The Sky's the Limit

Jair Bolsanaro

Jair Bolsonaro was the President of Brazil when the research was conducted. He announced that he plans to open up Brazil to more foreign trade by reducing tax on business.

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Paulo Guedes

During the time or research, Jair Bolsanaro's economy minister was being investigated for a crime involving investments contributed by pension funds. He would later be appointed to head Petrobras.

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Petrobas

Petrobras is a Brazilian oil company, and the largest company in Brazil, and the Brazilian government holds the majority in voting rights for the company.

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Petros

Among the investigations, is Petros, which was created by Petrobras in 1970. 

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Fitch Rates Petrobras's Senior Notes 'BB'

By law, the federal government must hold at least a majority of Petrobras' voting stock and currently owns 50.3% of Petrobras' voting rights.

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Rosneft

Rosneft Oil Company is a Russian integrated energy company headquartered in Moscow.

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Rosneft Brazil

Subsidiary of Rosneft operating in Brazil since 2014. In 2014 Rosneft and Petrobras signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation to study development schemes for a joint monetization of gas in the Solimões Basin in the Amazon region.

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WWF description of the Solimões Basin

The Solimões Basin is commercialised in it's diversity through language used in this write up 'here is a high diversity of timber species (15 commercial species identified in one area'. And also fails to recognise the extraction that is taking place over the region by marking it's status as 'Relatively Stable/intact'.

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Pixelated Google Earth images

Video taken in 2018 of the Solimões Basin. The video flies into the various blocks the Rosneft Brazil has a contract to explore. In addition to the dense forest, the images are so pixelated that no activity can be seen making it hard to monitor this area.

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Solimões Basin oil and gas project

This diagram shows the blocks that Rosneft Brazil aquired to conduct exploratory drilling in. The area covers 48.5 thousand square kilometers

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TIAA-CREF

The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund is an American private pension provider in the academic, research, medical, cultural and governmental fields. Through a series of subsidiaries and shell companies, TIAA-CREF partakes in land-grabbing in the Brazilian Amazon.

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TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture II LLC

TCGA II is a subsidiary of TIAA-CREF to invest in farmland around the globe. TCGA II was set-up after TCGA reached oversubscribed status with $2 billion in capital commitments at final close. TCGA II uses a complex corporate structure to evade Brazilian land ownership law.

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Tellus Brasil Participaco S.A.

Tellus is 49% owned through TIAA-CREF and 51% through Cosan. This allows TIAA-CREF to bypass Brazilian landownership law.

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Cosan

Cosan S.A. is a public-listed company, a Brazilian conglomerate producer of bioethanol, sugar and energy.

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Company Structure

This page from TIAA-CREF's 2019 september quarterly report showing the structure and ownership of the companies invovled in land grabbing.

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Radar S.A.

Before the 2010 Law that limited Foreign ownership of land, This subsidiary was set up as a joint venture between Cosan and TIAA-CREF to purchase land to be turned into farmland. TIAA-CREF had an 81% share of the company. In 2016, Radar's structure was reshuffled. Under the new arrangement, Cosan held a majority of the voting shares.

While TIAA held more shares than Cosan, because they were mostly “non-voting” shares the fund appeared to have less control over Radar. But TIAA could veto major investments, provided 60 percent of the capital, and was entitled to 97 percent of profits.

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