Perhaps due to a full awareness of his own identity and legacy, Joesley Batista seemed perplexed as to why he was included — alongside figures like the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Luís Roberto Barroso — in the exclusive group of honorees recognized for “significant services rendered to Brazil.” Yet, as the main sponsor of the II Fórum Esfera Internacional, held in Rome, it only took him seconds to approach the microphones, strike a pose befitting someone who felt thoroughly deserving, and unleash a rhetorical flourish: “As a businessman, I feel like I’m here representing all the entrepreneurs,” he boasted. Smiling, he turned to João Camargo, the executive president of CNN’s Council and the event’s organizer: “Because you, João, managed to gather the cream of the contractors, truly admirable people. Congratulations, y’all, and feel receiving [the honor] too as I [have] on behalf of all Brazilian entrepreneurs.” The speech by the J&F holding’s head confirmed that one can become a billionaire even using a vocabulary range smaller than that of a studious child.
This kind of international picnic—another creation of the Workers’ Party (PT) governments—typically follows the recipe perfected by Lide, which held a monopoly in this area until a competitor more aligned with Lula’s administration emerged. Without spending a dime, bigwigs from the Planalto Palace mingled in an elite holiday with rising entrepreneurs eager to spend fortunes to strengthen ties with those in office. On a Thursday, they all flew first class to a luxury hotel in some European capital. Lectures and debates took place on Friday and Saturday, when the forum ended. But the invitation included a stay on Sunday. What is said in such panels rarely matters. Far more relevant are the hushed conversations at a table for two in the restaurant near the hotel or whispered exchanges in rooms off-limits to journalists. The event in Rome attempted to follow the same formula. Due to improper conduct and excessive indiscretion, it came across as an indecorous feast.
The original program assured that the main theme would be “150 years of Italian immigration in Brazil” and included several authorities from the host country among the debaters. Only the Italian minister of Agriculture, on the verge of dismissal, showed up at the hotel. Since only Portuguese was spoken, it became even harder to fathom why the meeting wasn’t held in Brazil. Without foreign eyes nearby, the group took off their mask. Camila Camargo, CEO of Esfera Brasil, summarized the meeting’s directive in her opening speech. “We are here to speak well of Brazil,” announced João Camargo’s daughter, married to Bruno Dantas, the president of the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU). Her father smiled on stage. In the audience, her husband applauded. Nine out of ten debaters praised their own performance or the institution they represented. Everyone spoke well of Brazil. The saga of immigrants can always wait.
Joesley Batista had many reasons to feel at home. His brother Wesley, a former cellmate from the days when corruption was treated as a crime, was infiltrated in a panel. In the audience or on stage, Ricardo Lewandowski, minister of Justice, and justice Dias Toffoli, who joined president Luís Roberto Barroso as the Supreme Federal Court’s representatives, circulated through the auditorium. After leaving the STF, Lewandowski significantly expanded the assets housed in the legal department of the conglomerate controlled by the Batistas. He remains at the disposal of his former boss at the Esplanade of Ministries. It was Dias Toffoli who suspended in 2023 the leniency agreement that J&F had reached with the Federal Prosecution Service to skip jail. In November, the defaulters claimed that investigations into the duo created a “situation of structural and abusive unconstitutionality.” In December, Toffoli suspended the payment of the R$ 10.8 billion fine.
Rapporteur of five lawsuits involving JBS/AS, justice Barroso reiterates that he dismissed all claims made by the Batistas. Regardless, the procedures are still ongoing, and until they are concluded, common sense and ethical norms recommend that judges avoid mingling with those interested in the case. Moreover, the STF will have to remove doubts that have long weighed on the purchase of Brazilian land by foreigners. The justices’ decisions will influence the outcome of the legal battle between the Dutch company Paper Excellence and, once again, J&F. In this litigation, lawyer Roberta Rangel, Dias Toffoli’s wife, represents the Batistas.
In 2017, Paper acquired Eldorado Celulose, controlled by the Batistas, for R$15 billion. In 2018, a year after the contract was signed and the money deposited, the brothers changed their minds. As the price of cellulose rose and the sales of other companies in the group eased the financial squeeze, they decided to fight in court. In 2023, in a meeting with Indonesian Jackson Wijaya, owner of Paper, Joesley advised the opponent to forget the contract, wave legal action, and restart negotiations from scratch. According to the foreign businessman, the compulsive litigant argued that he had enough political clout to force the negotiations to go back to square one. Joesley wasn’t bluffing. With Lula’s return to the Presidency, J&F was resurrected.
After the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff and disagreements with Michel Temer, her successor, Joesley thought it best to step aside. He and his brother skipped prison thanks to a highly favorable plea bargain, concocted in partnership with Attorney General Rodrigo Janot. Joesley accused Temer of heading a criminal organization, wiretapped phone conversations compromising ministers of the new government, and remained silent about his vast knowledge of the illegalitiestaking place during the Workers’ Party (PT) governments.
Lula’s return to the crime scene rescued the default king from semi-clandestinity. Encouraged by his president buddy, Joesley upped the ante of bad-faith litigation: instead of resorting to the inexhaustible stock of chicanery that has been delaying the case’s outcome for seven years, he sought help from the “administrative mammoth.” He was assisted by the Federal Prosecution Service, which requested approval from the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) and Congress. Eldorado’s management requested the contract annulment. Joesley argued that Paper, to produce cellulose, would have to buy land—and no foreign company can go around mutilating Brazil’s map, right? Incra has already rejected three appeals filed by Paper, reaffirmed the nullity of the Eldorado sale contract, and accused the foreign negotiators of celebrating an illegal acquisition. Such an opinion makes the transfer of shares unfeasible even if Paper wins the legal dispute.
At 51, the J&F boss doesn’t believe in the existence of honest people. For Joesley, every human being has their price, and any reluctance can be removed with the right offer. This was conveyed in a conversation between him and Ricardo Saud, then J&F’s institutional director, in 2017. Entangled in scandals exposed by Operation Car Wash branches, and with his tongue loosened by a few too many drinks, Joesley spilled, on the record, confidences that would embarrass even the most audacious member of the scoundrels’ club. The first revealed one of his weaknesses: “Man, I’m going to sleep with two old women, I’m obsessed with sleeping with old women. I think I’ll sleep with two old ladies. I think it’s a phase. Little old ladies around fifty. I have to sleep with some fifty-year-olds. Married ones…” The second revealed he had another trump card to convince those uninterested in women: “I’ve already arranged a fag to give it to whoever needs it,” utters the slurred voice of the braggart whom Lula tried to transform into a “national champion” with father-to-son loans distributed by BNDES.
Joesley also believes that nothing is impossible for those who have what he calls “prestige” in the world of the powerful. This word explains, for example, his inclusion in the delegation that accompanied the minister of Agriculture, Carlos Fávaro, on the trip to China. Due to his prestige with the pen-wielders who do the devil’s work, he became the owner of Âmbar, J&F’s energy sector arm. For the same reason, he managed to be gifted on October 3 with an acrobatic feat accomplished hand in hand by the Executive and the Judiciary. To the dismay of the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), a court decision forced the regulatory body to approve within 24 hours the plan to transfer Amazonas Energia to Âmbar. Before that, the federal government had transferred the company’s accumulated debt to consumers’ electricity bills. Thus, the Batistas acquired a financially sound Amazonas Energia for R$14 billion, in installments spread over 15 years.
Alongside Joesley and Wesley in Rome was the minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira. He is the father of the idea. It is unknown in which restaurant the three celebrated the swiftness of the operation. Nor is it known how the conversation went between minister Silveira and Alberto di Paolo, who holds the position of “Director for the Rest of the World” at Enel. As Brazil is part of such vast region, they certainly discussed the blackout that caught São Paulo off-guard on the first day of the Roman feast and has no end in sight. In one of the panels, Silveira mentioned “a possible renewal of Enel’s concession,” the Italian distributor that also afflicts the states of Rio de Janeiro and Ceará.
It is the second Fórum Esfera sponsored by J&F. This one in Rome blessed the band of incurable bandits. In the first, held in Paris last year, Wesley announced the duo’s return. “We are optimistic about the country and its relationship with the world,” he stated in the panel whose theme seemed like an advertising campaign: “Brazil, the best business in the world.” Wesley found it very pertinent: “Brazil is once again the darling,” he affirmed to the applause of those present. He assured that J&F would invest R$38.5 billion between 2023 and 2026, coinciding with Lula’s term. On May 27, the Batistas met at the Planalto Palace with their president buddy. This time they didn’t ask for help: they wanted to help by donating animal protein to the state of Rio Grande do Sul, devastated by rain.
Since then, there have been more off-agenda visits. The host and visitors don’t usually do favors for free. The PT’s Beagle Brothers are back. Taxpayers beware.
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