Meat processor topped all donors for Trump inauguration – JBS buys access in Trump administration?
By Chris Moore on 4/21/2025
Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. was the top corporate donor to President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, contributing $5 million to the committee overseeing the January festivities, according to new filings with the Federal Election Commission. The Colorado-based poultry processor’s donation was the largest single contribution reported by any company, as Trump’s inaugural committee disclosed a record $239 million in fundraising — more than double the $107 million raised for his 2017 inauguration and nearly four times the amount collected for President Joe Biden’s 2021 event.
Pilgrim’s has been owned since 2009 by Brazil-based JBS S.A. In July 2023, JBS announced its plan to list shares on the NYSE through a dual listing under a new Dutch parent company. In February 2024, brothers Wesley Batista and Joesley Batista joined the Pilgrim’s Pride board of directors.
The Batista brothers, controlling shareholders of J&F Investimentos, Brazil’s largest business group with ownership stakes in JBS, were accused of using privileged information in financial market operations. In May 2023, the Brazilian equivalent to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the CVM, acquitted the Batistas of insider trading allegations.
Later that year, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Rainforest Action Network and World Animal Protection and a dozen other organizations urged investors not to finance further expansion by the world’s biggest meat company as they opposed JBS’s IPO listing. In April 2024, the brothers returned to JBS SA’s board of directors following the company’s annual shareholders meeting.
In a statement to Meatingplace, Pilgrim’s Pride’s said it was pleased to support the inauguration. “We have a long bipartisan history of participating in the civic process and look forward to working with the administration to create opportunities for American farmers and provide safe, affordable food for American families,” the company said.
Related:
- Batista brothers return to JBS SA Board of Directors
- JBS takes a step that may be linked to possible IPO
- Advocates intensify opposition to JBS S.A. IPO
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What is President Trump thinking?
Trump Administration Farmers Bailout Money Went to Corrupt Brazilian Brothers Who Bribed Officials
Published May 16, 2019 at 10:32 AM EDT Updated May 16, 2019 at 4:37 PM EDT
JBS chairman Joesley Batista disembarks from a Brazilian Federal Police airplane at Brasilia’s International Airport on September 11, 2017. AFP/Getty Images
Staff Writer
The Trump administration granted around $62 million in financial assistance to a meatpacking company owned by Brazilian brothers guilty of bribing hundreds of officials in Brazil, according to a new report.
The Department of Agriculture aid went to bail out JBS USA, a Colorado-based subsidiary of a Brazilian meatpacking company owned by Joesley and Wesley Batista. The money came from a $12 billion program that the Trump administration created to help U.S. farmers struggling as Trump’s trade war with China escalates, according to documents obtained by the New York Daily News.
The two brothers were arrested for the first time in 2017 and accused of insider trading. Brazilian police arrested Joesley Batista again in 2018 as part of an ongoing investigation into illegal campaign contributions. Both brothers have confessed to bribing high-level officials in Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture. The bribery scheme reached as high up as former President Michel Temer.
Last year, Brazil voted in a new president, Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right figure who ran largely on an anti-corruption message.
The Batistas’ company JBS SA is the largest meatpacking company in the world. Its U.S. subsidiary was first incorporated in 2004.
“JBS USA Holdings, Inc. produces and exports animal protein products in the United States and Australia. It offers fresh and frozen chicken, pork, and beef products. The company also offers processing services,” according to a company description by Bloomberg. “The company’s products are sold to foodservice [sic], retail, and frozen entrée customers. It offers its products through retailers, foodservice distributors, and restaurants in the United States.”
Similar to JBS Holdings, Smithfield Food, a Chinese-owned pork producer based in Virginia, also qualified to receive bailout funds from the Trump administration. Smithfield Food is owned by WH Group, a company that may have received Chinese government assistance in order to acquire Smithfield Food.
American farmers are bearing the brunt of President Donald Trump’s years-long trade war with China, which appeared to have escalated recently. Last week, Trump announced that he would raise a 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports to 25 percent. China retaliated, raising tariffs on some U.S. imports. Pork and soybean exports from the U.S. have been especially hard hit, and some U.S. farmers face the very real possibility of going bankrupt without government support.
SEC Charges Brazilian Meat Producers With FCPA Violations
For Immediate Release
2020-254
Washington D.C., Oct. 14, 2020 —
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Brazilian nationals Joesley Batista and Wesley Batista and their companies J&F Investimentos S.A. and JBS S.A., a global meat and protein producer, have agreed to pay nearly $27 million to resolve charges arising out of an extensive bribery scheme that took place over multiple years.
The SEC’s order finds that the Batistas engaged in a bribery scheme in part to facilitate JBS’s 2009 acquisition of U.S. issuer Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation. According to the order, following that acquisition and while serving as board members of Pilgrim’s, the Batistas made payments of approximately $150 million in bribes at the direction of a former Brazil Finance Minister using in part funds from intercompany transfers, dividend payments, and other means obtained from JBS operating accounts containing funds from Pilgrim’s. As set forth in the order, the Batistas exerted significant control over Pilgrim’s, which shared office space, overlapping board members and executives, accounting and SAP systems, and certain internal accounting controls and policy documents with JBS and its U.S. affiliate JBS USA. The order finds that as a result of that control, the Batistas caused the failure of Pilgrim’s to maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls and accurate books and records. The order also finds that the Batistas, who signed Pilgrim’s Pride’s financial statements, did not disclose their conduct to Pilgrim’s Pride’s accountants and independent public accountants.
“Engaging in bribery to finance their expansion into the U.S. markets and then continuing to engage in bribery while occupying senior board positions at Pilgrim’s reflects a profound failure to exercise good corporate governance,” said Charles Cain, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s FCPA Unit. “This brazen misconduct flies in the face of what investors should expect from those occupying the role of an officer or director of a U.S. issuer.”
Joesley Batista, Wesley Batista, J&F, and JBS consented to the SEC’s order finding that they caused Pilgrim’s Pride’s violations of the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the FCPA and agreed to cease-and-desist orders. Further, JBS agreed to pay approximately $27 million in disgorgement and the Batistas each agreed to pay a civil penalty of $550,000. The parties must also comply with a three-year undertaking to self-report on the status of certain remedial measures. As also announced today by the Department of Justice, J&F pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the FCPA and will pay a criminal penalty of over $256 million.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Maria F. Boodoo and Michelle L. Ramos. The case was supervised by Tracy L. Price. The SEC appreciates the cooperation of the Ministerio Publico Federal and the Procuradoria-Geral da Republica in Brazil.