06/27/2024 – 15:47
The story of the billion-dollar fraud at Americanas gained a new chapter this Thursday, the 27th, with the Federal Police’s Operation Disclosure, which issued arrest warrants for the former CEO of Americanas Miguel Gutierrez and the former director of the retailer Anna Saicali. The executives are considered fugitives and will have their names included on Interpol’s red list of wanted persons.
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The market seems to have remained indifferent to this fact and shares remained stable throughout the trading session. The retailer’s shares are not even among the five biggest losses of the day on the Ibovespa. The negative side of the main B3 index is led this afternoon by Sabesp, trading at -3.74%.
But this is because the company is already operating in a downturn. From January 2023 – when the billion-dollar fraud was exposed – until yesterday’s trading session, Wednesday, 26th, Americanas shares depreciated 95.85%, according to data from Economatica, an economic and financial data platform.
As a result, Americanas lost more than R$8 billion in market value. It went from R$8,709,338 on January 1, 2023 to R$361.012 million on June 26, 2024.
On the eve of the revelation of the billion-dollar fraud, the retailer’s shares were priced at R$12. Today, they are priced at around R$0.40.
Arrest warrants
The former executive president of Americanas Miguel Gutierrez and the former director of retailer Anna Saicali will have their names included on Interpol’s red list of wanted people after the Federal Police were unable to execute preventive arrest warrants against them both, as they are both in abroad, a source with knowledge of the case told Reuters.
The arrest warrants were issued by the 10th Federal Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro as part of Operation Disclosure, which investigates the participation of former directors of the company in the accounting fraud of 25.3 billion reais that led Americanas to judicial recovery.
The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) confirmed that the targets of the arrest warrants were not found, as they are abroad, but did not provide their names. The PF also did not officially disclose the names of those involved.
In a statement released earlier, the PF said that, in addition to the arrest warrants, 80 federal police officers were also seeking to serve 15 search and seizure warrants at the homes of former directors of the retailer in Rio de Janeiro.
The investigations are a joint effort between the Federal Police, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM). The investigations also include the collaboration of the current board of directors of Americanas, the PF said.
In addition to the arrest and search and seizure warrants, the Court also ordered the seizure of assets and valuables of the former directors of Americanas being investigated in an amount in excess of 500 million reais, said the PF.
“The investigation also revealed strong evidence of the crime of market manipulation, use of privileged information, also known as ‘insider trading’, criminal association and money laundering. If convicted, they could serve a sentence of up to 26 years in prison,” said the PF in the note.
In a statement, Americanas said that it “reiterates its trust in the authorities investigating the case and reinforces that it was the victim of results fraud by its former board of directors, which deliberately manipulated existing internal controls.”
“Americanas believes in justice and awaits the conclusion of the investigations to hold all those involved legally accountable,” said the retailer.
Billionaire rumble
The hole in Americanas was revealed in January 2023 by the company’s newly appointed board of directors. Subsequently, the company, whose main shareholders are the three billionaire founders of 3G Capital — Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira — accused Gutierrez and other former employees of the company of committing fraud.
Gutierrez, who is living in Spain, denied having knowledge of accounting irregularities at the company during the period he ran the retailer. In testimony to the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) created in the Chamber of Deputies to investigate the case, Anna Saicali denied having participated in fraud at the company.
When contacted, representatives for Gutierrez did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was not possible to contact representatives for Anna Saicali.
*With information from Reuters
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