Federal police in Brazil are investigating loans JBS SA used
to buy companies.
It’s not clear whether the 2013 deal for the XL Foods Ltd.
plant in Southern Alberta was one of those purchases, but that was within the
time frame which begins in June, 2007.
The loans – a total of $2.6 billion US - came from the
national development bank BNDES.
The probe is investigating potential fraud in the
transactions, which occurred after the company hired a consulting firm linked
to a member of the federal government's parliament at the time.
Brazilian newspapers say that former finance minister
Antonio Palocci owned the consultancy firm.
JBS said in a statement that all the investments made by
BNDESPar in the company occurred according to legislation, obeying all market
rules.
“These investments occurred under the scrutiny of the
Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) and in accordance with
current legislation. No favour was granted to the company,” the company said.
“All corporate actions arising from BNDESPar's investments
were carried out in accordance with Brazilian capital market legislation, are
public and are available on CVM's website and on JBS' investor relations
website.”
BNDES said in a separate statement that it is seeking
clarification about the investigations and is collaborating with authorities.
Brazil's Federal Police planned to detain 37 people for
questioning on Friday and conduct 20 search and seizure warrants as part of the
investigation called Operation Bullish. The Police didn't reveal the names of
the targets.
Some senior JBS executives have been under investigation for
unrelated charges of corruption. Wesley Batista, the chief executive officer,
was suspended while police investigated pension plan issues.
And earlier this year, JBS was one of several companies
under investigation for bribing government meat inspectors to approve tainted
products for export.
