“Pure camaraderie” and fraud of R$ 12.2 billion: understand the arrest of former BRB president

The Federal Police investigation that led to the arrest of former BRB president Paulo Henrique Costa points to evidence of a R$12.2 billion financial operation designed by the public bank and Master out of “pure camaraderie” as an “attempt to stifle supervision” carried out by the Central Bank (BC).

In total, the PF carries out two preventive arrest warrants and seven search and seizure warrants, in the Federal District and in São Paulo. The executive is suspected of having participated in an alleged “money laundering scheme for the payment of undue advantages that would have gone to public agents” in the Banco Master scandal. He denies any wrongdoing.

According to the investigation, BRB carried out inconsistent operations with Master in an attempt to survive Daniel Vorcaro’s financial institution while the Central Bank analyzed the bank’s sale proposal. In March of this year, BRB proposed the purchase of Master, but the deal was vetoed by the BC.

In need of resources while the BC was evaluating the operation, Master negotiated with BRB the sale of credit portfolios (rights on loans) to raise funds — and gain additional momentum in the market. However, for the authorities, this transaction was a way of circumventing the Central Bank.

In its statement on the case, the Federal Public Ministry stated that Master “acquired credit portfolios” from a company run by a former employee “without making any payment” and, shortly thereafter, resold these securities to BRB, receiving immediate payment, “resulting in the transfer, from January to May 2025, of R$12.2 billion”.

When justifying this operation to the BC, Master informed on March 25 of this year that the credit portfolio had its origins in two civil servant associations in the state of Bahia, which would have been created by a director of the private bank.

Faced with this suspicion, the Central Bank began to comb a sample of 30 alleged customers taking credit from the operations transferred by Master to BRB in January 2025. The institution found that it was not possible to establish any correspondence between the transactions and the financial flow, which “corroborates the signs of insubsistence”. The term means inconsistency or lack of foundation that proves the existence of something.

From this, the BRB presented the BC with a new sample with information on 100 credit contracts acquired from Master. When analyzing the documents, the monetary authority reinforced that there were “indications of insubsistence, which indicate the existence of possible accounting and financial engineering to make fundraising possible”.

‘Shelf company’

After the BC’s questioning, the ownership of these titles began to be attributed to Tirreno, created at the end of 2024 by a person who registered other similar firms. According to investigators, this is an indication that it was a “shelf company” to facilitate the rescue operation for Master.

As soon as it was launched on the market, Tirreno increased its capital to R$30 million, had a former Master employee as director and carried out corporate changes — which, according to the PF, were formalized only after the beginning of the financial operation involving BRB.

The Federal Public Ministry highlights that the initial partnership agreement between Master and Tirreno and one of the credit assignment instruments “are not even authenticated by a notary”, while the other transaction documents were formally registered just a few months after the transaction.

“It is atypical and unreasonable that only after the Central Bank provoked the information, the BRB started to demand additional documents, a very suspicious situation for anyone who would carry out a transaction in this amount (R$ 12.2 billion) and who should take objective and minimum precautions for the viability of this type of transaction”, say the investigators.

Change of course

To correct the flaws identified by the Central Bank, BRB decided to directly interrupt the operation with Tirreno, responsible for issuing the bonds that were passed on by Master. The Federal District government’s financial institution chose to replace the portfolios purchased with other assets from Daniel Vorcaro.

The purpose was to reduce the balance of the operation, which totaled R$12.2 billion. However, according to the investigation, this movement exceeded the legal limit of exposure to a single customer, estimated at R$1.1 billion.

According to the investigation, between July 2024 and October 2025, BRB and Master carried out operations totaling R$16.7 billion. These transactions occurred even “in the face of reservations formulated by the Central Bank”.