The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 1929–2023
Lojas Americanas: the R$20B accounting fraud at Brazil's biggest department store chain
Lojas Americanas was a $6B Brazilian retail giant with 1,945 stores. In 2023 it disclosed R$20B in fraudulent accounting and filed for bankruptcy.
Lojas Americanas · 3G Capital · 2023-01-19
What happened
Lojas Americanas was founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1929 and grew to become Brazil's largest department store chain, operating 1,945 stores across all 26 Brazilian states. It earned $6 billion in revenue in 2018 and employed nearly 19,000 people. The company was controlled by 3G Capital's billionaires — Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Herrmann Telles, and Carlos Alberto Sicupira — the same investors behind Anheuser-Busch and Burger King.
On 12 January 2023, the company revealed accounting 'inconsistencies' totalling R$20 billion (about US$3.88 billion). The new CEO Sergio Rial, who had been appointed just nine days earlier, resigned the same day along with the CFO. The fraud had involved systematic fabrication of balance-sheet entries to inflate assets and understate liabilities, orchestrated by top executives under former CEO Miguel Gutierrez.
One week later, on 19 January 2023, Lojas Americanas filed for bankruptcy protection in Brazil (recuperação judicial), followed by a Chapter 15 filing in the United States on 25 January. The stock was suspended from trading. Brazilian prosecutors charged Gutierrez and 12 other executives with fraud and insider trading in March 2025. The company entered judicial recovery with its future uncertain.
Why it happened
- Top executives fabricated R$20 billion in accounting entries to inflate assets and hide liabilities — a fraud that went undetected for years due to weak governance.
- The three 3G Capital billionaires who controlled the company were distant owners who relied on management — the classic controller blind spot of letting insiders run the numbers.
- The fraud was discovered only when a new CEO was appointed and immediately found the hole — nine days into his tenure he resigned, proving the previous leadership had actively hidden the truth.
- Brazil's weak corporate governance and auditing culture allowed the scheme to persist: Lojas Americanas had been audited by PwC, which signed off on the fraudulent statements.
The lesson
A controlling shareholder who is not in the building cannot see the books. Billionaires trusted management, who cooked the books for years. The fraud survived because nobody was watching.
Aftermath
Lojas Americanas filed for Brazilian bankruptcy protection (recuperação judicial) and US Chapter 15 protection in January 2023. Its stock was suspended from trading. Former CEO Miguel Gutierrez and 12 other executives were criminally charged with fraud and insider trading in March 2025. The company remained in judicial recovery with no clear path to normal operation.
Sources
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