The former Americanas manager, whose arrest was ordered by the courts on Thursday, left Brazil on the 15th of this month and headed to Portugal.

The Federal Police announced on Thursday that two former directors of the Americanas Group, who were investigated as part of the disclosure operation, have been placed on the red diffusion list of Interpol, the international police.

The scandal erupted last year, when the Americana supermarket chain announced that it had recorded losses of 12.9 billion riyals (2.2 billion euros) in 2022, an increase of 107% over 2021.

Management was removed and the new members admitted, in financial statements, that the company had been the target of a “sophisticated fraud” by the previous management, with “deliberate manipulation of its internal controls.”

The value of the fraud in Americanas stores amounted to about 25.3 billion riyals (4.36 billion euros), according to police authorities.

During the operation, about 80 federal police attempted to execute two preventive arrest warrants and 15 search and seizure warrants at the homes of former directors of Americanas, located in Rio de Janeiro.

Furthermore, the Brazilian Federal Court ordered the confiscation of the assets and valuables of these former directors.

According to the investigations, which rely on the cooperation of the current management of Americanas, the suspects committed accounting fraud related to risk-based operations (the process in which the company is able to make payments to suppliers through a bank loan).

Frauds involving cooperative advertising budget contracts (VPC), which consist of commercial incentives generally used in the sector, have also been identified, but in this case they did not exist at all.

The investigation also revealed, according to the Brazilian police, strong evidence of the crime of market manipulation, use of confidential information, criminal association and money laundering.