Brazil Stock Guide – Brazil’s Federal Police opened a new phase of its Americanas fraud investigation on Thursday, escalating one of the country’s largest corporate scandals with search warrants in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and a court-ordered asset freeze of up to R$54 billion.
The second phase of Operation Disclosure, conducted with federal prosecutors, is aimed at deepening the investigation into alleged accounting fraud at Americanas, the retailer that shocked Brazil’s capital markets in 2023 after revealing multibillion-real accounting inconsistencies.
Federal Police said officers executed nine search-and-seizure warrants, including personal searches, in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The 10th Federal Criminal Court in Rio de Janeiro also ordered the seizure of assets and funds held by the investigated parties up to the R$54 billion limit.
According to police, investigators found indications that suspects may have been aware of accounting fraud allegedly carried out over several years. The suspected practices were linked to supplier-financing transactions, known in Brazil as risco sacado, and to cooperative advertising funds, or VPC contracts, that were allegedly booked without economic substance.
Police said the investigation points, in theory, to crimes of market manipulation and criminal association.
Federal Police later identified the targets, including Paulo Alberto Lemann, son of billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann, and Carlos Alberto “Beto” Sicupira, two of Americanas’ longtime reference shareholders. The list also includes former board members and banking executives linked to the case.
Their inclusion marks a significant shift in the Americanas case. Until now, the investigation had focused largely on former executives and alleged accounting practices inside the company. The move toward reference shareholders, former directors and financial-market executives broadens the case from an accounting-fraud probe into a wider test of corporate governance, board oversight, creditor oversight and market accountability in Brazil.
The first phase of Operation Disclosure, launched in June 2024, targeted former Americanas executives and focused on alleged manipulation of financial statements tied to supplier financing and advertising contracts. At the time, the alleged fraud was estimated at R$25.3 billion. The new R$54 billion figure cited by Federal Police suggests investigators are now working with a broader estimate of the alleged damage.
Americanas entered judicial reorganization after the accounting scandal erupted in January 2023, triggering losses for investors, creditors and suppliers and raising questions about audit controls, disclosure standards and the role of controlling shareholders in one of Brazil’s most closely watched corporate collapses.
Americanas’ reference shareholders said in a statement they were “surprised” by the new phase of Operation Disclosure. They said investigations conducted by Brazil’s Federal Police and federal prosecutors indicate that the board of directors and reference shareholders were “continuously deceived and misled” by the company’s former management.
The shareholders said the operation is part of the regular course of the ongoing investigation and reiterated their commitment to cooperate with authorities. Their legal teams also said they have not yet had access to the full court decision behind the measure and are awaiting more information before making any further statement.