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World's biggest meatpacker has sought US listing since

2009

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Batistas regain access to Brasilia after bribery scandal

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JBS unit made $5 million donation to Trump inauguration

By Luciana Magalhaes, Lisandra Paraguassu and Ricardo Brito

GUARUJA, Brazil, June 13 - Brazilian meatpacker JBS

begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, capping

a stunning comeback by brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista less

than a decade after they were jailed in a record-breaking

corruption scandal and forced into the backseat of their global

food empire.

A U.S. listing for the world's biggest meatpacker, which the

company has sought since 2009, comes as the brothers, now back

on the board of JBS, have also recovered much of their vaunted

influence among Brazil's political elite.

Their prominence was on display on Saturday when Wesley

Batista, fresh off a trip to Paris with Brazilian President Luiz

Inacio Lula da Silva, took the stage to discuss the economic

outlook with Brazil's central bank chief and senior bankers.

Batista was in good spirits, pushing back against some of

the criticism that Brazilian business leaders have leveled

against Lula's leftist government.

"We need to look at what's working too, because everyone

here is making investment plans and growing," he told the

beachside gathering in Sao Paulo state, drawing applause.

Few business leaders can match the brothers' access in the

capital Brasilia. Lula's public agenda shows that one or both

have appeared alongside the president during at least five

public events since last year.

They have also held several private meetings with Lula and

his ministers, two people with knowledge of the cabinet's

private schedules said.

JBS said its meetings with public officials adhere to its

code of conduct. The presidential press office did not respond

to questions about the meetings.

It is a far cry from the brothers' nadir nearly a decade

ago, when they confessed to bribing hundreds of politicians,

stepped away from their corporate empire and spent months in

jail fighting insider trading allegations.

"They're back because they're investing," said a person

close to Brazil's presidency.

JBS operates hundreds of meatpacking plants across more than

20 countries, rivaling Tyson Foods ( TSN ) in the U.S. beef

market and ranking among Brazil's biggest companies by revenue

and employment. The Batistas' parent company, J&F, has expanded

across the Brazilian economy into banking, energy and logistics.

A $5 million donation by JBS subsidiary Pilgrim's Pride

to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee underscored the

growing global reach of their influence.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren grilled JBS in a public letter

last month, suggesting the donation and subsequent approval of

the U.S. listing by the Securities Exchange Commission within

months "raise serious concerns about a potential quid-pro-quo

arrangement."

In response to questions about the donation, JBS said that

Pilgrim's "has a long bipartisan history of participating in the

civic process."

The brothers' rehabilitation extends beyond politics.

After years embroiled in Brazil's biggest-ever corruption

scandal, Operation Car Wash, J&F has secured a court order

suspending a $2 billion fine for its role in the scheme.

At the height of the scandal, the brothers admitted to

bribing some 1,800 politicians. In 2017, Joesley Batista

recorded a conversation allegedly discussing a bribery scheme

with then-President Michel Temer as part of a plea bargain deal.

The Batista brothers, who stepped away from JBS leadership

positions during stretches of the scandal, were later arrested

for alleged insider trading based on that sealed plea deal. They

were later acquitted in the case.

In 2023, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice suspended the

fine against J&F in their plea deal, accepting the argument that

prosecutors were biased at the time. The case awaits wider

review by the court.

"The conflicts of the past were well handled in a

conciliatory way," said Fabio Medina Osorio, Brazil's solicitor

general during the Temer administration.