Police Examine US$461 Million in Americanas Ex-CEO’s Accounts
Brazil
Key Facts
—The R$2.342 billion figure Represents total credits and debits across Gutierrez’s personal accounts from January 2013 to April 2024, not an estimate of money laundered or diverted from the company.
—No new operation The 2 August 2026 reports disclosed contents of an existing Federal Police inquiry opened in mid-2025. There were no search warrants, arrests, or new charges.
—Criminal charge unopened Federal prosecutors filed charges against 13 individuals at the end of March 2025. As of 29 June 2026, the 10th Federal Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro had not accepted the denúncia, meaning there are formally no defendants.
—Gutierrez’s status He holds dual Brazilian and Spanish nationality and has lived in Spain since the scandal broke. He was arrested in Madrid in June 2024 and released on conditions; a habeas corpus order later revoked the preventive detention.
—The controlling shareholders Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira have never been charged. Sicupira and Paulo Alberto Lemann were named as targets of search warrants in June 2026, which is a precautionary measure, not a criminal charge.
Brazilian authorities are tracing R$2.342 billion (approximately US$461 million) that moved through personal bank accounts held by Americanas Ex-CEO Miguel Gutierrez over more than eleven years, according to investigation documents reported by the O Globo columnist Lauro Jardim and carried by Times Brasil on 2 August 2026. The disclosure comes as the criminal charge filed against Gutierrez by federal prosecutors sixteen months ago remains unopened by the court, meaning there are formally no defendants in the case.
What the R$2.3 Billion Actually Measures
The R$2.342 billion figure represents the total of credits and debits – roughly half each – across accounts held by Gutierrez between January 2013 and April 2024. Of that total, R$992 million (about US$195 million) moved in 2022 alone, the year he left Americanas. All dollar conversions in this article use the Brazilian Central Bank PTAX close of R$5.08 to the dollar on 31 July 2026.
It is not an estimate of money allegedly laundered, not money taken from Americanas, and not the accounting fraud itself. Much of the activity may be entirely ordinary. Investigators are seeking to establish the origin, destination and purpose of the funds.
According to the investigation documents, the Federal Police’s characterisation is that Gutierrez allegedly structured an asset-shielding plan to conceal assets and funds using intermediaries and companies based in Brazil and abroad, with what the documents describe as strong indications of concealment that could constitute acts of money laundering. The conditional language is the police’s own.
The Criminal Case That Has Not Moved
Gutierrez has been charged by federal prosecutors – but the charge has not yet been accepted by the court. The Ministério Público Federal filed the denúncia at the end of March 2025 against 13 former executives and employees of Americanas. As reported by Valor Econômico on 29 June 2026, the denúncia has still not been received by the 10th Federal Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro, where judge Giovana Teixeira Brantes Calmon presides. There are formally no defendants in the case. He has not been tried and has not been convicted.
The alleged offences in the prosecutors’ filing include criminal association, market manipulation and falsidade ideológica; nine of the 13 individuals also face insider-trading allegations.
Gutierrez, born in 1961, served as chief executive of Lojas Americanas for about two decades, until December 2022 – one month before the scandal broke. He was succeeded by Sergio Rial, who took over in January 2023 and resigned after nine days upon disclosing the accounting inconsistencies. Gutierrez holds dual Brazilian and Spanish nationality and has lived in Spain since the scandal broke.
The Regulator’s Findings
On 21 January 2026, the sanctioning superintendency of Brazil’s securities regulator, the CVM, accused Gutierrez of leading the fraud, which it said in its own report ran for at least a decade without the knowledge of the board or its committees. That is the regulator’s account, and a judge has since taken a different view: on 29 July 2026 judge Calmon held that there are indications Carlos Alberto Sicupira, Paulo Alberto Lemann and Eduardo Saggioro Garcia knew of the manipulations. The CVM identified 31 direct participants out of more than 40 investigated. This is a regulator’s report in an administrative process, not a court finding.
The CVM named Anna Saicali, former chief executive of B2W, José Timotheo de Barros, Márcio Cruz Meirelles and Fábio Abrate as the alleged core group alongside Gutierrez. Meirelles signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors in October 2025 in which he stated that Gutierrez had the final word on the accounting manipulations.
The Numbers That Define the Scandal
Several distinct figures have emerged in the Americanas case, and they are easily conflated. The R$2.342 billion in bank movements is the new number disclosed on 2 August. The company’s initial market filing on 11 January 2023 estimated ‘accounting inconsistencies’ at R$20 billion (about US$3.9 billion). The inflated results as ultimately disclosed by the company, and the figure the CVM works from, reached R$25.3 billion (about US$5.0 billion).
The Federal Police’s forensic estimate of the fraud stands at R$54 billion (about US$10.6 billion). That same R$54 billion figure was used as the ceiling for the asset freeze ordered on 25 June 2026 during the second phase of Operação Disclosure – a precautionary measure, not a finding of guilt. Americanas filed for judicial recovery on 19 January 2023 with declared debts of about R$43 billion (about US$8.5 billion). The company requested closure of the recovery process from the 4th Business Court of Rio on 25 March 2026; the request was still pending as of the company’s filing of 9 July 2026 and remains unresolved.
The Controlling Shareholders and Operação Disclosure
Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira – the controlling trio behind Americanas – have never been charged. They were not among the 13 individuals named in the March 2025 denúncia. However, on 25 June 2026 the second phase of Operação Disclosure served nine search warrants in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo naming Carlos Alberto da Veiga Sicupira and Paulo Alberto Lemann, the son of Jorge Paulo Lemann – not Jorge Paulo Lemann himself – plus board figure Eduardo Saggioro Garcia, executives of Itaú Unibanco, Bradesco and Santander, and Sergio Rial himself. The court ordered asset seizure up to R$54 billion. Being a search-warrant target is not a charge. They are neither cleared nor charged.
Operação Disclosure is separate from the inquiry that produced the R$2.342 billion bank-movement analysis. That inquiry was opened by the Federal Police in mid-2025 to investigate money laundering through financial-market manipulation and carries no operation name.
Destroyed Evidence and a Prosecution That Objected
On 1 August 2026 Folha de S.Paulo reported a decision of 22 May 2026 by judge Calmon, in the same court handling the case, finding indications that evidence had been destroyed. A device attributed to Gutierrez was returned with factory settings restored, consistent with having been formatted, and a computer attributed to Sergio Rial was handed over with empty folders. The judge wrote that the material was ‘very probably permanently deleted, with the possible intent to prevent it from being accessed.’ Americanas has said it handed over the equipment in the condition in which it was found.
The June search operation also carried an unusual feature that has been little reported in English: federal prosecutors themselves opposed it. The Ministério Público Federal argued against the searches and the asset freeze, stating that there were no indications that shareholders or board members knew of or contributed to the alleged offences. The judge overrode that position and authorised the measures anyway.
Lawyers for the shareholders have argued that their clients took no gain from the alleged fraud, that they injected more than R$14 billion (about US$2.76 billion) into the company, and that a Federal Police forensic report listed them among those most harmed by it.
Spain and Extradition
On 28 June 2024 Gutierrez was arrested in Madrid, one day after phase one of Operação Disclosure, on an Interpol red notice. Spanish authorities released him after questioning on 29 June 2024 on conditions including periodic reporting and surrender of his passport. On 22 August 2024 the TRF-2 granted habeas corpus and revoked the preventive detention order, finding no flight from jurisdiction; he responds at liberty. On 10 July 2024 the MPF petitioned the Brazilian court to decree his extradition. That was a request to a court in Brazil, not a request submitted to Spain.
The TRF-2 ruling of 22 August 2024 also ordered that a letter be sent to Interpol’s Rio de Janeiro office requesting his removal from the red notice. Whether that removal was carried out, whether Brazil ever formally filed an extradition request with Spain, and any Spanish decision on the matter are not on the public record. Legal experts quoted in 2024 considered extradition unlikely, because the 1988 Brazil-Spain treaty allows Spain to refuse to surrender its own nationals, in which case Spain would try him at Brazil’s request.
Mr Gutierrez, his lawyers and Americanas have not commented publicly on the latest reporting. He has consistently denied wrongdoing. In an on-the-record denial dated 27 June 2024, given to InfoMoney, Gutierrez stated that he ‘never took part in or had knowledge of any fraud and that he has been cooperating with the authorities, providing the appropriate clarifications in the proper forums.’ His lawyers have also argued that documents Americanas supplied do not demonstrate the alleged magnitude of the fraud. Nothing in the reporting amounts to a finding of wrongdoing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the R$2.342 billion money taken from Americanas?
No. The figure is the total of credits and debits – money moving in and out – across his personal accounts over more than eleven years. Investigators are tracing the origin and purpose of the funds. Much of it may be ordinary activity. It is not an estimate of money laundered or diverted from the company.
Has Miguel Gutierrez been convicted of any crime?
No. He has been charged by federal prosecutors, but the charge has not yet been accepted by the court. There are formally no defendants in the criminal case. He has not been tried and has not been convicted of any offence related to the Americanas scandal.
Are Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira facing charges?
No. The controlling shareholders have never been charged. Carlos Alberto Sicupira and Paulo Alberto Lemann were named as targets of search warrants in June 2026, which is a precautionary investigative measure, not a criminal charge. They are neither cleared nor charged.
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