JBS and its bankers accused of laundering Amazon deforestation profits

The Transnational Legal Coalition filed 14 money-laundering complaints on Nov. 5 with prosecutors and financial regulators in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. The targets are JBS, the world's largest beef processor, plus a dozen financial firms, investors and advisory businesses that handle its money, according to Mongabay. The coalition argues that anti-money laundering laws make both JBS and the institutions moving its cash legally liable.

Barclays, reportedly JBS's biggest financier, is among the institutions named in the filings. A 2024 Global Witness investigation cited by Mongabay put the British bank's earnings from its JBS dealings at $1.7 billion between 2018 and 2023. Barclays declined to comment, Mongabay reported.

At the heart of the complaints is a legal theory: earnings from cattle raised on illegally cleared land count as proceeds of crime. Environmental nonprofit AidEnvironment linked JBS suppliers to more than 16 million acres of forest clearance in Brazil's Amazon between 1988 and 2026, with over 80% of farms in its sample showing evidence of clearing inside legally protected zones. Those zones fall into two categories — Areas of Permanent Preservation, where vegetation removal is generally banned, and Legal Reserves, which Brazilian law requires rural landowners to conserve.

A separate Global Witness investigation found that almost 8,000 cattle from unlawfully occupied land inside Apyterewa Indigenous territory reached JBS's supply chain between 2018 and 2023, Mongabay reported.

JBS said it doesn't have the information needed to assess the allegations, which it disputes. A spokesperson for coalition member Mighty Earth told the outlet that JBS is aware of the key findings. Coalition coordinator Bláithín Quigley put it plainly: Illegal deforestation of the Amazon is a crime, not a business model.

The filings land against a wider pattern of Amazon scrutiny. Interpol has linked 161 firms to clearing across Latin America alongside 233 arrests, and a study found Brazil's Amazon emissions nearly quadrupled without a drought. Separately, a watchdog alleges Mondelēz lobbied to weaken and delay EU deforestation rules.