Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Batista faces another bribery charge

Joesley Batista, one of two brothers who admitted bribing almost two thousand Brazilian politicians to obtain billions in bank loans, has now been charged with bribing the prosecutor in their agreement to pay a fine of $25 billion to settle the case.

Francisco de Assis Silva, a former executive at J&F (the company controlling JBS) and former federal prosecutor Marcello Miller have also been charged.

The Federal prosecutors say that Batista and Assis Silva were aware that Miller was still a prosecutor when he allegedly received BRL700,000 ($192,920) from law firm Trench Rossi Watanabe (TRW), which was hired by J&F to help the executives close plea deals and settle charges related to the bribery scheme revealed in early 2017.

The defense lawyers of Batista and Assis Silva have denied the charges and say Batista never hired Miller.