Former CEO of Brazilian retail giant Americanas arrested on billion-dollar fraud charges

SAO PAULO – Brazil – Retail Fraud

The former CEO of Brazilian retail giant Americanas, Miguel Gutierrez, was arrested in Madrid on Friday on suspicion of involvement in a fraud scheme worth 25 billion reais ($4.5 billion).

Brazil’s federal police put his name on Interpol’s red list after finding that the company had falsified financial results to inflate cash flow and artificially boost the company’s share price. Former directors committed fraud by advancing payments to suppliers through loans, market manipulation, insider trading, criminal associations and money laundering, investigators said in a statement.

The investigation began in January 2023, after Gutierrez’s successor took over as CEO, and soon uncovered a liquidity deficit of 20 billion reais ($3.6 billion).

Gutierrez’s lawyer told the local press that his client had cooperated with the authorities and denied any involvement in the fraud scheme.

Gutierrez, who is also a Spanish citizen, joined Americanas in 1993 and held various positions, gaining the trust of shareholders Carlos Alberto Sicupira, Marcel Telles and Jorge Paulo Lemann – a multi-billionaire and the second richest man in Brazil.

The federal prosecutor’s office said the company’s management cooperated in the investigation and provided information about the fraud scheme.

The Brazilian federal government has yet to receive an extradition request for Gutierrez from the court. Brazil signed an extradition treaty with Spain in 1988 that allows each country to refuse to extradite its own nationals. The Spanish National Police has neither confirmed nor denied the arrest.

On Thursday, the Brazilian federal police executed 15 arrest warrants and search and seizure orders against other former Americanas directors in Rio de Janeiro and seized their assets. Lemann, Sicupira and Telles were not affected by this raid.