Latin America

Published May 16, 2019 at 10:32 AM EDT
Updated May 16, 2019 at 4:37 PM EDT

By Cristina Maza
Staff Writer

The Trump administration granted around $62 million in financial assistance to a meatpacking company owned by Brazilian brothers guilty of bribing hundreds of officials in Brazil, according to a new report.

The Department of Agriculture aid went to bail out JBS USA, a Colorado-based subsidiary of a Brazilian meatpacking company owned by Joesley and Wesley Batista. The money came from a $12 billion program that the Trump administration created to help U.S. farmers struggling as Trump's trade war with China escalates, according to documents obtained by the New York Daily News.

The two brothers were arrested for the first time in 2017 and accused of insider trading. Brazilian police arrested Joesley Batista again in 2018 as part of an ongoing investigation into illegal campaign contributions. Both brothers have confessed to bribing high-level officials in Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture. The bribery scheme reached as high up as former President Michel Temer.

Last year, Brazil voted in a new president, Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right figure who ran largely on an anti-corruption message. GettyImages-845732142

The Batistas' company JBS SA is the largest meatpacking company in the world. Its U.S. subsidiary was first incorporated in 2004.

More:
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administration-farmers-bailout-brazil-brothers-1427346