A Brazilian appeals court last month absolved Bernardo Paz, founder of the Inhotim Institute, an acclaimed environment-themed art and botanical garden complex in the east-central state of Minas Gerais, of money laundering, just over two years after he was convicted of the crime. On Feb. 11, a three-judge federal appeals panel in Brasília unanimously overturned a Nov. 2017 ruling by a lower-court judge, citing insufficient evidence of guilt. Prosecutors had charged Paz, a businessman, with diverting US$98.5 million in employee social-security withholdings in 2007 and 2008 from a mining group he controls. He was accused of sending the funds into an offshore account set up to receive donations from his businesses for the benefit of the Inhotim Institute, then using them to pay bills and debt incurred by his mining group. Paz, who denied the accusation, was sentenced to nine years and three months... [Log in to read more]