Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) authorized on July 24 the freezing abroad of assets of banks linked to former banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is jailed in the investigation into Banco Master. According to a G1 report published on Saturday (12), 11 listed items add up to more than R$ 1.7 billion, and seven more items have not yet been valued. The documents became public only now, after the court's president, Luiz Edson Fachin, ordered Mendonça to lift the secrecy over the bank investigations.

The list was sent to the court by the law firm representing EFB Regimes Especiais de Empresas, the liquidator of Banco Master, Banco Master de Investimento and Banco Master Múltiplo. The figures are the firm's own estimates, and the filing includes no images of the items. Assets to be recovered in the United States include:

• proceeds from the sale of an aircraft: R$ 280 million;
• duplex apartment in Miami: R$ 130 million;
• vacation home and guest residence in Miami: R$ 500 million;
• luxury residence and ranch in Colorado: R$ 500 million;
• luxury residence in Miami: R$ 150 million;
• yacht docked in Florida: R$ 80 million;
• Cigarette 52 Thunder boat in Florida: R$ 2 million;
• the painting "Mousquetaire" by Pablo Picasso: R$ 40 million;
• the painting "Untitled (Everybody's 2 Cents)" by Jean-Michel Basquiat: R$ 27.5 million;
• the painting "Untitled" by Jean-Michel Basquiat: R$ 25 million;
• a Benetti Oasis 40 boat located in Brazil: R$ 154.2 million.

Timeline

Banks tied to Vorcaro are in extrajudicial liquidation run by Brazil's Central Bank, with EFB as liquidator, and the criminal case sits at the STF, which is investigating fraud tied to Master and to the INSS, the public pension system. On June 19, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet asked for what Brazilian criminal procedure calls a "sequestro" of assets, a precautionary measure that reserves property to secure possible future compensation for damages and does not amount to a conviction. Mendonça granted the request on July 24. Investigators are still trying to locate more assets abroad, and courts in the United States, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands have recognized the Master liquidation and EFB's role as liquidator.

The arguments

Gonet wrote that "the progress of the investigations revealed that the illicit operations of Banco Master S.A were far more extensive and that the damage caused by the violations reached billion-real figures". In his view, seizing "all the assets reached by the extrajudicial liquidations is the only measure capable of guaranteeing the correct allocation of the estate in its legal order and the market value of the collected assets". In the ruling, Mendonça denied that the order interferes with the management of the liquidation estates and wrote:

The immediate purpose of the decision is to prevent the dispersal or premature disposal of assets already reached or identified in the future in the extrajudicial liquidations. (...) The objective is to establish criminal judicial control over the final destination of assets and amounts potentially relevant to the recovery of the damages.

The release of the papers comes amid an internal standoff at the STF over the Master case. On Saturday, Fachin took over as rapporteur of the discussion on the alleged relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Vorcaro, and sent the Master and INSS investigation files to the court's presidency, where they stay on hold until he rules. On Tuesday (15), the full court debates the Federal Police report that pointed to the alleged relationship between Moraes and the former banker. The Prosecutor General's Office has asked that the report be voided, arguing that Mendonça could not order an inquiry into a fellow justice without the full court's authorization.