Key Facts
—The finding. A federal judge in Rio de Janeiro, Giovana Calmon, saw indications that Itaú and Santander possibly acted in a coordinated way to conceal financial operations carried out by Americanas.
—The denial. Itaú says it is not the object of the investigation, that it refused requests to alter the documents at issue, and that each institution acted alone.
—The mechanism. Banks confirm a client’s debts to its auditors in a document called a circularisation letter, and investigators say supplier-finance debts were left out of them.
—The scale. A court has frozen assets of those under investigation up to R$54bn ($10.49bn), against the R$25.3bn ($4.91bn) hole the company declared in 2023.
