JBS faces 14 European complaints linking Amazon beef to money laundering

Fourteen legal complaints were filed in Europe this week against JBS, the world's largest meat company, and a network of banks and advisers. The filings accuse the companies of facilitating money laundering tied to illegal deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. The actions were submitted to financial regulators and prosecutors in Britain, Ireland, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The Transnational Legal Coalition, or TLC, argued that proceeds from cattle raised on illegally cleared land constitute criminal proceeds. Bláithín Quigley, the coalition's coordinator, stated that illegal deforestation is a crime rather than a business model. He said the group formed to coordinate legal efforts to tackle environmental crime across global value chains.

The complaints name specific financial institutions that interact with JBS. These include Barclays, Standard Chartered, and the London branches of Bank of Montreal and Banco do Brasil. The group also targeted Dutch banks Rabobank and ING, along with BlackRock Asset Management in Ireland and Germany. Professional advisers in the Netherlands, including Loyens & Loeff, EY, and KPMG, were also named in the filings.

JBS said it had not received the data or methodology behind the allegations. The company noted that it has monitored its cattle suppliers in the Amazon since 2010 using satellite imagery. A system analyzing 600,000 square kilometers of Brazilian territory daily automatically blocks farms with illegal deforestation or overlap with Indigenous lands.

The legal basis for the European actions rests on JBS's financial ties to the continent. Approximately 70% of Brazilian beef is consumed domestically, with North America receiving 21.5% of exports. Europe accounted for 18.8% of Brazilian beef exports according to official data. The coalition hopes to trigger anti-money laundering investigations against the financiers.

The complaints draw on research by the nonprofit AidEnvironment. That group identified 3,329 direct and 9,247 indirect suppliers to 21 JBS slaughterhouses in five Brazilian states. The analysis cross-referenced animal health records with official deforestation maps. JBS operates in more than 180 countries and reported 86.2 billion dollars in revenue in 2025.

Several named institutions responded to the filings. Rabobank said its policy bars financing deforestation and it is committed to preventing money laundering. Banco do Brasil and ING stated they had not seen the complaint and could not comment on individual client relationships. KPMG said it had not been contacted by the coalition. Loyens & Loeff and Standard Chartered cited client confidentiality, while BlackRock and Barclays declined to comment.