The director general of the Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, estimates that the fraud against the financial system investigated in Operation Compliance Zero may have generated around R$12 billion. 
“We are carrying out an important operation, jointly with the Central Bank and Coaf, to [investigar] a crime against the financial system that amounts to around R$12 billion.”
Andrei Rodrigues testified to the Senate’s Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI) that investigates organized crime and commented on the Operation launched by the PF on Tuesday morning (18).
Among those investigated is the owner of Banco Master, Daniel Vacaro, detained at Guarulhos Airport. The president of the Banco Regional de Brasília (BRB), Paulo Henrique Costa, and the bank’s director of Finance and Controllership, Dario Oswaldo Garcia Júnior, are also being investigated. Both were removed from their positions that they occupy at BRB.
To the senators, Rodrigues announced that in the first actions of the morning, R$ 1.6 million in cash were seized in the residence of a single person under investigation.
He also confirmed that the operation resulted in “several arrests”.
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Zero compliance
Operation Compliance Zero is the result of investigations that the PF began in 2024, to investigate and combat the issuance of false credit titles by institutions that are part of the National Financial System.
The institutions are suspected of creating false credit operations, simulating loans and other receivables. These same institutions negotiated these credit portfolios with other banks.
After the Central Bank approved the accounting, institutions replaced these fraudulent credits and debt securities with other assets, without adequate technical evaluation.
Banco Master is the main target of the investigation launched at the request of the Federal Public Ministry (MPF).
“[O BRB] has always acted in accordance with compliance and transparency standards, regularly providing information to the Federal Public Ministry and the Central Bank on all related operations [às negociações de compra do] Master Bank”.
Central Bank
Given the situation, the Central Bank made official, through a statement, the extrajudicial liquidation of Master Foreign Exchange, Securities and Real Estate Broker.
The document places the company EFB Regimes Especiais de Empresas as the extrajudicial liquidator, with “broad powers of administration and representation of the company; and, as technical manager, Eduardo Felix Bianchini.
Context
Master became known for adopting an aggressive policy to raise funds, offering returns of up to 140% of the Bank Deposit Certificate (CDI) to those who purchase shares from the financial institution – a promise of earnings higher than the average rates for small banks – around 110% to 120% of the CDI.
The bank’s operations with precatório (government debt securities with a final court ruling) also increased doubts about Master’s financial situation, which, when issuing bonds in dollars, was unable to raise funds.
Yesterday (17), the Fictor investment and business management group announced that it would buy Master.
THE Brazil Agency tries to contact Paulo Henrique Costa and Dario Oswaldo Garcia Júnior or their lawyers, as well as Vorcaro’s defense, and is open to including the position of those mentioned.
