Former CEO of Americanas is released in Spain and surrenders passport

Former Americanas CEO Miguel Gutierrez, who is being investigated for his involvement in alleged accounting frauds worth R$25.3 billion, was released this Saturday, the 29th, and is at his home in Madrid, Spain. Estadão found that he handed over his passport to the Brazilian and Spanish authorities.

The main target of Operation Disclosure, Gutierrez was arrested this Friday, the 28th by Interpol, after being the subject of a preventive arrest warrant and having his name included on the international police red list.

According to a statement released today by the defense, the executive “spontaneously appeared before the police and jurisdictional authorities in order to provide the requested clarifications”. The lawyers say that the businessman is at “the same address communicated to the authorities since 2023, where he has always been available to the various bodies interested in the ongoing investigations”.

According to investigators from Operation Disclosure, Gutierrez was directly involved in the frauds that affected Americanas stores, “since he participated in the closing of the results”. He had the final say on the allegedly inflated numbers presented to the Board of Directors and the market, says the PF.

The investigation indicates that Miguel Gutierrez and Anna Christina Saicali would have sold more than R$230 million (R$171.7 million and R$59.6 million, respectively) in Americanas shares in view of the possibility that the company’s billion-dollar accounting frauds would become public.

The former CEO’s lawyers reinforced that he “never participated in or had knowledge of any fraud and has been collaborating with the authorities, providing the necessary clarifications in the appropriate forums”.

“With access to the records, Miguel will now be able to exercise his defense against the allegations arising from false reports against him,” noted the executive’s defenders.

Also subject to a preventive arrest warrant in Operation Disclosure, former director Anna Saicali must hand herself in to the Brazilian arm of Interpol this Sunday, 30th, at Lisbon Airport and then take a flight to Brazil. The Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro conditioned the revocation of the former executive’s preventive detention order on her presentation to the authorities and the delivery of her passport to the Federal Police as soon as she disembarks in Brazil.