An indictment dismissed on Monday (29) kept the businessmen in prison for six months in a preventive manner in 2017
The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) formed a majority to acquit, on Monday (29), businessmen Joesley and Wesley Batista of the charge of insider trading, the use of privileged information to operate in the financial market. It was the accusation of committing this crime that kept the two businessmen in preventive detention for six months, between 2017 and 2018.
Other executives of the group and companies controlled by the businessmen were also acquitted in three lawsuits that investigated price manipulation, misuse of privileged information, violation of the duty of loyalty and abuse of power of control. Director Flávia Perlingeiro asked for a review of the proceedings and must present the missing vote within 60 days. The other directors voted to acquit insider trading in all three cases.
In the vote that guided the conclusion of the Collegiate, CVM director Otto Lobo, rapporteur of the process, highlighted that it was satisfactorily demonstrated by the defense that the executives could not foresee that their collaboration agreements would be ratified, much less that they would be leaked to the media and, consequently, what their impact on the market would be. Director João Accioly, who followed the rapporteur’s vote, made scathing criticisms of the accusation, classifying it as a “fallacy” to point out that it would be feasible for executives to predict the behavior of the market and the consequences of operations, considering a leak that they were clearly unaware of. The president of the municipality, João Pedro do Nascimento and the director Alexandre Rangel also concluded that Joesley and Wesley Batista did not incur in insider trading.
The lawsuit was filed in 2017 to investigate whether the businessmen had carried out operations in the financial market in anticipation of possible repercussions that the disclosure of their agreements would have.
The majority of the Board, with the exception of the director who asked for views and has not yet voted, also attested that the exchange operations of the group’s companies were legitimate and the sale of JBS shares was motivated exclusively by the pressing need to strengthen J&F Investimentos’ cash, and not by an alleged expectation that their price would fall after the plea bargain became public. The accusations of the use of unfair practices in Banco Original’s operations with interest derivatives were also dismissed.
For J&F Investimentos, the holding company of the entrepreneurs, “the CVM’s judgment undoes the injustice committed against the group and the entrepreneurs, ratifying the fairness and legitimacy with which J&F, its executives and subsidiaries have always operated in the financial market.”
