The Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, ordered the dismissal of a request for an investigation into the possible role of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), in the Banco Master affair.
Among the author’s arguments, lawyer Enio Martins Murad, to justify the opening of an investigation, was cited the Master’s contract with the Moraes family office worth R$3.6 million per month to help defend the interests of the financial institution, recently liquidated by the Central Bank. The existence of the contract was revealed by the newspaper O Globo.
Concerning the contract, Gonet declared that he did not see, “a priori, any illegality which would justify the intervention of this body”, in reference to the general prosecutor’s office.
The head of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office declared that it is not within the scope of his activities nor within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court “to interfere in legal transactions concluded between individuals, especially when they are protected by the autonomy inherent in the liberal activity of the legal profession.”
In another part of the demonstration, regarding possible pressures that Moraes would have exerted on the Central Bank regarding Master, Gonet said that in the documents presented by Murad there was “an absolute absence of minimal evidence to support the accusation made” and that continuing the investigation would be a “purely speculative foray.”
“Both the representative (Moraes) and the president of the Central Bank (Gabriel Galípolo) have denied, in a peremptory and convergent manner, the existence of any pressure exerted by the minister on the interests of Banco Master,” declared the Attorney General.
The rumor according to which the minister had asked the head of the BC to talk about Master’s affairs increased questions about the magistrate.
According to columnist Malu Gaspar of the newspaper O Globo, Moraes contacted Galípolo four times on this subject. The report claims to have collected reports from six people who were informed of the dialogues by the president of the Central Bank and other members of the institution.
Moraes published a note in which he stated that he had received Galípolo for meetings “due to the application of the Magnitsky Act.” The minister did not mention a meeting date with the President of British Columbia.
Moraes became the target of financial sanctions imposed by the US government on July 30 and the sanction was lifted on December 12.
About The Author
