In testimony to the Federal Police, the former president of BRB says he 'lacks clarity' regarding fraud at Banco Master.
Paulo Henrique Costa says there was a change in the documentation, but not a cancellation of the acquired credits.
247 - The former president of Banco de Brasília (BRB), Paulo Henrique Costa, stated to the Federal Police that, to date, there is no proof that the operations involving the acquisition of credit portfolios from Banco Master constitute fraud. According to him, what the public bank identified was a change in the standard of the documents and in the way the credits were originated, without any indication that the assets traded were nonexistent. The testimony is part of an investigation into possible irregularities in financial operations that came to represent approximately 30% of BRB's assets. This information comes from [source missing]. G1.
Testimony to the Federal Police
During his testimony, Paulo Henrique Costa stated: “We are still not certain that this was fraud. What we noticed was a change in the documentation and origination patterns of the credit.” According to him, the files received by BRB indicated the regular occurrence of registrations and monthly debits. Costa also highlighted the scale of the operation, which involved approximately R$ 12 billion, about 400 CPF numbers (Brazilian taxpayer identification numbers), and around 1 million contracts.
Billion-dollar operation and procedures adopted
According to him, when acquiring the credits, BRB followed standard financial market procedures, including registering the transactions and sending the information to the Central Bank. He also stated that, despite some complaints registered with the ombudsman, there were no reports of clients denying the existence of the credits after being informed that they were transactions acquired from third parties. The former executive added that tests carried out on a sample of approximately 130 contracts are included in a detailed report prepared by the Central Bank.
Divergent versions in confrontation
The Federal Police investigation includes a confrontation held at the end of December between Paulo Henrique Costa and businessman Daniel Vorcaro, controller of Banco Master. On that occasion, the two presented divergent versions about the origin of the credit portfolios sold to the public bank.
Vorcaro stated that he informed BRB that the portfolios would originate from third parties and said he was unaware, at the time, that the traded securities belonged to the company Tirreno. Paulo Henrique, in turn, maintained that BRB's understanding was that these were credits originated by Banco Master itself, subsequently traded with third parties and resold to the public bank.
The videos of the confrontation were made public following a decision by Minister Dias Toffoli of the Supreme Federal Court, the case's rapporteur, who also ordered the removal of the confidentiality surrounding the hearings.
Questions from the Central Bank
As part of the investigation, Central Bank director Ailton Aquino stated to the Federal Police that BRB's governance should have been able to identify whether the acquired loans actually existed. According to him, the application of appropriate techniques would have allowed for this verification, highlighting flaws in the public bank's control mechanisms.
Aquino also stated that the Central Bank's supervisory area questioned BRB several times, through formal letters, about the generation of credits acquired from Banco Master.
In a statement, the Central Bank informed that it has a legal obligation to permanently monitor the liquidity conditions of financial institutions and monitor risks to preserve the stability of the National Financial System, emphasizing that each institution is solely responsible for analyzing the quality of acquired loans and maintaining adequate internal controls.
Measures adopted by BRB
Paulo Henrique Costa stated that as soon as BRB identified a different documentation pattern, it expanded the audits, notified the Central Bank, and adopted measures to safeguard the bank, such as requiring guarantees and replacing assets.
According to him, approximately R$ 10,5 billion has already been replaced, leaving about R$ 2,5 billion remaining, while BRB maintains approximately R$ 9 billion in established guarantees.
