SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s securities regulator has accused two former CEOs of retailer Americanas of failing to comply with information disclosure requirements following an investigation into the firm’s accounting inconsistencies, the agency said.
According to a document from securities regulator CVM made public on Monday, the two ex-CEOs, Sergio Rial and Joao Guerra, also failed to meet other obligations on informing investors.
Rial and Guerra have yet to present their defenses, CVM said, adding that the case could lead to penalties such as a fine.
Americanas entered bankruptcy protection in January after uncovering around $4 billion in accounting inconsistencies. The firm is struggling to deal with a huge debt load as it looks to exit the bankruptcy process later this year.
Rial led the firm for less than two weeks and resigned after the accounting inconsistencies were unveiled, while Guerra, who was an acting CEO, left the top executive job in February and now heads human resources at the company.
Americanas said in a statement that it was monitoring the CVM investigation and hoped any irregularities would be “duly clarified”.
The company did not mention the accusations against Guerra in its statement and he did not respond to a query via LinkedIn.
Rial declined to comment on the matter.
(Reporting by Andre Romani; Additional reporting by Carolina Pulice; Editing by Jamie Freed)
