Brazil’s Federal Police (PF) arrested Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, early on this morning (18). In total, officers carried out five preventive arrest warrants, two temporary arrest warrants, and 25 search and seizure warrants, in addition to other precautionary measures, across the states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Bahia, and the Federal District (Brasília).
The suspects are being investigated for fraudulent management, reckless management, criminal conspiracy, and other related crimes.
The operation, named Compliance Zero, aims to dismantle a scheme involving the issuance of fake credit securities by financial institutions. According to investigators, “these securities were allegedly sold to another bank and, after inspection by the Central Bank of Brazil, replaced with other assets that lacked proper technical evaluation.”
At the same time, the Central Bank announced the extrajudicial liquidation of Banco Master. This measure prevents the bank’s previously announced acquisition by a consortium of investors from the United Arab Emirates, in partnership with the Brazilian investment management group Fictor. The acquisition, worth an initial 3 billion reais (about US$550 million), had been announced just one day earlier, on Monday (17).
Liquidation means that the bank has lost the ability to operate and will now be placed under temporary special administration, a legal regime that assigns a liquidator — in this case, EFB Regimes Especiais de Empresas — to take control of the institution, shut down all financial activities, sell its assets, and pay its creditors.
In an official statement, Central Bank president Gabriel Galípolo said the liquidation was ordered “due to the deterioration of the institution’s economic and financial situation, its declining liquidity, and violations of banking regulations and of directives previously issued by the Central Bank of Brazil.”
Before Fictor’s failed acquisition attempt, the Bank of Brasília (BRB) had also tried to purchase Banco Master. The deal, announced in March, was blocked five months later by the Central Bank’s board, which determined that the proposal failed to meet essential requirements and did not provide documentation proving its financial feasibility.
Banco Master was a medium-sized private bank based in São Paulo, primarily engaged in corporate credit operations and asset management.
