By Ana Mano

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -The U.S. financial regulator's approval last month of a proposal by the world's largest meatpacker JBS to list on the New York Stock Exchange is drawing strong criticism from climate and animal rights groups but praise from Wall Street.

In multiple statements after April 22, when Brazil's JBS said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) greenlit its dual-listing plan to broaden its investor pool and raise its valuation closer to peers, environment activists and animal rights lobbies have unleashed a campaign condemning it.

They cited sprawling criminal investigations into JBS or its controllers in Brazil and in the U.S., as well as concerns over the deforestation of the Amazon and the company's outsized role as a large global emitter of greenhouse gases in the course of its operations.

"Given the company's long rap sheet of illegal and corrupt conduct, it's hard to see how the SEC could have confidence that JBS won't deceive U.S. investors," Glenn Hurowitz, CEO of Mighty Earth, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group, said in a statement.

JBS was deeply implicated in a bribery scandal in 2017 that shook Brazil's political and economic landscape. In the U.S., the company or related parties were fined millions of dollars in 2020 for corruption in Brazil and for bribery related to its 2009 acquisition of Pilgrim's Pride, another top U.S. meat company.

U.S. lawmakers have also raised concerns over the listing and JBS's criminal and environmental track record.

The SEC did not respond to several requests for comment.

JBS said it believes its U.S. listing presents a compelling investment option and increased opportunities for farmers and ranchers, employees, consumers and the communities where it operates.

The company, which partly funded its aggressive global expansion by issuing bonds traded internationally, pointed out that it has been subject to the information and reporting requirements of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and other U.S. federal securities laws for years.

Global Witness, a London-based organization which investigates industries' links to climate change, called SEC's approval of the listing "a disaster" for both the planet and its people. Other groups have alleged that JBS purchases cattle grazed on deforested areas of the Amazon.

In a statement to Reuters, JBS rejected that claim, citing a "rigorous, zero-tolerance agricultural commodity sourcing policy with strong anti-deforestation measures."