The Transnational Legal Coalition, a newly formed group, said in a statement dated Nov. 5, 2026 that it had filed a criminal complaint with Dutch prosecutors accusing JBS N.V., the Dutch parent of Brazilian meatpacker JBS, of money laundering. The coalition argues that under anti-money-laundering laws derived from EU law, cattle raised on criminally deforested land are criminal property. It filed a second set of complaints, against 12 firms including Barclays, BlackRock and KPMG, with regulators and law-enforcement bodies in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland (TLC Q&A). SharpPost found no public statement from Dutch prosecutors or any of the other bodies the complaints were addressed to on whether they had received or were examining them.

A truck bearing the logo of Friboi, a JBS beef brand, beside a road in Brazil (file photo)
A truck bearing the logo of JBS’s Friboi brand beside a road in Brazil, 2024 (file photo). Photo: Almanaque Lusofonista / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

JBS listed in New York in June 2025 and, as part of the move, incorporated in the Netherlands and moved its headquarters to Amsterdam, according to the Associated Press. The coalition also referred JBS Global (UK) Limited to Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The coalition says the second set of complaints targets JBS’s key financiers, asset holders, lawyers and accountants. The complaints mainly allege failures to carry out enhanced due diligence and to report suspicious transactions. Enhanced due diligence means stricter checks, including on source of funds, and closer ongoing monitoring of clients and transactions with a higher money-laundering risk. The coalition says those duties “likely have not been properly undertaken.”

The complaints draw on an unpublished report the coalition commissioned from AidEnvironment, which it says found more than 6.5 million hectares of deforestation since 1988 on farms identified as JBS’s direct and indirect suppliers. The coalition’s evidence overview cites the report as finding that 98% of the deforestation on direct suppliers’ land, and 96% on indirect suppliers’ land, took place before Aug. 1, 2008. The totals are cumulative and do not depend on when a farm supplied JBS.

According to the evidence overview, AidEnvironment used Brazilian animal-transport permits from 2019 to 2026 to identify 3,329 direct and 9,247 indirect suppliers on privately owned land in the Amazon, then added up all deforestation recorded on those farms in PRODES satellite data from 1988 to 2025: about 3.39 million hectares for direct suppliers and 3.2 million for indirect ones. One consignment is enough to make a farm a direct supplier. The method does not track whether the farm kept selling to JBS, or whether an indirect supplier’s cattle reached a JBS plant.

Filings by JBS and BlackRock with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, dated 2022 to 2026, show 11 of the 12 firms, or companies in their groups, acting as JBS lenders, bond purchasers, fund managers holding its shares, auditor, or legal and tax advisers; SharpPost found no direct record for Banco do Brasil’s London branch. The filings capture relationships as of the dates they were signed or the periods they cover.

On financing, Barclays Bank PLC, ING Capital LLC and Rabobank’s New York branch all signed as lenders to JBS’s 2022 syndicated revolving credit agreement, according to the signature pages, and a November 2025 amendment lists Barclays as a joint lead arranger. The facility was amended again on July 31, 2026 (quarterly report; JBS notice), and the new lender list has not been filed with the SEC, so it is unclear whether those banks remain in the syndicate. The complaint to the Dutch central bank (DNB) concerns Rabobank’s and ING’s “US subsidiaries lending to JBS”; the coalition’s published materials do not name them.

The original schedule for a separate $450 million facility JBS S.A. signed in August 2022 shows Bank of Montreal committing $50 million, with the London branch named in the complaints as its notice address. JBS’s annual report says the facility’s capacity was increased to $500 million in November 2024 after lenders committed, and JBS N.V. became a co-borrower and guarantor on Dec. 19, 2025. JBS’s quarterly report says the facility and all commitments under it were terminated on July 31, 2026.

Registration rights agreements for JBS bond deals in January 2025, July 2025 and April 2026 list BB Securities Limited and Standard Chartered Bank among the initial purchasers, the firms that buy new bonds from the issuer and resell them to investors. BB Securities, Banco do Brasil’s UK securities arm, is also named. The coalition’s published materials do not specify which Standard Chartered entity it targets.

On investment, BlackRock’s Irish and German asset-management units face complaints at the Central Bank of Ireland and BaFin respectively. BlackRock’s 13F filing shows the Irish unit managing JBS N.V. shares worth about $36.0 million and the German unit $37.9 million as of June 30, 2026.

On professional services, JBS N.V.’s Dutch statutory annual report shows KPMG Accountants N.V., the KPMG entity named, audited the 2025 accounts, and shareholders reappointed it. The consolidated statements JBS files with the SEC are audited by KPMG Auditores Independentes in Brazil, which is not named. Loyens & Loeff N.V. said in a November 2025 Dutch-law opinion that it had acted as special counsel to JBS N.V. on certain matters of Dutch law; the firm faces a complaint at the Dutch Financial Supervision Office (BFT), and its lawyers one before the dean of the Amsterdam Bar. EY Belastingadviseurs B.V., the EY entity named, gave JBS B.V., as JBS N.V. was then called, an opinion on Dutch tax matters in April 2025, which was filed with the SEC; JBS’s prospectus that month called the firm “our Dutch tax counsel.”

“JBS regrets that the NGO’s campaign has withheld the purported data on which its allegations against JBS are based, which prevents the Company from taking action on them,” the company said in a statement carried by Mongabay and The Grocer. “We cannot comment without access to the methodology of the purported study.” JBS told the AP it has monitored its Amazon cattle suppliers by satellite since 2010 and automatically blocks farms with illegal deforestation, overlap with Indigenous lands or slave-like labor, among other problems.

Speaking to the AP, Barclays and BlackRock declined to comment; Standard Chartered and Loyens & Loeff cited client confidentiality; Rabobank said it does not comment on specific clients and does not take on new clients whose land has been illegally deforested since Jan. 1, 2018; ING and Banco do Brasil said they had not seen the complaint; and KPMG said it had not been contacted by the coalition and could not comment. Barclays told Inside Climate News it had reviewed the complaint and has applied enhanced due diligence to beef-producing clients since 2021, and a KPMG spokesperson told it the firm was reviewing the complaint. EY did not respond to Inside Climate News. SharpPost found no public response from Bank of Montreal or BB Securities. The coalition says it wrote to each target to prompt it to meet its anti-money-laundering obligations regarding JBS, including reporting it for suspected laundering, before regulators act.