The former chief executive officer of embattled Brazilian retailer Americanas SA Miguel Gutierrez spoke out for the first time since the company sank into bankruptcy protection and pointed a finger at the firm's billionaire shareholders.
Gutierrez, who worked at the retailer for more than two decades and has been signaled by current and former executives as the architect behind a
"I became a scapegoat to be sacrificed in the name of protecting notorious and powerful figures of Brazilian capitalism," he said, in a separate document sent to a congressional commission investigating the case.
The billionaire shareholders are Brazil's richest men, Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Sicupira, who co-founded buyout firm 3G Capital and were the architects of major merger and acquisition deals over the past several decades that resulted in Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA and Kraft Heinz Co. The trio, who collectively have fortunes of about $39 billion, have been long-time leading shareholders of Americanas but claim to have been unaware of the accounting issues that came to light in January.
In one of the documents, Gutierrez said the company's top shareholders, Lemann, Telles and Sicupira have "enormous and constant interference in their businesses, especially in the financial area, in which they are recognized experts."
He said Americanas' sales were monitored daily by Sicupira and Eduardo Saggioro, chairman of Americanas and a partner at LTS Investments, which is their family office.
"It's worth noting that the members of the audit committee and the financial committee, as well as those of the fiscal council, were appointed or always validated" by Sicupira, Gutierrez wrote. In addition, the board of directors was also responsible for authorizing changes in the company's accounting policies, he said.
LTS said in an emailed statement that Gutierrez has no proof to back up his claims and that shareholders "were deceived by a cunning fraud whose wrongdoers will be held accountable by competent authorities." Americanas said it disputes the arguments presented by its former CEO and reinforces its June statement which placed the blame on the previous executive team led by Gutierrez.
Americanas shares, which have plunged 90% this year, opened lower in Sao Paulo. The market value of the retailer based in Rio de Janeiro stands at 840 million reais ($169 million).
In June, the current top executive at Americanas, Leonardo Coelho,
On Monday, Gutierrez said the claim was false and that the independent committee had no participation in the "accusation" the company made against him. Gutierrez, who is also a Spanish citizen, is in that European country and has cited health issues for why he's been unable to return to Brazil to speak to the congressional committee.
A report released by the congressional group investigating Americanas said that while it was "one of the biggest accounting scandals ever experienced" in Brazil, there's insufficient evidence "to attribute blame and to substantiate any possible indictments."
The federal police and securities regulator are also carrying out their own probes.
Americanas continues to negotiate a restructuring plan with banks and bondholders with total debt standing at more than 40 billion reais.
— With assistance from Daniel Carvalho
