SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A Brazilian court on Thursday issued an injunction to freeze 800 million reais ($246 million) in banking accounts belonging to Joesley Batista, one of the owners of the world's largest meatpacker, JBS SA (SA:JBSS3).
The federal court issued the injunction stating that the frozen funds may be used to repay allegedly ill-gotten gains in the foreign currency market one day before the disclosure on May 17 that Batista had reached a plea bargain with prosecutors in a sweeping graft probe. Batista's accusations led to a corruption investigation of President Michel Temer. Brazilian securities watchdog CVM is probing the transactions.