatpacking company, was to present a recording he secretly made of Brazilian President Michel Temer allegedly confirming that Temer paid bribes to influential Brazilian politicians. Batista said he would reveal information about the alleged corruption scheme in exchange for lenient judicial treatment, but has not yet handed over the audio tape; he was given until last week to surrender it, and was ordered arrested by the Brazilian Supreme Court. He surrendered on Sunday.

Under the plea bargain, Batista and his brother Wesley admitted to complicity in attempting to bribe nearly 1,900 Brazilian politicians over several years. The court decision to arrest Batista came after the federal chief prosecutor said that Batista and Ricardo Saud, and executive of J&F Investimentos SA, JBS' holding company, omitted information from submitted testimony earlier this year in which they confessed to graft and other crimes.

1900! One company buying 1900 politicians! Don't think for one minute this only happens in Brazil or even South America; it's everywhere.

The alleged omissions came to light last week, when an audio recording of a conversation between Batista and Saud was inadvertently sent to the prosecutor's office. While both men denied that false information was contained on the audio tape, their credibility as witnesses was weakened. The episode has become another part of a continuing scandal of graft and corruption enveloping Brazilian government and business leaders.

In the 4-hour tape, Saud can be heard telling Batista former prosecutor Marcello Miller was working to influence current chief prosecutor Rodrigo Jadot to offer Batista and Saud a more lenient plea deal. Miller resigned immediately after the tape was made; its release to the public, including a comment by Batista that he would never go to jail, enraged Brazilians already angered by the plea deal.

Batista's imprisonment will likely boost Temer's short-term popularity, Bloomberg News said Monday. Temer's allies in Brazil's lower house defeated a motion in July that would have forced him to temporarily resign the presidency and face a corruption trial; since then he has focused less on the corruption scandal and more on Brazil's economic problems.

Ex-Brazilian President Luiz Lula Sentenced for Corruption

By Allen Cone 

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends the Nuclear Security Summit at the Washington Convention Center on April 13, 2010. The former president was convicted Wednesday of graft and money laundering in the first of his five trials. Photo by Andrew Harrer/pool./UPI | License Photo

UPI -- A federal judge in Brazil on Wednesday sentenced former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to nine years and six months in prison on graft and money laundering charges.

Lula, president from 2003 until the end of 2010, was found guilty in federal court in the first of five graft trials -- all centered on a multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal in Brazil.

The 71-year-old former president had faced charges that he illegally received about $1.1 million from a construction company in improvements and expenses for a beachfront apartment. Prosecutors said the company then received public contracts from a state-owned oil corporation.

Lula, who had planned to again seek the presidency in next year's election, has said accusations of his involvement are a "farce". He left office with a record-high approval rating of 83 percent but would be ineligible to run again if his conviction holds up on appeal.

The nation's senate impeached the following president, Dilma Rousseff, last year. Lula chose Rousseff as his successor and both politicians are members of the leftist Workers' Party.

The current president, Michel Temer, was formally accused on June 26 of corruption, in connection with a scheme involving the world's largest meatpacker, JBS. Temer became president last August and had served as vice president since 2011.

3 consecutive Presidents! Any chance it will stop there? I wouldn't hold my breath. The idea of becoming a politician to serve your country doesn't seem to have caught on in Brazil.

Lula faces four other trials relating to alleged corruption.

The judge handling Lula's case didn't call for the former president's detention following the decision.

Brazilian Company Fined $3.2B Over Bribery of 1900 Politicians

Will this extraordinary fine actually begin to clean up corruption in Brazil? Let us hope so.

The economy seems to run well enough when the money is not being pilfered left, right and center.

But 1900 politicians on the take is not a criminal case but a way of life.

By Andrew V. Pestano

The J&F Participações, which is the controlling shareholder of the JBS SA meat-packing giant, 

has 25 years starting in December to pay the Brazilian government a $3.2 billion fine over

a large bribery scheme. Photo courtesy of JBS SA

UPI -- Brazil's public prosecutor said J&F Participações, the controlling shareholder of the JBS SA meat-packing giant, will pay a $3.2 billion fine for its role in corruption.

The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office late Tuesday said the J&F group has agreed to a leniency deal that will be signed in the coming days. J&F will begin making payments in December and has 25 years to pay the fine, which will be adjusted for inflation, prosecutors said.

About a fourth of the fine payments will be used in social projects for education, health and corruption prevention.

J&F will still need to face U.S. courts where anti-corruption laws are tougher and carry heavier fines and sanctions, Jornal O Globo reported.

The deal struck by the prosecutor's office and J&F is related to the Bullish and Weak Flesh investigations that uncovered bribes paid by JBS to Brazilian politicians and meat inspectors. JBS also received loans -- by using a subsidiary -- considered questionable from Brazil's National Economic and Social Development Bank, prosecutors said.

1,900 politicians, including presidents

Brazilian President Michel Temer is linked to the scandal; the owners of J&F, Joesley and Wesley Batista, told prosecutors as part of a plea bargain agreement that they've paid millions of dollars in bribes to nearly 1,900 politicians, including presidents.

Temer also purportedly endorsed Joesley Batistas' hush money payments to silence jailed politician Eduardo Cuhna as a potential witness in a corruption investigation in a secret recording that was later leaked.

Temer replaced former President Dilma Rousseff in August 2016 when the Federal Senate voted to remove her from office over accusations she broke budget laws.

In November, she accused Temer of taking a $295,000 bribe she was initially accused of taking. Her lawyers said documents showed the bribe was transferred directly into the general campaign finance fund of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, to which Temer belongs.