Bradesco defense hardens speech against Americanas – 03/22/2023 – Mônica Bergamo

Bradesco will ask for access to the investigations conducted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding the accounting deficit of approximately R$ 20 billion at Lojas Americanas. The institution will maintain that, as a victim who can have an estimated loss of BRL 4 billion, he must have guaranteed access to the agency’s diligences.

The bank is represented by criminal lawyer Fernando José da Costa, former Secretary of Justice of São Paulo, who says there is evidence of criminal practices and that the billionaire trio of shareholders, formed by Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Beto Sicupira, was aware of the alleged crimes.

“We have several indications of the practice of crimes of financial fraud, false documents, use of false documents, criminal organization, money laundering, insider trading [uso de informação privilegiada]in addition to other possible crimes against the national financial system”, says Costa.

“Part of this amount was cunningly accounted for as debt to suppliers instead of bank debt, and part was simply omitted from the balance sheets. Due to the high amount and for being a conduct practiced for several years, we certainly have the involvement of many people and various sectors” , he follows.

The lawyer also claims that it is “difficult to support” the hypothesis that the billionaire trio of shareholders was not aware of the alleged fraud.

He questions, for example, the fact that in 2021 Lemann and Telles ceased to be common shareholders of Americanas, a condition that guarantees voting power in decision-making for the company. “They were increasingly losing responsibility”, says Fernando José da Costa.

Contacted by the column through its press office, Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Beto Sicupira reject the questions presented by the bank’s lawyer. “There is no foundation in Bradesco’s allegations, which should review its procedures before making unreasonable accusations of foundation”, they say, in a note.

Shareholders say that Lemann and Telles left the retail chain’s board of directors more than 15 years ago, but that both “remain part of the same block of shareholders as Beto Sicupira” — the latter, a member of the collegiate until today.

They also claim that Paulo Lemann, son of Jorge Paulo, remains on the company’s board, which would rule out any hypothesis of premeditated distancing.

“The change from ‘controlling shareholders’ to ‘reference shareholders’ [no caso de Lemann e Telles] took place after the merger of B2W with Lojas Americanas in 2021, in a process encouraged by the Capital Market (see rise in LAME shares [Lojas Americanas] after the announcement of the merger)”, continues the note. “In the merger, the shares of the companies were transformed into common shares, complying with the Novo Market rule.”

Last week, as the column showed, the proposal by the trio of shareholders to inject R$10 billion into Americanas eased the climate of war that prevailed between them and the company’s creditor banks. The values ​​offered in the first negotiations reached R$ 7 billion.

Most of the financial institutions participating in the negotiations for the company’s recovery understood that the new amount would indicate a way for them to reach a successful conclusion. But they want the three to invest more money in the business. The ideal figure would be around R$ 12 billion.

There is, however, no consensus. Itaú Unibanco, for example, is being stricter in conversations. And Bradesco, for the time being, is showing signs that it is willing to toughen up its discourse in relation to the company.

_{with BIANKA VIEIRA, KARINA MATIAS It is MANOELLA SMITH}

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