The former CEO of Brazilian retail giant Americanas, Miguel Gutiérrez, was arrested on Friday in Madrid and is accused of participating in a 25 billion reais ($4.5 billion) fraud scheme.
SAO PAULO — Brazil-retail-fraud
The former CEO of Brazilian retail giant Americanas, Miguel Gutiérrez, was arrested on Friday in Madrid, accused of participating in a 25 billion reais ($4.5 billion) fraud scheme.
Brazil’s Federal Police added its name to Interpol’s red notice list after determining that the company falsified financial results to inflate cash flow and artificially boost the company’s shares. The former directors committed fraud by advancing payments to suppliers through loans, manipulating the market, using inside information, conspiring to commit crimes and laundering money, according to a statement from investigators.
The investigation began in January 2023 after Gutiérrez’s successor took over as CEO and soon revealed a cash shortfall of 20 billion reais ($3.6 billion).
Gutiérrez’s lawyer told local press that his client has cooperated with authorities and denies any involvement in the fraud scheme.
Gutiérrez, who is also a Spanish citizen, joined Americanas in 1993 and held various positions, earning the trust of shareholders Carlos Alberto Sicupira, Marcel Telles and Jorge Paulo Lemann, a billionaire and the second richest person in Brazil.
Federal prosecutors said the company’s board of directors cooperated with the investigation by providing information about the fraud scheme.
Brazil’s federal government has not yet received an extradition request for Gutiérrez from the court. Brazil signed an extradition treaty with Spain in 1988, stipulating that each country can refuse to extradite its own nationals. The Spanish national police neither confirmed nor denied the arrest.
On Thursday, Brazil’s Federal Police executed 15 arrest warrants and search and seizure warrants against other former Americanas directors in Rio de Janeiro and confiscated their assets. Lemann, Sicupira and Telles were not included in this police raid.
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