Brazil’s Supreme Court orders the arrest of former head of Banco Master

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Brazilian Supreme Court judge has ordered the arrest of Daniel Vorcaro, the former head of a bank worth up to $16 billion in assets, in a new phase of a sweeping investigation into a fraud involving billions of reais.

In the 48-page decision authorizing Vorcaro’s pretrial detention, signed Tuesday and seen Wednesday by the Associated Press, Judge André Mendonça said the investigation had already revealed signs of crimes by Banco Master against the financial and judicial systems as well as participation in organized crime and money laundering.

Furthermore, the Brazilian federal police said in a statement on Wednesday that they had launched searches “to investigate possible crimes of threats, corruption, money laundering and invasion of computer systems perpetrated by a criminal organization”.

Police said they were executing four arrest warrants and 15 search and seizure warrants issued by the Supreme Court in the states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais.

The federal police statement did not name Vorcaro but said the raids were the third part of Operation Compliance Zero, the name given to the investigations into Banco Master.

Authorities also ordered the freezing of assets worth 22 billion reais ($4.2 billion), the federal police statement said. He did not specify the owner of these assets.

Vorcaro was arrested in November as part of an investigation into fraud allegations, but was later released.

But other investigations by Brazilian federal police indicate that Vorcaro was also part of a group called “The Crew,” which sought to acquire confidential information, monitor individuals considered adversaries of the group and carry out “intimidation actions to protect the interests of the core of the criminal organization,” Mendonça said in his ruling.

The Associated Press could not immediately reach Vorcaro’s legal representation team.

In his ruling, Mendonça said Vorcaro planned to stage a robbery or simulate a similar scenario to violently injure a journalist whose name was redacted. Local newspaper O Globo said the person in question was its columnist Lauro Jardim.

“I want him beaten. Knock out all his teeth. During a robbery,” Vorcaro said, according to the decision.

Reports of the plan sparked outrage, with O Globo saying in a statement that it “vehemently rejects the criminal initiatives planned against columnist Lauro Jardim, one of the most respected journalists in the country.” The outlet called for those involved to be punished to the fullest extent of the law and promised not to be intimidated by threats.

The Brazilian Press Association called these projects “barbarism incompatible with the democratic rule of law” and a “brutal aggression against the entire category of journalists and against the right of society to be informed.”

Last November, Brazil’s Central Bank closed Banco Master, a bank with assets of $16 billion. At the time, Brazilian Federal Police Director General Andrei Rodrigues told lawmakers that police had uncovered a 12 billion Brazilian reais ($2 billion) fraud within the country’s banking system.

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