Batistas arrested again

The Batista brothers have been arrested again in Brazil, this time for insider trading related to their plea-bargain admissions that they bribed officials to obtain multi-billion-dollar loans for their JBS meat-packing empire.

Wesley Batista, the chief executive officer and co-owner of JBS, has been detained by Brazil’s federal police.

Wesley and his brother, Joesley, apparently made stock-market investments so they could profit when the news of their plea bargain deal would become public.

Their profit on the trading is rumoured to be $100 million.

Earlier this week Joesley turned himself into federal authorities in Brazil when an order for his arrest was made by the Supreme Court.

Joesley is accused of withholding information from prosecutors and taking advantage of them during the plea- deal negotiations. He denies the allegations behind the charges.

The arrests of the brothers has been confirmed by JBS and by defence lawyer Pierpaolo Bottini who called the arrests “unjust, absurd and regrettable.”

Both brothers had resigned from positions on the JBS board of directors following their admission to bribery of politicians in the plea deal.

There are reports that minority shareholders would like to have Wesley removed from his CEO position because he allegedly withheld information from authorities in the plea deal, as well.