The Batistas have admitted they were guilty of bribing Brazilian government officials to obtain billions of dollars worth of loans from a
government-controlled bank, money they used to buy their way into a major
global meat packing business.
Among their holdings are XL Packers of Alberta, Swift
pork-packing plants, 12 feedlots with capacity of 1.5 million per year under
Five Rivers Cattle Feeding Company, Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processor, Plumtree
operations in the U.S. which it bought from Denmark’s Danish Crown earlier this
year, Sampco Weddel, which imports meats from South America, and Mapco.
Last month it sold a feedlot connected with XL back to the original
owners, the Nillson brothers of Edmonton.
Dissident shareholders gained court approval for their
lawsuit to delay the annual meeting that Batistas had scheduled for this week.
JBS shareholders BNDESPar and Caixa
Econômica Federal had obtained another court decision on Thursday, the day
before, to prevent the Batista brothers from voting in the meeting, alleging
conflict of interest.
J&F, the company controlling JBS
and owned by the Batistas, said via statement that it “will remain open to dialogue
regardless of any court decision.”
