Caixa relocates executives linked to Guimarães in subsidiary presidencies

Caixa Econômica Federal relocated two executives linked to Pedro Guimarães who had been dismissed from their former positions after his departure, who fell over allegations of harassment, into command posts. Both will preside over Caixa’s subsidiaries.

Camila Aichinger, who left the vice-presidency of Varejo, will preside over Caixa Corretora. The name has already been sent to the company’s board in a confidential document and should be announced soon.

Antônio Carlos de Sousa, who was in the vice-presidency of Logistics and Operations, will become president of Caixa Loterias.

The departure of the two was announced by Caixa on Tuesday (19) in a sign that the top echelon of the bank was pushing away the names linked to Guimarães. The new moves, however, show that executives will continue to exert influence at Caixa.

Guimarães said through his lawyer, José Luis Oliveira Lima, that “since he left Caixa, he has no interference in the bank’s decisions”.

Caixa, in turn, said it “promoted an important restructuring this week”. “The measure approved by the Board of Directors has as its main pillar caring for and valuing employees, presenting best governance practices and acting impersonally”, he said.

The objective, according to the company, is “to expand the integration of the performance of corporate themes, adhering to the best market practices, bringing more fluidity and integration in the management of people and processes”.

“The restructuring counted on the movement of vice presidents, with the objective of meeting the guidelines approved by the Council”, he concluded.

Graduated in Tourism, Aichinger has been Caixa’s regional manager in Paraná since 2016 when, in March 2019, the month in which Guimarães was twice in the state on bank trips, she was raised to the position of regional superintendent.

Even while working as a regional superintendent in Paraná, at the end of May 2019, Aichinger was on a bank trip to Salvador, Bahia, which was attended by Guimarães.

She held the position for only eight months until she was taken to Brasília as national superintendent.

In her new job at Caixa’s headquarters, four months passed before she got a new promotion. She became the executive director of Caixa Seguridade. Just over a year later, in June 2021, she became CEO of the company, where she stayed for about a year, when she took over the vice-presidency of Caixa, from which she left this week.

During Guimarães’ administration, his monthly salary jumped from around R$25,000 to more than R$130,000, adding up his salaries at Caixa and his participation in seven boards.

At Caixa Seguridade, where she stayed the longest since 2019, there are at least two internal complaints of moral harassment practiced by her. Sought out, Aichinger did not comment.

Sousa, in turn, was the president of Coaf (Council for the Control of Financial Activities) when the body investigated the case of cracks involving Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ).

With Guimarães’ arrival at Caixa, he moved to the Governance and Strategy Board. He then became Vice President of Strategy and People, a position he left at the end of last year when he became Vice President of Logistics.

Since the Metrópoles website brought to light the allegations of moral and sexual harassment against Guimarães, Sousa also had a case revealed by TV Globo. According to the report, it was common for him to invite female subordinates out for wine on the weekend — and those who didn’t give in were punished with overwork.

Questioned by the report, Sousa did not respond.

With the scandal, Guimarães was replaced by Daniella Marques, who until then occupied a special secretary in the Ministry of Economy. Marques has been close to Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) since his career in the private sector and won the trust of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) during his administration.

Upon arriving at the bank, she removed the team that worked directly with the former president, made up of the chief of staff and five advisers.

Before that, the vice president of Business, Celso Leonardo Barbosa, the executive closest to Guimarães, had also resigned shortly after Guimarães left the financial institution.

Upon arriving in charge of Caixa, Marques authorized the hiring of an independent investigative body to investigate what happened at the bank during Guimarães’ administration.

In addition to cases of harassment, the Sheet revealed that senior executives who fell out of favor with Guimarães were placed to perform tasks for those just starting out in their careers.

The bank also paid for a work on the house that Guimarães rented in Brasília, in addition to providing a luxury apparatus for the weekend trips that the former president made for the financial institution.