Caixa Econômica Federal’s top management knew about reports of sexual harassment involving bank officials at least since 2020 — two years before the start of the MPF (Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office) investigation against former president Pedro Guimarães.
In July 2020, an employee of the company sought out then Vice President of People Girlana Granja Peixoto to tell her that she had felt harassed by former vice president Celso Leonardo Barbosa on a Caixa Mais Brasil program trip to Goiás.
From the information obtained by SheetBarbosa would have insisted with inappropriate invitations to this woman during the agenda.
Back in Brasília, she took her account of the episode to Girlana, who had previously been an internal affairs officer at Caixa — she left her post in November 2019. The former vice president then decided to look for Pedro Guimarães to deal with the matter, but there was no consequence.
According to people interviewed by the report, Girlana argued that she sought out the bank’s president because she understood that he was the hierarchical superior and should take action on the case. According to these sources, the name of the employee would not have been revealed in that conversation.
Other people at the bank, however, criticized the decision taken by the former vice president, as they understood that the servant who felt harassed could be exposed. Girlana left the People Vice Presidency in April 2021.
Barbosa is a longtime friend of Guimarães and one of his greatest allies. He joined Caixa in January 2019 as strategic advisor to the presidency and became vice president in March of the following year. Barbosa was considered number two in the bank and frequently replaced Guimarães in charge of the company.
Through the press office, Guimarães said he was unaware of the case. “Pedro Guimarães does not know this story. He has never been informed of anything like it,” he said. Girlana Granja Peixoto and Barbosa’s defense declined to comment.
Barbosa resigned as vice president of wholesale business at Caixa after allegations of sexual harassment against Guimarães came to light. Guimarães left the presidency on June 29.
In an interview with TV Globo’s Fantástico program, a Caixa employee accused the former vice president of Wholesale Business of having covered up abuses committed by Guimarães at the institution. According to the servant, Barbosa watched the women who did not give in to the harassment of the then president of the bank.
According to the official, who preferred not to be identified, the women “marked” by the former president were subordinate to Barbosa, who tried to cover up the cases. She says that the executive pretended to welcome the women who resisted the harassment of Guimarães to monitor if there was a risk of denunciation by these servants.
The accusations of sexual harassment and moral harassment at Caixa are being investigated by the Federal District Attorney’s Office. The MPT (Ministério Público do Trabalho) and the TCU (Court of Accounts of the Union) also started procedures to investigate what was happening in the bank under Guimarães.
After Pedro Guimarães left, the MPT asked Caixa for information on “the complaint that Mr. Celso Leonardo Barbosa would cause ‘fear’ to the women who work at the bank, leading to the belief that the allegations of harassment would also extend to the aforementioned manager “.
The Public Ministry of Labor also collected data from the database on possible complaints filed internally against Barbosa and Guimarães, in addition to cases of sexual harassment received against any employee since 2019 – the year in which Guimarães took over the presidency.
In the letter in which he formalized his resignation, Guimarães denied the accusations, said he was the target of “political rancor in an election year” and an avalanche of “misleading news and information”.
The former president of Caixa was one of the closest names to Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the government and a frequent participant in the lives of the chief executive.
Caixa has stated that “there are internal investigations in progress, in parallel with those being carried out by the control bodies”. The bank also emphasizes that the Board of Directors determined the hiring of an external and independent company to verify all cases.
The complaints against Guimarães point to, among other things, unwanted touches and inappropriate invitations. THE Sheeta bank employee said that the harassment happened in front of everyone, inside and outside the institution.
The woman, who asked to have her name withheld for fear of retaliation, says she was shocked after Guimarães pulled her by the neck and said he “was really excited” for her.
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