The United States Department of Justice announced that J&F Investimentos, a Brazilian-based investment firm of which meat and poultry producer JBS is a part, has agreed to pay a $ 256,497,026 penalty for close investigations into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. At the same time, J&F and JBS reached an agreement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that they will have to pay approximately $ 27 million in respect of the allegations of corruption. In fact, although the plea deal imposes a fine of more than 256 million dollars, J&F has received a credit of 50% for the amounts paid to the Brazilian authorities and is therefore required to make a payment of 128,248,513 dollars to the American authorities.

Between 2005 and 2014, J&F engaged in a $ 148 million corruption program. Money spent on aiding high-level Brazilian government officials, including an executive from Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Bndes), a state-owned and state-controlled Brazilian bank. In exchange for paying the bribe, J&F obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from Bndes. In addition, the company paid bribes worth more than $ 4.6 million to a senior executive of the Fundação Petrobras de Seguridade Social (Petros), a Brazilian state-controlled pension fund, in exchange for obtaining the approval of a merger of Petros, to the benefit of J&F. The company also paid about $ 25 million in bribes to a Brazilian government official in order to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from Caixa Econômica Federal.

JBS is not a party to the plea agreement and will not assume any liability arising therefrom. For its part, J&F has agreed to improve its compliance program and to implement direct communication with the government on the changes implemented.