By Alberto Alerigi
SAO PAULO, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Sao Paulo civil police have formally accused two Goldman Sachs representatives of fraud in a dispute over a public share tender offer demanded by minority shareholders of cancer treatment group Oncoclinicas, according to a police document seen by Reuters on Monday.
The executives allegedly concealed ownership details in public documents and executed transactions to transfer shares without triggering a mandatory tender offer, deceiving minority shareholders and causing them losses in violation of statutory obligations, the police documents say.
Goldman Sachs said the alegations were unfounded. “We continue to believe that we acted appropriately,” it said in a statement. Oncoclinicas declined to comment.
Goldman Sachs is also accused of reviewing information, with its new version only emerging when the corporate restructuring threatened to trigger a mandatory tender offer, contradicting the bank’s previous statements to the market.
According to the police filing, the information was used to “convince Oncoclinicas, the CVM (Brazil’s securities regulator), B3 (the stock exchange), and shareholders that the tender offer was not required,” ultimately blocking the offer to the detriment of minority shareholders.
(Reporting by Alberto Alerigi, writing by Luciana Magalhaes; editing by Stephen Coates)
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