The liquidation of Banco Master by the Central Bank (BC) and suspicions of financial fraud also involving Banco Regional de Brasília (BRB) have become the target of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), amid questions related to the decisions taken by Minister Antonio Dias Toffoli, rapporteur of the investigation at the Court.
After decreeing the secrecy of the file after bringing it to the STF, the minister scheduled a confrontation between the owner of Master, Daniel Vorcaro, the former president of the BRB bank Paulo Henrique Costa, and one of the directors of the BC, Ailton de Aquino, this Tuesday (30/12).
On the eve of the procedure, the STF clarified, however, that in reality the three will make separate declarations to the federal police. After that, the responsible delegate will proceed with the confrontation, if she deems it necessary.
Faceoffs serve to clarify controversies in the versions given in an investigation or process. However, in this case the measure was marked by Toffoli despite the opposition of the Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet.
Gonet considered that the procedure would be premature, because the statements of those involved had not yet been collected and possible contradictions had to be clarified.
The Central Bank, in turn, presented a request for clarification on the participation of Ailton de Aquino in the confrontation.
On Saturday (27/12), in judging this appeal, Toffoli maintained the procedure and indicated that neither the BC nor the director were targeted by the investigation. Despite this, he believes that his participation would be “healthy”.
“Since the subject of the investigation concerns the actions of the national regulatory authority, its participation in the testimonies and confrontations between the investigated persons is of particular importance for the clarification of the facts,” the minister said in the decision.
According to the STF, testimony and the potential confrontation are scheduled for this Tuesday at 2 p.m. and will take place virtually. These procedures will be monitored by an assistant judge from Toffoli’s office and by the public prosecutor.
BRB, a state-owned bank in the Federal District, even tried to buy Master, but the Central Bank did not authorize the transaction. There are suspicions of fraud involving billion-dollar transactions between the two institutions.
The director of supervision of British Columbia, Ailton de Aquino, spoke in favor of the takeover of Master by the BRB, but his position was rejected within the monetary authority, which chose to liquidate the institution.
The Master affair also revealed Vorcaro’s network of contacts with authorities in Brasilia, ranging from politicians linked to former President Jair Bolsonaro to STF ministers, such as Toffoli himself and Minister Alexandre de Moraes, whose wife has a million-dollar contract as a lawyer for the liquidated bank.
According to the newspaper O Globo, which revealed the existence of Moraes’ wife’s contract with the bank, the minister allegedly put pressure on the president of the BC, Gabriel Galípolo, about the sale of the Master bank, which both deny.
In the case of Toffoli, the minister traveled to attend the Libertadores final between Flamengo and Palmeiras, in Lima, Peru, on the same private flight as a lawyer for one of the bank’s directors.
This coincidence attracted attention because the trip took place at the end of November, shortly after Toffoli was chosen to report on the appeal presented by Daniel Vorcaro’s defense to the Court.
The day after the draw, the minister boarded the plane with lawyer Augusto Arruda Botelho, defender of one of the directors of the Master and former national secretary of Justice at the start of the third term of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Businessman Luiz Oswaldo Pastore, owner of the plane, and former MP Aldo Rebello were also on board the flight.
The minister confirmed that he had traveled on the plane and told his interlocutors, according to the newspaper O Globo, that he had not discussed the process during the trip.
Shortly after, on December 3, Toffoli placed the matter under secrecy and decided to transfer the investigation to the STF, according to his own report, in response to the request of a director of the Master, the same request previously made by Vorcaro’s lawyers.
He accepted the request on the basis of the summons of a federal deputy to the investigations, an authority with privileged competence.
The minister justified this secrecy by asserting that the investigation concerned sensitive economic information, with a potential impact on the financial market. In practice, all future decisions regarding the investigation will now be made by him, and no longer by the Federal Court of Brasilia.
Controversies involving Moraes and the BC
In the case of Alexandre de Moraes, the minister became the target of questions after columnist Malu Gaspar, of the newspaper O Globo, reported that he had requested at least four times the president of the Central Bank, Gabriel Galípolo, to lobby in favor of Banco Master.
According to the columnist, at least three contacts were made by telephone and one in person to discuss problems concerning Daniel Vorcaro’s bank.
In a note published on Wednesday (12/24), the STF press service indicated that Moraes had two meetings with the president of the BC to discuss the effects of the Magnitsky law: “the first on 08/14, after the first application of the law, on 07/30; acquisition of the Master’s degree by BRB”.
Magnitsky is a US law that punishes foreigners deemed to be responsible for serious human rights violations and corrupt practices. Moraes was sanctioned by law in late July Moraes was sanctioned by law in late July, and his wife, in September – amid criticism of Donald Trump’s administration over actions against former President Jair Bolsonaro in the Brazilian justice system, many of which were reported by Moraes.
But in early December, the Trump administration removed Moraes and his wife from the list of people sanctioned by Magnitsky.
According to the memo, Moraes was not at the Central Bank and did not call Galípolo to discuss the matter.
“He also specifies that he has never been to the Central Bank and that there has been no telephone connection between them, for this or for any other matter. Finally, he specifies that his wife’s law firm never intervened in the Master-BRB acquisition operation before the Central Bank,” indicates a note from the STF.
Following the STF’s statement, the Central Bank also issued a note confirming that meetings with Moraes had taken place to discuss the effects of the sanction applied by the United States.
On the 12th, the Federal Police (PF) found on Vorcaro’s cell phone a contract worth 129 million reais signed with the law firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, wife of Alexandre de Moraes.
The value was also revealed by the newspaper O Globo. The document, found in Operation Compliance Zero on November 18, forecast monthly payments of BRL 3.6 million to the office for three years starting in 2024.
The contract, according to the newspaper, did not specify specific processes or causes. He established a broad scope, specifying that the office would represent the bank “if necessary.”
Although Master was liquidated and the deal was not executed to completion, messages between executives indicated that payment to the office was being treated internally as a priority, the report said.
In addition to Viviane, the couple’s children, also members of the panel, appear in at least one process linked to Vorcaro.
Vorcaro’s other connections
In addition to links with STF ministers, electoral donations also reveal possible political links involving Banco Master.
Businessman Fabiano Campos Zettel, brother-in-law of Daniel Vorcaro, was the largest individual donor to the 2022 campaigns of Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos-SP) and Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
Married to Natália Vorcaro Zettel, the banker’s sister, he transferred R$3 million to Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign and R$2 million to that of the governor of São Paulo.
Zettel is the founder and CEO of Moriah Asset, a private equity fund – an investment modality that purchases shares in companies that are not publicly traded. Through Moriah, he partners with brands such as Oakberry, Les Cinq, Frutaria São Paulo and Empório Frutaria.
As of 2022, he was the nation’s sixth-largest individual donor. Under election law, individuals can donate up to 10% of their gross income in the year preceding the election.
Tarcísio’s press office said his campaign had more than 600 donors and that the governor had no ties or relationships with Zettel.
“It should be emphasized that Tarcísio’s responsibility was duly approved by the electoral court,” says the note sent to BBC News Brasil.
Liquidation of the master
The liquidation of Master Bank took place on November 18, the same day an operation led to the arrest of Vorcaro and other bank executives.
On November 28, the Federal Regional Court (TRF) of the 1st Region granted habeas corpus and ordered the release of Vorcaro, former directors Luiz Antonio Bull, Alberto Feliz de Oliveira and Angelo Antonio Ribeiro da Silva, as well as Augusto Ferreira Lima, a former partner of the bank.
They are monitored by an electronic ankle monitor and are prohibited from carrying out activities in the financial sector, having contact with other people under investigation and leaving the country.
The Master’s bankruptcy is the largest in the country’s history in terms of its impact on the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC) — a private association that functions as a kind of deposit guarantee system, covering investments of up to R$250,000 per CPF or CNPJ (per financial institution) in the event of the bankruptcy of an associated institution.
According to the FGC, 1.6 million investors in the bank, which held 41 billion reais in CDB, could be reimbursed.
The PF is investigating alleged fraud in granting credit, issuing irregular securities and creating fake wallets – operations that investigators say moved billions of dollars and fueled an attempt to sell the institution to the BRB.
With information from Rute Pina and Marina Rossi
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