JBS “Rap Sheet” Exposes Meat Giant’s Appalling Track Record
Read the JBS Statement of Facts here.
Mighty Earth has submitted a comprehensive Statement of Facts to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), detailing Brazilian beef giant JBS’ extensive and brazen misconduct. The 71-page legal dossier summarizes JBS’ involvement in a host of serious issues, including Amazon deforestation, slavery, child labor, violations of Indigenous peoples’ rights, as well as corruption, fraud, price fixing and other bad acts. The document is supported by evidence from JBS’ SEC submissions, investor presentations, and legal filings in both the U.S. and Brazil from law enforcement and regulatory bodies.
As bipartisan political and global opposition to JBS’ plan to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange intensifies, we present our so-called JBS ‘Rap Sheet’ as further crucial evidence for the SEC to reject JBS’ Initial Public Offering (IPO) application – an event we have described as one of the biggest climate-risk IPOs ever.
Our Statement of Facts was written by Laura Ferris, an experienced U.S. lawyer with a distinguished background as a former counsel and Special Advisor at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and as a former prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Laura Ferris, author of the JBS Statement of Facts, said:
“The extent and severity of corruption, environmental violations, human rights abuses, and anti-competitive conduct involving JBS is distressing. This Statement of Facts on JBS chronicles the meat giant’s deeply troubling history and pattern of business practices as reported by various sources and serves as a stark warning to the SEC and others of the type of conduct that would likely not only continue but proliferate if JBS gains access to additional capital through the New York Stock Exchange.
“Allowing such a company to expand its influence unchecked would not only pose significant peril to the Amazon rainforest and fuel the climate crisis but could also undermine the integrity of our financial markets and pose outsized risks to investors.”
Mighty Earth’s latest filing to the SEC is part of a broader effort to sound the alarm on JBS’ outsized impact on the climate, environment, people, and animals.
Mighty Earth recently published a series of groundbreaking ‘Whistleblower’ complaints to the SEC against $3.2 billion in alleged fraudulent Net Zero-related ‘Sustainability-Linked bonds’ issued by JBS. We also hope that our Statement of Facts will further inform SEC Commissioners as they continue to assess our allegation of U.S securities fraud.
Kevin Galbraith, Securities Attorney for Mighty Earth, who filed the Statement of Facts with the SEC, said:
“Since our initial SEC ‘Whistleblower’ complaint in January 2023, we’ve made three supplemental submissions, exposing JBS’s shameless ongoing greenwashing and climate deception. This Statement of Facts marks our fourth supplemental submission. We have every reason to believe that we’re gaining serious traction and remain optimistic that the SEC will launch a formal investigation and eventually will file an enforcement action, seeking penalties, disgorgement, and possibly barring key JBS board members from serving as executives or on the boards of public companies.”
In light of the overwhelmingly damning evidence presented in our Statement of Facts, we believe it is critical that the SEC takes decisive action against JBS. We urge the SEC to conduct a full investigation into JBS’ alleged fraudulent “Sustainability-Linked bonds” and to stop this massive meat company from listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
