The former president of the Brazilian distribution giant Americanas, Miguel Gutiérrez, suspected of being involved in an accounting fraud involving around $4.6 billion, was arrested in Madrid, the Federal Police (PF) of Brazil reported on Friday (06/28/2024). .
“We confirm his arrest,” the PF said in an email without giving details about the possible extradition of Gutiérrez, who has dual Brazilian and Spanish nationality and who was included on the list of people wanted by Interpol.
President of the group between 2003 and 2022, Gutiérrez was the target, along with other members of the Americanas leadership, of a vast police operation launched on Thursday, with two arrest warrants and 15 searches.
Anna Christina Ramos Saicali, a former executive of the company who was also the subject of an arrest warrant, has not yet been located by the authorities.
Americanas, which currently has more than 1,700 stores in Brazil, declared Thursday that it was “a victim of fraud by its former management, which knowingly manipulated internal controls.”
The scandal broke out in January 2023, when the company reported “inconsistencies” in its accounts worth billions of USD, linked in particular to purchase financing operations that were not “correctly reflected.”
Americana’s price immediately plummeted on the Sao Paulo stock exchange and the company was placed under judicial recovery.
According to the PF, “the largest fraud in the history of the Brazilian financial market” caused an accounting hole of 25.3 billion reais, about $4.6 billion at the current exchange rate.
The company’s market value was artificially inflated as a result of this accounting fraud.
gs (afp, efe)
