- In the attack on British Columbia, the country is in danger: In the Master case, there was not only an imbalance between assets and liabilities. There was a crime, this makes the political and legal pressures more serious
- Main bank: the inspected and the supervisor are not placed on an equal footing, in a confrontation
Director Ailton de Aquino and his team identified the fraud. It was he who signed the communication to the public prosecutor. He was also the one who lifted the liquidation vote. And he did all this because he heads the inspection committee, whose institutional role is precisely to do what has been done. It makes no sense that he and the Central Bank find themselves in the Kafkaesque position of going to the Supreme Court without knowing under what conditions they are doing so. A person may only be heard in a proceeding as an investigator or witness. If he is not under investigation, he is also not a witness, because he was not cited in this state. In Toffoli’s note in which he denied the Central Bank embargo, the minister said: “I order the execution of the acts as already explained in previous orders, under the direction of the competent police authority, with the organization of the deputy judge of this office.”
Banco Master is under investigation by federal police in other states, but in the trial court. This investigation, which Minister Toffoli considered competent — even without any authority with forum prerogative having been involved so far — is the one that deals with financial fraud and the attempt to transfer this loss of 12 billion BRL to the BRB. This is the most egregious crime. It’s not the only one.
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Investigations are underway in Rio de Janeiro, Amapá and São Paulo. In Rio and Amapá, for damaging agreements with civil servants’ pension funds. In São Paulo, fraudulent management is under investigation. Indeed, the São Paulo investigation and that of the Federal District were initially joint, but the DF investigation was faster and enabled Operation Compliance Zero. Some people under investigation have been arrested, including Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Master. Then all this commotion started in the process, after Minister Dias Toffoli took action, placed everything in absolute secrecy and started making official decisions, like summoning the director of the Central Bank and potential criminals for a confrontation, which now may not be a confrontation anymore.
During Vorcaro’s arrest, documents, cell phones and other materials were seized. The contents of Vorcaro’s phone have already been extracted, which could lead to new evidence and speed up the main investigation.
Both at the TCU, with the request for explanations from Minister Jhonatan de Jesus, and at the STF, with the actions of Minister Dias Toffoli, there was a double criticism of the Central Bank. First, the regulator would have been slow to act, then it would have rushed. Now it has to be one thing or the other, both at the same time make no sense. It took a long way to identify what had happened to Master. When the case was brought before the public prosecutor, there was already evidence of financial crimes.
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What are the reasons that lead, or could lead, to liquidation? First, a serious liquidity crisis. The bank was faced with this crisis, so much so that it turned to the support lines of the Credit Guarantee Fund. Second, have a negative balance. The Master’s scale had a huge hole in it and that’s what made him want to throw this hot potato at BRB. Third, disobedience to norms, rules and laws. This was identified by Central Bank supervision and brought to the prosecution authorities.
In September, with the elements of control in hand, the BC decided to refuse the BRB authorization to take control of Banco Master. Before the decision was communicated, the Chamber of Deputies put on the agenda the possibility of an indictment of the leaders of BC. If this was an attempt at intimidation, it didn’t work. The refusal was announced as expected. With the federal police investigation well underway, the operation that led to Vorcaro’s arrest was launched. The same day, the bank was liquidated.
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