Americanas reveals that the board defrauded financial statements and tried to hide the company’s situation

2023-06-13 19:15:34

Report points to the participation of seven executives in the fraud of financial documents in the contracting of a series of financing without the due corporate approvals.

KEVIN DAVID/A7 PRESS/ESTADÃO CONTENTThe company has debts worth BRL 41 billion and a list of creditors with more than 8,000 names

On Monday, the 12th, legal advisers from Americans presented a report to the Board of Directors in which they claim that the financial statements of the company were being defrauded by the previous management. The allegation was based on the analysis of documents provided by the independent investigation committee and supplementary documents. The advisors also identified efforts to hide the company’s real result and equity situation from the board and the market in general. would be involved in fraud former CEO Miguel Gutierrez, former directors Anna Christina Ramos Saicali, José Timótheo de Barros and Márcio Cruz Meirelles, and former executives Fábio da Silva Abrate, Flávia Carneiro and Marcelo da Silva Nunes. The report also reveals that the previous board contracted a series of financings without the due corporate approvals. According to the advisors’ assessment, the undue accounting of these financing operations in Americanas’ financial statements did not allow for the correct determination of the Company’s indebtedness over time. “Entries reducing the supplier account arising from interest on financial operations were also identified, which should have passed through the Company’s results over time, totaling, in preliminary and unaudited numbers, the balance of R$3.6 billion on 30 September 2022,” the company said in a statement to the market.

The report also clarified how fraud occurred. “Several cooperative advertising budget contracts and similar instruments (“VPC”) were identified, commercial incentives usually used in the retail sector, which would have been artificially created to improve the Company’s operating results as cost reducers, but without effective contracting with suppliers. These entries, made over a significant period, reached, in preliminary and unaudited numbers, the balance of R$21.7 billion on September 30, 2022. The accounting entries in the balance sheet of these VPC contracts created over time, the which did not have associated financial backing, were mostly in the form of entries reducing the supplier account, totaling, in preliminary and unaudited numbers, the balance of R$17.7 billion on September 30, 2022. The difference of R$4, 0 billion was offset by accounting entries in other accounts of the Company’s assets”, he clarified.

Marcello Marin, Master in Corporate Governance and CFO of Spot Financeira, observes that the revelation slightly changes the company’s scenario, which now faces a slightly more chaotic situation. “When we talk about fraud, we seek to hold the fraudster accountable. In that sense, Americanas will probably now go after Miguel Gutierrez so that he responds and is held responsible for this, including the collection of amounts. He will not be able to bear all the damage, but he will have to respond civilly and criminally. So, we may have very interesting new developments in the coming days”, he analyzes. The company’s crisis began in January of this year, after the discovery of an accounting “inconsistency” in the company’s balance sheet of BRL 20 billion. Subsequently, debts worth R$41 billion and a list of creditors with more than 8,000 names were revealed. Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) formally accused the former executives of the AmericansSérgio Rial and João Guerra Duarte Neto, for using privileged information to obtain financial advantages.