Brazil’s Federal Police and federal prosecutors launched a new phase of Operation Disclosure on June 25, widening a criminal investigation into alleged accounting fraud at Americanas, one of the country’s best-known retail chains.
Police served nine search-and-seizure warrants in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The 10th Federal Criminal Court in Rio de Janeiro also ordered the freezing of assets and funds belonging to people under investigation, up to a limit of R$54 billion.
The investigation examines alleged accounting fraud linked to two practices: supplier financing operations known in Brazil as risco sacado, and cooperative advertising funds, known by the Portuguese acronym VPC. In supplier financing, a bank advances payment to a supplier on behalf of a retailer. In the Americanas case, investigators say debts handled through those operations were allegedly kept out of the company’s balance sheet as if they had already been paid. VPC contracts, common in retail as commercial incentives tied to advertising, were allegedly booked without economic backing.
According to the Federal Police, investigators see indications of market manipulation and criminal association. The allegations remain under investigation.
Folha de S.Paulo and G1 reported that targets of the new phase include Carlos Alberto da Veiga Sicupira, known as Beto Sicupira, one of Americanas’s reference shareholders; Paulo Alberto Lemann, a former board member and son of Jorge Paulo Lemann; and Eduardo Saggioro Garcia, the current chairman of Americanas’s board. Executives or former executives linked to banks that had operations with the retailer were also named in the reports, including people associated with Itaú Unibanco, Bradesco and Santander.
Americanas said it was not the target of search warrants and said the operation relates to the fraud disclosed in 2023. The company said it would continue cooperating with investigators and described itself as the party most interested in clarifying the facts.
The reference shareholders, through LTS, said they were surprised by the police operation. They said investigations carried out in recent years, including plea-bargain material, indicated that the board and reference shareholders had been continuously deceived and led into error by the company’s former management. They also said their lawyers had not yet had access to the full court decision supporting the measure and that they would continue cooperating with authorities.
The banks also denied wrongdoing or emphasized cooperation. Santander said it stands with the parties harmed by the Americanas fraud investigation and continues to cooperate with authorities. Itaú said it has provided information since 2023, suffered large losses from the episode, and had already submitted documents to court supporting the regularity of its conduct. Bradesco said it was following the case and remained available to authorities.
The first phase of Operation Disclosure took place in June 2024 and focused on former Americanas executives. At that time, police carried out preventive arrest and search warrants, and a court ordered the seizure of more than R$500 million in assets and funds. Poder360 reported that former CEOs Miguel Gutierrez and João Guerra Duarte Neto were among the targets of arrest warrants in that phase; Gutierrez was arrested in Madrid on June 28, 2024, and released the following day.
The criminal probe is separate from the company’s civil restructuring process. Americanas entered court-supervised reorganization in January 2023 after accounting problems came to light. Folha reported that the current criminal case does not, in theory, compromise that reorganization process, which the company has sought to exit early.
Americanas shares fell 5.37% on the day of the operation, closing at R$4.05, according to Folha.