By Indianara Goz
Lawyers for banker Daniel Vorcaro will be heard on Tuesday at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's highest court, in Brasília. They hope to unblock pending requests, chief among them the revocation of his pretrial detention. Vorcaro remains held at the facility known as Papudinha in the Brazilian capital. The case is known in Brazil as the Master case, after Banco Master.
Defense takes Brazil to the OAS
The hearing follows an offensive that has already crossed the country's borders. Before turning to the STF, the defense filed a complaint against Brazil with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a body linked to the Organization of American States (OAS). The lawyers allege that Vorcaro is the target of human rights violations.
Release request left unanswered
The most explosive point of the complaint is the lack of a response to a release request filed on September 18. The lawyers also argue that the detention did not go through the periodic review required by Brazilian law, which calls for a review every 90 days.
The defense is also going after the Federal Police (PF) indictment. In Brazil, an indictment is the police's conclusion at the end of an investigation. Formal charges are a separate step. For the legal team, the PF document does not carry the weight of a formal accusation. The phrase that sums up their strategy: "To this day there is no formal charge and no criminal case." According to the lawyers, the document is a partial report, produced in an investigation that is still unfinished and based on evidence whose integrity cannot be verified.
What the Federal Police allege
The investigators' conclusion is heavy. Last week, the PF closed an inquiry and indicted Vorcaro and 14 other people, among them former BRB president Paulo Henrique Costa. According to the police, the group took part in a scheme involving R$ 12.2 billion (Brazilian reais) in credit portfolios considered fictitious, traded between Banco Master and Banco de Brasília (BRB).
The report names Vorcaro as the leader of the alleged criminal organization. It says he concentrated command of decisions on the production, acquisition and transfer of the portfolios used to raise funds. According to the investigators, he also knew the origin of the credits and the inconsistencies in the operations. Costa is described as the main agent of institutional liaison inside BRB.
What comes next
The hearing will be led by an auxiliary judge of the STF presidency, under the command of Justice Edson Fachin, the temporary rapporteur of the Master case. Members of the defense are expected to appear at the court during the afternoon. Meanwhile, Fachin himself gave the PF 24 hours to provide information about Vorcaro's cellphone.
There is still no decision on his release. What is at stake is whether Brazilian courts will answer the pending requests, or whether the case will remain stuck in the dispute between the defense's version and the investigators' version.
VDD Analysis
A scheme of R$ 12.2 billion in credit portfolios described as fictitious demands quick answers from institutions. The right to a defense and compliance with the deadlines set by law are non-negotiable, and the defense's complaint about the review of the detention makes sense. But the country needs to know, plainly, how operations of this size passed through supposed control systems without anyone seeing the origin of the credits.
