Panel SA: Fine of R$ 1 million from CVM on Batista brothers for use of JBS jet goes on hold

The case of the R$1.1 million fine imposed by the CVM on Joesley and Wesley Batista in 2020, because the family made personal use of a JBS plane, came to a standstill.

The flight, which was revealed by Folha in 2017, served to take Joesley’s relatives to the US after the businessman’s award-winning denunciation. The brothers appealed. And this week, the appeal was withdrawn from the CRSFN (National Financial System Appeals Council) agenda, postponing the progress of the case.

Sought by the SA Panel, the body says that the councilor president Adriana Teixeira de Toledo asked for a view of the process and that there is a forecast that the appeal will return to the agenda of the next judgment session, in December. This is the second time that the process leaves the CRSFN agenda.

The fine was determined by CVM in July 2020, but the Batista brothers challenged the board earlier this year. Joesley was given a R$400,000 penalty for using the JBS jet for private purposes. And two other CVM infractions, totaling R$700,000, were aimed at Wesley for authorizing his brother’s use of the plane, in addition to not having adopted the procedures required in the decision.

The use of the property of a publicly-held company, such as JBS, for the controller’s private purposes, unrelated to the interests of other shareholders, is considered bad corporate governance practice and indirectly harms other company partners.

One of the arguments of the Batista brothers in the appeal is that Joesley’s trip allowed him to “exercise, safely and in the best interest of the company, his activities at the JBS office in New York, where he had been domiciled since 2016”.

The CVM process also analyzed the use of the same aircraft by the then Vice President Michel Temer (MDB) in 2011, but given that the fact has expired, the CVM did not judge an eventual irregularity in the case.

with Mariana Grazini e Andressa Motter