Money laundering complaints target JBS, Barclays over profits linked to illegal deforestation
A coalition of legal and environmental groups has filed money laundering complaints against JBS, the world’s largest meat processor, and 12 financial institutions, investors and advisers, including the U.K. bank Barclays. The complaints allegedly tie JBS profits to illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The Transnational Legal Coalition filed 14 complaints with prosecutors and financial…
The Transnational Legal Coalition has filed money laundering complaints against JBS, the world's largest meat processor, and 12 financial institutions, investors, and advisers, including Barclays. The complaints allege that profits from cattle raised on illegally cleared land in the Brazilian Amazon constitute "proceeds of crime" under anti-money laundering laws, potentially exposing JBS and the institutions handling its money to legal liability.
The coalition, which includes Global Legal Action Network, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, Mighty Earth, FIND, and King's College London, draws its claims from a report by AidEnvironment linking JBS suppliers to over 6.5 million hectares of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon between 1988 and 2026. Barclays, JBS's largest financier, earned $1.7 billion from its dealings with the company between 2018 and 2023, according to a 2024 investigation by Global Witness.
Brief written by urgent.news from Mongabay's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
