Minister Dias Toffoli, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), ordered the blocking of assets owned by businessman Nelson Tanure as part of investigations into fraud and other crimes involving Banco Master, according to a decision seen by the Reuters.
Tanure, a well-known investor in companies in difficulty and one of Light’s main shareholders, was one of the 38 targets of a request for seizure and freezing of assets made by the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic and the Federal Police to reach a value of R$5.7 billion in the operation on Master.
In the decision, Toffoli mentioned that the PF named Tanure as Master’s ‘hidden partner’, allegedly exercising influence through funds and complex corporate structures, and final beneficiary of a company that would be involved in the operations. The value of the blockade was not disclosed.
‘For all of the above, I grant the requests for breaches of banking and tax secrecy of those investigated in the statements transcribed above, in the periods indicated, as well as the requests for seizure and freezing of assets, as requested by the Attorney General of the Republic in his statement’, highlighted Toffoli in his decision.
Tanure’s defense stated in a note that, given the news that the STF granted the blocking of his assets, the businessman clarifies that he ‘never established any relationship of a corporate nature with Banco Master’, of which he was a client in recent years under the same conditions in which he was and continues to be served by other financial institutions.
‘In this sense, and given the fact that no financial operation by the businessman, as a customer of the bank, could corroborate the mistaken premise presented by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office at the time of the request granted by the STF, the businessman informs that he will present all the necessary clarifications, with documentary support and the certainty that the matter will be reviewed, with the consequent revocation of the decision,’ said lawyer Pablo Testoni in an official note.
