Minorities denounce Americanas to the CVM and ask for an investigation into PwC

Abradin, an association that brings together minorities of publicly traded companies, filed this Friday (13) a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) to ask for the investigation of responsibilities regarding the disclosure by Americanas on Wednesday of accounting problems of the order of R$ 20 billion on the company’s balance sheet.

The complaint signed by the president of the association, Aurélio Valporto, asks that the investigations include the auditing company PwC, responsible for analyzing the company’s balance sheets. PwC also audited Petrobras at the time of the Lava Jato scandal, recalled Valporto the day before.

“Abradin’s attention was drawn to the absolute incompetence of the auditing company, PwC, as well as the omission of the company’s fiscal council. It is still hard for us to believe that such a fact would have been unknown to previous administrations and even to its controlling shareholders”, states the document delivered to the CVM.

Accounting experts interviewed by Reuters remain skeptical of the explanations released so far by the company and point to a lack of detail in the company’s balance sheet.

Abradin also requests in the complaint that the administrative punishments applicable to those responsible for accounting inconsistencies be applied and that the investigations conducted by the technical area of ​​the autarchy be forwarded to the Public Prosecutor’s Office “in order that the necessary judicial measures be taken”.

“Calling the reported facts ‘inconsistencies’ is nothing more than an attempt to placate a euphemism for a multibillion-dollar fraud that not only destroyed the assets of the company’s shareholders, but also, and above all, undermines the credibility of the Brazilian capital market, scaring away investors precisely at a time in which the national economy so badly needs direct investment in production to resume its growth trajectory”, states the entity in the complaint.

On the eve, Americanas shares melted by almost 80% and the company lost a market value equivalent to around 8.4 billion reais.

So far, the only explanation given to the market about the material fact published on Wednesday night by the company was given by the former chief executive, Sergio Rial, who stayed in office for nine days and decided to resign after discovering the problems. . Rial replaced Miguel Gutierrez, who had been in charge of the group for 20 years.

For Abradin, Americanas managers must be punished for alleged fraud in the name of the proper functioning of the Brazilian capital market.

“It is absolutely inadmissible, for the morality of the Brazilian capital market, for the good of the national economy, that this company is not exemplary and pedagogically punished and that the individuals of its ‘staff’, responsible for audits, are not criminally prosecuted. There is no shortage of crimes, starting with the crime of inducing an investor to make a mistake”, says the complaint signed by the president of Abradin.