Former CEO of Americans (AMER3), Miguel Gutierrez, has sent a letter to the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) of the Chamber investigating the retailer’s accounting fraud in which he accuses the reference shareholders, the trio Jorge Paulo Lemann, Alberto Sicupira and Marcel Telles, of active participation in the financial management of the company, according to information from the Valor Econômico newspaper.
“I have become a convenient ‘scapegoat’ to be sacrificed in the name of protecting well-known and powerful figures of Brazilian capitalism,” Gutierrez says in a letter sent by his lawyers to the CPI last Friday (31) and obtained by Valor.
The former executive also accuses his successor, Sérgio Rial, of having lied to the CPI when he stated that the trio of shareholders by the Americans I had no knowledge of what was going on in the company’s accounting.
In June, Leonardo Coelho Pereira, current CEO of Americanasaccused the former board, led by Gutierrez, of accounting fraud, Valor said. At the time, Pereira presented the college with copies of internal documents and e-mails that he says corroborate the irregularities, including the falsification of numbers to generate alleged profits.
According to the Pereira newspaper, he is in Spain for medical treatment. The executive asked to be heard via videoconference, but his request was rejected by the commission’s leaders.
Other details of the letter
In another part of the letter, Gutierrez pointed out that after the American Fusion with the B2Wowner of Submarine, had a “more strategic” role and did not operate in all areas, which had autonomous departments. “As is known, and as we read in the famous book that tells his entrepreneurial story, 3G [acionistas de referência] actively participates in the management of portfolio companies and strictly controls their finances”.
For Gutierrez, the controllers were in board of directors and in the finance committee, personally or through persons directly related to them, including relatives, the letter reads. Furthermore, they also participated in the meetings through them holding LTS“whose employees, even if they did not hold official positions in the company, participated in its management and its follow-up”.
Also in the letter, Gutierrez accuses Rial of lying by saying that he only became aware of the dealer’s problems on the eve of taking office – he only stayed at the company for nine days, in January 2023, and resigned after claiming to have found an accountant serious. inconsistency, claiming that the relevant shareholders were unaware of it.
“Mr. Rial also held a series of meetings with the other directors, to which I, having left the company, was not even invited and at times I was not even aware of. At that time he had carte blanche and communicated directly with managers and employees,” he said.
Among other points contained in the letter released by Valor, the former executive also accused the independent audit committee hired by the company of being in the service of reference shareholders and that the financial problem “was fully known” to the board, finance committee and controlling shareholders.
In a response sent to the newspaper, the company and shareholders denied the claims and accused Gutierrez of fraud. Rial, on the other hand, specified that he will not comment on the letter from the former executive and that he will await the final outcome of the investigation.
Americanas (AMER3) Announces Financial Statements Release Date – 4Q22
Americanas announced late last month plans to release its first quarterly financial statements following the company’s accounting scandal exposed in January. The date set for the details of the company’s operating performance will be October 31st. The result that will be published with the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM), informs the dealer, will refer to the fourth quarter of 2022, the 4Q22.
The disclosure of American budget of the last quarter of 2022 has been postponed at least three times (in March, May and August) since the company notified the market in January of this year that it had discovered an accounting deficit of more than R$ 20 billion. Also in January, the retailer entered judicial recovery, with debts that could reach nearly R$50 billion.
In the market disclosure, Americanas informs that it will publish the revised financial statements for 2021: “The revision of the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2022, as well as the financial statements to be restated for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 (“DFs 21″), are in progress”.
Already the results of American 1Q23 and 2Q23, according to the retailer, do not have a definite release date, just like 3Q23. The company points out that there is a quote to announce it 2023 financial statements: by the end of this year. “The preparation and review of the Company’s Quarterly Information – ITR for the periods ended March 31, 2023 (1Q23) and June 30, 2023 (2Q23) are subject to the completion of work on FS 22 and FS 21. Best Company, at this time, is to disclose that information, as well as the quarter ended September 30, 2023 (“3rd ITR/23”), through December 29, 2023,” the company specifies.
Americanas concludes in this Wednesday’s Material Fact: “The company informs that it continues to collaborate with creditors in the construction of the definitive version of its judicial reorganization plan, presented on March 20, 2023 and still subject to revisions and adjustments. In this sense, the Disclosure of FS 22 and FS 21 is one of the essential steps in completing this process.”
Former directors and executives of the retailer testified to the CPI by Americanswhich determines the billionaire deficit of the company.
Source: Terra
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