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Congresswoman Urges USDA to Investigate Payments to JBS USA

Congresswoman Urges USDA to Investigate Payments to JBS USA

(Bloomberg) -- Political opposition to Sao Paulo-based JBS SA’s expansion in the U.S. just got a new voice.

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro requested an investigation “to bring suspension and debarment proceedings against the JBS entities,” including its U.S. poultry unit Pilgrim’s Pride Corp.

Congresswoman Urges USDA to Investigate Payments to JBS USA

DeLauro, the Democratic representative for Connecticut, said JBS got millions of dollars of procurement awards through the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service in addition to $90 million received last year through government aid meant for U.S. farmers.

“Based on well-supported and documented facts, JBS SA invested in U.S. subsidiaries as a result of numerous criminal violations that call into question the justification for their continuation as USDA contractors,” DeLauro said.

JBS USA said Thursday in a statement that as a U.S. food company, its participation in federal programs is long-standing. The meatpacker said the trade aid helps partners raising hogs. Ranchers have been roiled by the stalled U.S.-China negotiations.

“JBS has transparently cooperated with authorities regarding the past events in Brazil,” the company said. “Today, we are focused on creating more opportunity for our 62,000 mostly unionized U.S. team members in 28 states and Puerto Rico, and the more than 12,000 family farmers and ranchers” that supply livestock and poultry.

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De Lauro’s complaint follows a request presented last month by Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for a review in the transactions made by the company.

The senators and the lower-house member have a similar allegation: the company engaged in illicit activities to expand. DeLauro cited the bribery scheme that the brothers who control JBS SA, Joesley and Wesley Batista, admitted under a plea bargain deal with Brazilian prosecutors and alleged “illicit” funds provided by Brazil’s development bank BNDES.

DeLauro serves as vice chair of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, which is responsible for funding the USDA.

To contact the reporters on this story: Tatiana Freitas in São Paulo at tfreitas4@bloomberg.net;Mike Dorning in Washington at mdorning@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net, Patrick McKiernan, Millie Munshi

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