By Luciana Magalhaes
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian bank Itau Unibanco on Tuesday filed a new lawsuit against its former chief financial officer, seeking reimbursement for legal reports it claims to have paid for but never received.
Alexsandro Broedel Lopes, who left Itau last year, is tapped to be head of accounting at Banco Santander in Spain.
Itau, Latin America’s largest bank by revenue, first accused Broedel in December of breaching internal polices and personally benefiting from fees paid to legal consultant Eliseu Martins and a firm, Care Consultores, with which the ex-CFO had a personal connection. Both Broedel and Martins have denied any wrongdoing.
In January, Itau filed a lawsuit seeking reimbursement of 3.35 million reais ($587,399.84) from Broedel.
In the new lawsuit targeting Martins, Care and Broedel, the bank says that its former CFO, who joined Santander in October, allegedly co-authored one of the legal reports that Itau paid for.
It says the bank is seeking restitution of 6.64 million reais, which it alleges was improperly paid to Martins and his firm, Care Consultores. Of that, Itau is asking for 1.6 million reais in immediate restitution for the reports allegedly never delivered.
Broedel’s representatives had previously said their client denies any misconduct. On Tuesday, they said in a statement that Broedel had not yet been officially informed about the new lawsuit, adding that the allegations against him are unfounded and make no sense.
In a previous comment regarding the future of the executive at the bank, a Santander spokesperson said that “Mr. Broedel is a highly regarded senior executive who until July was Itau CFO. He is due to take over as (chief accounting officer) later this year and we are monitoring any developments.”
Martins said in a statement late last year that Itau was misinterpreting the situation, explaining that some services had been paid in advance and that he was prepared to reimburse Itau as appropriate. Martins didn´t immediately respond to a request for comment.
($1 = 5.7031 reais)
(Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes, Additional reporting by Jesus Aguado, in Spain; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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