The Federal Court in Brasília decided to maintain the arrest of banker Daniel Vorcaro, one of Banco Master’s partners. The decision was handed down on Thursday night (19) by judge Solange Salgado da Silva, of the Federal Regional Court (TRF) of the 1st Region.
The judge denied the request for habeas corpus made by the defense of Vorcaro, who was arrested last Monday (17) by the Federal Police (PF) while trying to board his private jet abroad at Guarulhos Airport.
The banker and other bank partners were targeted by Operation Compliance Zeroinitiated by the PF to investigate the granting of false credits by Banco Master, including the attempted purchase of the financial institution by Banco Regional de Brasília (BRB), a public bank linked to the government of the Federal District.
In the decision, the judge understood that the banker’s arrest must be maintained to preserve public order and dismantle the criminal organization.
“The context portrays a group with notable structure, stability and economic power, whose activity lasted for years, focused on the repeated practice of financial crimes, with the involvement of Banco Master managers in complex and very high standard schemes, using maneuvers to defraud the financial system”, decided Solange.
The judge also added that fraud could compromise BRB’s liquidity and cause an estimated loss of R$17 billion..
“The investigation revealed a scheme of irregular transfer of credit portfolios between Banco Master and Banco de Brasília, involving the huge amount of approximately R$17 billion. There is evidence of asset manipulation, creation of false narratives for regulatory bodies and use of off-the-shelf companies to simulate the origin of non-existent or bad credits.”
Defenses
After his arrest, Daniel Vorcaro’s lawyers denied that the banker had tried to leave the country and maintained that he had always made himself available to contribute to the investigation of the facts.
BRB informed yesterday that it will hire an external audit to investigate the facts. The bank will also investigate possible failures in governance or internal controls.
