SAO PAULO, July 17 (Reuters) - Brazilian retailer

Americanas SA is sharing with authorities new details of how it

hid over $4 billion in debt, saddling investors with huge losses

and doubts about what comes next for the 95-year-old brand,

whose former executives are under police investigation.

The independent committee report on the accounting fraud,

presented to the company's board and summarized for investors in

a late Tuesday filing, adds to evidence that management cooked

the books for years before a January 2023 bankruptcy filing.

The scheme involved improper entries in suppliers' accounts

such as fictitious advertising budgets and financial operations

incorrectly reflected on the company's balance sheet.

Americanas said in the filing that those responsible are no

longer with the company and the internal report is being shared

with federal police, prosecutors and securities regulators.

Last month, former chief executive Miguel Gutierrez was

arrested in Madrid and later released as part of a police

investigation. Brazilian authorities are pushing for extradition

of Gutierrez, who has dual citizenship.

Another former executive targeted by the criminal probe,

Anna Saicali, former head of e-commerce, recently returned from

Portugal to Brazil and handed her passport over to police.

Attorneys representing Gutierrez and Saicali said in

separate statements that their clients deny any wrongdoing and

are collaborating with the investigation.

The scandal at Americanas, backed by three billionaires

including Jorge Paulo Lemann, one of Brazil's richest men, sent

shockwaves through financial markets and tarred a brand that has

long been a fixture of Brazilian retail.

The company, based in Rio de Janeiro, is known for selling

everything from chocolates to TV sets and women's underwear. But

Americanas has struggled for years against fierce competition

from more internet-savvy rivals such as Mercado Libre

and Magazine Luiza.

"I am skeptical about the future of Americanas, about the

sustainability of their business model," said consultant André

Pimentel, a managing partner at Performa Partners who worked on

a restructuring of Americanas in early 2000s.

The retailer was founded in 1929 in Niterói, across the bay

from Rio's state capital, by a group including Austrian and

American entrepreneurs.

Lemann and his partners, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto

Sicupira, later acquired a dominant stake in the company. The

three, who have not been cited in the police investigation,

currently own around 30% of shares and have agreed to put up

additional capital to rescue the distressed company.