A decision by the Court of Justice of São Paulo (TJSP) returned to the dock a group of former directors of the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC) who participated in the extrajudicial liquidation of Banco Cruzeiro do Sul, initiated in 2012 by decision of the Central Bank (BC). The financial institution was declared bankrupt in 2015 and the matter became a national scandal when allegations of fraud in the bankruptcy process came to light.
However, in a judgment published on November 27, the 9th Criminal Chamber of the TJSP revoked a 2023 decision, taken by the 2nd Bankruptcy and Judicial Reorganization Court. She had “blocked” a lawsuit brought by the São Paulo Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPSP) against ten people (including seven linked to the FGC), for alleged fraud in the liquidation of Cruzeiro do Sul.
Read also
-
Business
“Rasteira”, fear, distrust: how the Master affair shook the market
-
Business
What do investors holding CDB at Banco Master look like after liquidation?
-
Economy
Galípolo claims BC followed “legal procedure” to liquidate Master
-
Business
Galípolo after the Master affair: “Banks are fallible institutions”
The defendants had requested that the criminal action be “locked”, affirming that the same question raised by the deputy of São Paulo had already been analyzed with a final and final judgment, that is to say without the possibility of a new appeal, by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF). It had also been archived by the 10th Federal Criminal Court.
The São Paulo deputy, however, retorted that the MPF would not have the power, nor the jurisdiction of the Federal Court, to judge offenses covered by the law on bankruptcy and judicial reorganization, which must be analyzed by the State Court.
The allegation was accepted by the TJSP board. The case thus returns to first instance, but for analysis by a deputy judge. The bank’s former controllers, from the Índio da Costa family, were also accepted, through their lawyers, as prosecution witnesses in this case.
“Serial abuse”
In the judgment, the TJSP notes that the Public Prosecutor’s Office affirmed that “the investigation into the case (of Cruzeiro do Sul) concluded that the FGC, instead of managing the bank to avoid its bankruptcy, “committed a series of abuses, including the hiring of a shell IT company (called IMS), which, a few days before, boasted as its objective and corporate name the provision of recovery services.”
Furthermore, cites the TJSP, citing the arguments of the São Paulo deputy, the work of this same company, “without material and human resources to manage the complex computer system of a bank”, would have been limited to eliminating data from the financial institution’s computers and publishing an “apocryphal report” on the problems supposedly existing in Cruzeiro do Sul. “Everything,” the MPSP states in the action, “with a disproportionate payment in return, so that its partners ultimately received almost 70 million reais in reais.”
Central bank
The Central Bank intervened in Cruzeiro do Sul in 2012, faced with an alleged accounting deficit of 1.3 billion reais (value at the time). At the time, the controllers of the financial institution, belonging to the Índio da Costa family, had been dismissed. Subsequently, the BC appointed the FGC as administrator of the bank.
Press reports at the time indicated that at the helm of Cruzeiro do Sul, the then FGC managers had hired a micro-enterprise owned by a former associate of one of them to provide services to the bank’s bankrupt estate. After that, IMS took control of the technological sector of the financial institution, receiving in total almost 70 million reais for these works, which were later questioned by prosecutors in São Paulo.
MPSP complaint
In April 2022, the São Paulo Department of Justice received a complaint from the São Paulo Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding this matter. It included former FGC members such as Sérgio Rodrigues Prates (appointed by the BC as liquidator of Cruzeiro do Sul), Celso Antunes da Costa (appointed as administrator of the bank), as well as Ivan Dumont da Silva, João Alberto Magro, José Alfredo Lattaro, Fábio Mentone and José Roberto Peres.
Also part of the process are the partners of IMS Tecnologia, Antonio Carlos Cesarini, Sílvia Maria Cesarini and José Marcelo Brandão. The TJSP’s decision, however, emphasizes that it provides for sanctions which, if the accusations were confirmed, would be applied to Antonio Carlos Cesarini (partial statute of limitations) and José Roberto Peres.
Demonstrations
THE Metropolises tried to contact the lawyers of all the accused. Sérgio Eduardo Mendonça de Alvarenga, who represents Celso Antunes Da Costa, Ivan Dumont Silva and José Alfredo Lattaro, said he did not agree with the TJSP measure, although he respected it, but would appeal the decision.
Nohara Paschoal, José Roberto Peres’ lawyer, said that “out of respect for the client, who has already suffered for years because of an inappropriate investigation,” she would not comment on the specifics of the case. “In any case, it should be emphasized that, with regard to him, the Court of Justice recognized the extinction of the sentence, by prescription, closing the case. Although it is not a decision that addresses the merits, it protects his innocence,” he added.
The lawyers Fernando Hideo Lacerda, of José Marcelo Brandão, Pierpaolo Bottini, of Fábio Mentone, and Emmanuel Burdmann, of Antonio Carlos Cesarini, preferred not to comment on the case. The space remains open for demonstrations.
About the FGC
The Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC) is a private entity. It functions as “insurance” for the money of depositors and investors in Brazil, protecting them in the event of bank bankruptcy or liquidation. It was recently activated during the liquidation decreed by the Central Bank of Banco Master.
The FGC’s resources come from associated banks, which contribute monthly to the fund. In 2024, the FGC ended the year with assets of R$140.4 billion, an increase of 12% compared to the R$125.4 billion recorded the previous year.
About The Author
