MPF annuls part of the J&F fine in agreement and says there was a “serious error”

The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) confirmed that the fine imposed on the company J&F in a leniency agreement was reduced from just over R$10 billion to around R$3.5 billion. The agreement, signed in 2017 by the brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista as part of Operation Lava Jato, aimed to mitigate sanctions for acts of corruption discovered by the task force.

Initially, the calculation of the fine provided for the payment of R$ 10.3 billion distributed to the Union and other entities, such as pension funds, BNDES and Caixa Econômica Federal. However, according to the decision of the MPF issued last week, a “serious error in the formula adopted in the calculation of gross revenue” of the company was identified, resulting in an increase of R$ 5 billion in the calculation base.

Failures were also found in the application of fine percentages, aggravating and mitigating factors, as well as innovations not provided for in the law. This led to the review of the final amount to approximately R$3.5 billion.

Despite the reduction, the MPF clarified that the change responded to a “one-off request for dispute resolution” from the company and was not a complete revision of the terms. The agreement was endorsed by the 10th Federal Court of the Judiciary Section of the Federal District and by the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region.

The payment of the fine, which will now be allocated exclusively to the Union, will be made over eight years, instead of the previously stipulated 25 years. So far, the company has already paid approximately R$608.2 million to the Union.

The decision to reduce the fine generated internal disagreements within the MPF, with allegations that the coordinator Ronaldo Albo made the decision without the consent of other sub-prosecutors and the public prosecutor responsible for the J&F case, Carlos Henrique Martins Lima.