Banco Master: the facts and media manipulation

The facts: 

1) The investigation into the Banco Master fraud was initiated by the Federal Police, under the Ministry of Justice, when it was headed by Minister Ricardo Lewandowski.

2) Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Master, was arrested by the Federal Police. Later, his arrest was overturned by a federal judge. But today he still complies with a series of precautionary measures, such as the mandatory use of an electronic ankle monitor.

3) The Central Bank liquidated Master, given the institution's disastrous financial situation, which lacked the liquidity to honor its commitments to investors, mainly due to offering stratospheric returns on its CDBs (Certificates of Deposit), which attracted unsuspecting investors.

4) Rioprevidência and its president, Deivis Marcon Antunes, were the targets of a search and seizure operation by the Federal Police. The state's pension institute invested almost R$ 1 billion in funds belonging to the Vorcaro conglomerate, in an operation that jeopardizes the payment of retirement and pension benefits to Rio's civil servants.

5) The Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC) has already begun making payments to affected investors up to R$ 250 per individual or corporate taxpayer ID (CPF or CNPJ). This coverage includes balances in checking accounts, savings accounts, CDBs, RDBs, LCIs, and LCAs.

6) Minister Dias Toffoli, responsible for the case at the Supreme Court, has been behaving erratically and confusingly, leaving the court vulnerable to all sorts of attacks.

Media manipulation 

1) The entire political world is aware of Vorcaro's close ties to figures in the opposition to the federal government. Even so, the mainstream media, starting with articles by journalist Malu Gaspar in O Globo, went to great lengths to try and link Master to the Lula government.

2) This course of action lacks even a minimum of sophistication and appeals to the most rudimentary common sense. For example: since Supreme Court justices like Toffoli and Alexandre de Moraes are seen as close to the government, attacking them means indirectly attacking the PT and Lula.

3) Obviously, it doesn't look good for Alexandre Moraes' wife and Lewandowski's family to be working as lawyers for Master. This is an issue that should be resolved not only by the Supreme Court, but also by other courts whose judges have relatives who practice law. However, in the specific case of Master, the crucial question is: did the fact that relatives of Supreme Court justices were working for Master help to save Vorcaro and his bank? The answer is no. Master was liquidated and Vorcaro is complying with restrictive court measures. 

4) Images of gatherings and meetings between Vorcaro and Bolsonaro-supporting governors and parliamentarians are circulating on social media. However, this virtual archive has been ignored by the corporate press in its reporting on the political implications of the Master crisis. Not even the arrest of a Vorcaro associate, considered the largest donor to the campaigns of Bolsonaro and Tarcísio de Freitas, received adequate attention.

5) When the Federal Police carried out the operation at Rioprevidência, the news reports on the subject broadcast by Grupo Globo didn't even mention Governor Cláudio Castro's name. Imagine if it had been a governor from the PT (Workers' Party)?

6) A president who actually works, like Lula, receives countless people in his office. These include labor and business leaders, politicians, intellectuals, artists, students, NGO activists, members of civil society organizations, foreign delegations, and people from the financial market. Using the audience Lula granted Vorcaro, well before the bank was liquidated, as proof of the relationship between the two is ridiculous. Especially since the same news reports indicate that Lula warned the owner of Master that his bank's case would require a technical solution from the Central Bank. 

7) Paulo Gala is a professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation who previously worked as an economist at the Master's program. Well, it only took Gala giving a lecture at the Perseu Abramo Foundation for the media to point out the existence of ties between the bank and the Workers' Party (PT). Believe it or not.