Fourteen Complaints Target JBS and BlackRock Over Amazon Deforestation

Fourteen complaints have been filed across Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom against investment funds linked to JBS, the world’s largest meat company. The coordinated action accuses the funds of profiting from criminal deforestation of the Amazon.

The Transnational Legal Coalition, an alliance of five legal and environmental organizations, launched the campaign simultaneously in the four countries. Their primary target is JBS, a Brazilian based, Dutch headquartered multinational meat and food producer. Jerry O’Callaghan, an Irishman, serves as chairman of the company.

The complaints also name nine firms of banks, investment managers, lawyers, accountants, and auditors. The group argues that cattle ranching is the biggest driver of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, with most of it being illegal. They claim there is extensive evidence linking JBS to that destruction because the company bought and processed beef raised on farms located on deforested land.

Under EU money laundering legislation, the coalition states that money made from that beef, or from managing investments related to the activity, is illegal. Therefore, the funds managed by BlackRock in Dublin are accused of amounting to money laundering. This is the first time BlackRock has been accused of criminal behavior in relation to its investments, though it has faced criticism for unethical or environmentally harmful holdings in the past.

Bláithín Quigley, co-ordinator of the Transnational Legal Coalition, said this is the first in a series of planned actions targeting criminal deforestation in JBS’s supply chain. “Illegal deforestation of the Amazon is a crime, not a business model,” Quigley said. She noted that Indigenous communities and civil society groups have fought corporate profiteering from this destruction for decades.

Alcebias Sapara, an activist with the Coordination of the Indigenous Organisations of the Brazilian Amazon, stated that while the forest destruction happens in Brazil, the crime is international. “We seek justice in every country that, in one way or another, participates in this,” Sapara said. He added that if criminal profits are invested in Europe, justice will be pursued there as well.

The Central Bank of Ireland declined to comment on the filings. JBS did not reply but has previously defended its activities, insisting it has no tolerance for illegal deforestation and has ended contracts with suppliers raising cattle on unlawfully deforested lands. BlackRock acknowledged questions but did not answer them. The complaints were also lodged with the National Crime Agency in the UK, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, and regulators in all four countries.