Commodities
Beef-Loving Nation Rocked by $300 Million in Cattle Fraud Claims
- About 6,000 retail investors face steep losses in Uruguay
- Three failed firms decline to comment on allegations
A South American nation known for its love of red meat is facing one of its biggest-ever retail investor fraud cases, with companies peddling cattle investments accused of bilking savers out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Beef is a major industry in Uruguay, whose national identity is tied to ranching and bountiful weekend barbecues. For a quarter of a century, a handful of firms leveraged the sector’s prestige to collect nearly $500 million from patrons in return for stakes in cattle ventures.