Americanas has offered a benefits package to two former managers who cooperated in the retailer’s scandal. The agreement included a ten-year salary, financing the children’s education and health insurance, in addition to paying legal fees. The executives who benefited were Flavia Carneiro and Marcelo Nunes.
According to the newspaper Folha des PauloThe company kept the benefit confidential, without revealing the minutes of the board of directors meeting that approved the payment. These values are being called into question in court by the defense of the former directors being investigated, who are demanding that details of the agreement be disclosed.
said Celso Velardi, lawyer for the board and the company Bound “It was not disclosed because, by law, any cooperation must remain secret until the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) decides otherwise, and the names of potential collaborators could not be revealed, since the allegations became known only on the occasion of the operation carried out by the Federal Police.”
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Americanas did not disclose the value of the total annual wage used as a criterion for the agreement. He informed the people who followed the operation Bound That Nunes’ fixed annual salary, before the termination of the contract, was approximately R$1 million, excluding bonus.
The company deposits amounts to the informants on a monthly basis. The benefits package covers tuition fees at the same level educational institutions attended by the children of the executives before their service. Benefits include higher education, as well as maintaining an expanded health plan for children and spouses.
Americana’s lawyer explains the agreement
The retailer’s lawyer explained that he based the decision to sign the agreement on many previous cases that major companies had agreed to. He also said that “it was necessary to rebuild the company’s balance sheet, without which its survival could be in jeopardy.”
This type of agreement is formally known as a Program Incentive for Cooperation (PIC), and is treated as compensation for whistleblowers. The model has gained notoriety in Brazil since Operation Lava JatoIt is called a veto grant or post-exclusion salary.
This practice sparked controversy, and at the time, shareholders and defense advocates criticized the action, as did the president Luiz Inacio Lula da SilvaWhich called into question the credibility of these testimonies.
In 2019, a CCR franchisee was one of the companies that used PIC. The company approved a compensation package for 15 executives who cooperated with the investigations, totaling R$71 million. On that occasion, the concessionaire also signed leniency agreements with prosecutors in São Paulo and with the task force of the Paraná Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Acknowledgment of paying bribes to obtain benefits and commitment to cooperate with investigations. In the case of Americana, there was no leniency agreement.
Device from Attorney General’s Office She even discussed the issue of companies paying whistleblowers, but without deliberation. According to the MPF, “The Fifth Anti-Corruption Chamber reports that there are no regulations on this subject.”
Americanas declined to comment on the case. The whistleblower’s attorney, Daffy Tangerino, also had no comment.
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