Brazilian rancher and businessman born in Passos, State of Minas Gerais, known as O Barão do Gado, partner of former presidents João Goulart and Juscelino Kubitschek. With incomplete elementary school, he became known for his entrepreneurial spirit and country style, which fascinated friends, businessmen and high-ranking politicians. His folkloric style inspired the creation of the character Sinhozinho Malta, in the global telenovela Roque Santeiro.
Accused in Brazil of committing price abuses at a time of meat shortages, he left for Australia (1976) without knowing English, but with a few million dollars in his pocket. He developed beef cattle raising in that country, where he became a millionaire and owner of thousands of heads of cattle and large farms that totaled around 1 million hectares. He came to be called the Baron of Gado and, accused by the Australian government of land concentration and undermining agrarian reform in country, he moved to the USA, where he was also successful investing millions of dollars, in particular, in the real estate market in Las Vegas.
After suffering an aneurysm that left sequels in his memory (1988), he returned to Brazil and began living in seclusion in an apartment in the city of São Paulo. Submitted to long sessions of physiotherapy and speech therapy, he no longer recovered. He delegated the administration of his empire to his nephew Aramis Patti Maia and died at the Hospital Sírio Libanês, in São Paulo, at the age of 87.
At the time of his death, his assets included 170,000 head of cattle, two farms in Australia: Lawn Hill, bought in cash for $3 million, and Julia Creek, for 140,000 hectares, a residential complex in Las Vegas valued at US$ 30 million, an apartment condominium, named Copacabana, in addition to other developments in the States United.
Source: Biographies - Academic Unit of Civil Engineering / UFCG
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Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
COSTA, Keilla Renata. "Sebastião Ferreira Maia"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/sebastiao-maia.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.