Dirty family secret is behind Brazilian meat powerhouse's buying spree

Washington

WHEN beef tycoons Joesley and Wesley Batista sat down with Brazilian prosecutors last month and told them all they knew about the metastatic corruption scandal known as Carwash, they also let the world in on a dirty family secret.

The meteoric rise of the Batistas' JBS, the global meat powerhouse that seemed to come out of nowhere a decade ago, wouldn't have been possible without a top politician on the take, hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and a series of sweetheart deals with Brazil's state development bank, it was alleged.