In October 2008, Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama issued a notice of violation against business owner Delci Potrich, after he illegally burned 1,180 hectares of native forest on the Sabiá and Jatobá farms, in the Amazonian region of the Center-West state of Mato Grosso.
That year, for a series of violations, Mr. Potrich featured on the Environment Ministry’s list of the 100 biggest Amazon deforesters. That said, according to a report from U.S. NGO Mighty Earth, the government did nothing to stop the Potrich family — originally from the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul — from selling soybeans to sector giants such as Amaggi, Cargill, and Bunge.
As punishment for the environmental violation, Mr. Potrich was ordered to pay BRL 8.8 million, or BRL 20 million (USD 3.8 million) when adjusted for inflation today. But the violation notice, only recorded on paper, simply disappeared from Ibama’s archives. In 2012, the fine reached its statute of limitations and was never paid. The same occurred with another two fines — one for BRL 3.1 million in 2005, and another for BRL 25,000 in 2008 — both for illegal deforestation.
Adding up the value of the three fines, in today’s money, amounts to BRL 28.1 million which should have been paid to the public coffers.
Brazilian law foresees that the state cannot charge fines for an indeterminate time, hence why Mr. Potrich’s violations reached the statute of limitations. However, the same does not apply to the environmental damage caused by the wrongdoer: at any time, authorities may demand via a public-interest civil suit that the crime be righted with financial compensation or with the recuperation of the degraded area.
In Mr. Potrich’s case, the case remains open: Ibama documents obtained by Piauí magazine show that in 2022, the agency was still analyzing how to demand reparation for the area deforested by the businessman 15 years prior. Until today, no one knows what happened to the hand-written notice from 2008 — it simply disappeared from Ibama’s offices without a trace.
As a unit, the Potrich family are veritable collectors of environmental violations. A survey using Ibama data shows that at least another four notices have been issued against members of the family, the last in 2017. Approached by Piauí, neither Mr. Potrich nor his lawyers responded to interview requests.
After the paperwork disappeared, the BRL 8.8 million fine against...
Search
