Brazil Fines Spanish Bank Santander in Amazon Deforestation

Brazil fined the Spanish bank Santander more than $15 million for allegedly financing the cultivation of crops on federally protected land in the Amazon rainforest, among the largest penalties given to a dozen individuals and firms related to farming on illegally cleared land.

IBAMA, the enforcement arm of the country’s Environment Ministry, fined farmers, grain traders and the bank a total of 170 million reais ($54.3 million) for planting, selling, or financing the sale of soy and corn in areas of the Amazon state of Mato Grosso that had been illegally cleared, it said Oct. 22. The agency had outlawed ...