RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian police arrested on Wednesday the executive president of the meatpacking giant, JBS, Wesley Batista, after his brother, Joesley, was detained at the weekend.
These arrests are part of Operation Talon de Aquiles (Eagle Talon), which is investigating the use of privileged information to benefit from financial trades in April-May 2017.
The Batista brothers are being investigated for a sale of JBS shares on the stock market by its controlling company, FB Participacoes SA, at the time.
This trade came at a time when the brothers had cooperated with the police, confessed to bribing President Michel Temer and handed over a recording in which the president can seemingly be heard approving public bribes.
As JBS shares dropped as a result, it is alleged the Batista brothers conspired to manipulate the market. The day before the Temer confession was made public, the Batista brothers bought a large number of U.S. dollars and sold many shares in their company.
According to authorities, they knew the market turmoil the news would cause and used this advantage illegally to turn a profit.
If found guilty of these charges, the two brothers face between one and five years in prison and a fine of up to three times the value of the illicit advantages perceived.
The Batista confession against Temer led the president to be charged with corruption in June, although this charge was later dropped by the Chamber of Deputies.
