The appearance of the magistrates is not mandatory, while the banker’s appearance is
The Organized Crime CPI approved, this Wednesday, 25, invitation to ministers Dias Toffoli and Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), to give testimony to the commission. He also summoned Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master. The appearance of the magistrates is not mandatory, while the banker’s appearance is.
The president of the collegiate, senator Fabiano Contarato (PT-ES), proposed a symbolic vote on all invitations and requests for information that did not involve financial data, such as financial intelligence reports from the Financial Activities Control Council (Coaf). With the exception of Vorcaro’s summons, they were all approved at once.
Invitations to Moraes’ wife were also approved, lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes, the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, the president of the Central Bank, Gabriel Galípolo, and the former Minister of Finance Guido Mantega. The set of measures also includes providing information on the entry record of Augusto Ferreira Lima, former executive of Banco Master, in the Senate.
José Carlos Dias Toffoli and José Eugênio Dias Toffoli, brothers of Dias Toffoli, were summoned. There was also approval of a request to break the fiscal secrecy of Maridt Participações, a company registered in their name, but whose real owner was the minister himself.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s base managed to approve the summons of former Economy Minister Paulo Guedes and former Central Bank President Roberto Campos Neto. Their departure is not optional. The authors of the requests are the government leader in Congress, senator Randolfe Rodrigues (PT-AP), and government leader in the Senate, senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), respectively.
According to Randolfe, Guedes needs to explain what deregulation policies of his administration would have, in the parliamentarian’s view, facilitated illicit acts committed by the Master.
STF ministers are targets of questioning
STF ministers have been the target of questions due to links with the financial institution. The office of Moraes’ wife, lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes, signed a R$129 million contract with Master.
Already Toffoliwho was the rapporteur for Operation Compliance Zero investigations at the STF, is an anonymous partner at the company Maridtwhich is run by two of his brothers and had a stake in two resorts in the Tayayá chain. The company sold its stake in the accommodation business in Paraná to an investment fund whose shareholder was pastor Fabiano Zettel, Vorcaro’s brother-in-law and financial operator.
The author of the invitation to magistrates is senator Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE). “In addition to the indirect corporate and economic links already described, the conduct of the investigation involving Banco Master by Minister Dias Toffoli was marked by unusual procedural and administrative decisions in highly complex criminal investigations. Among them, the exceptional referral of the procedure to the Federal Supreme Court, the imposition of a maximum degree of secrecy and the centralization of relevant acts under the rapporteur stand out”, says an excerpt from the request presented by the parliamentarian for the invitation to Toffoli.
In the justification for the invitation to Moraes, the senator cites the minister’s possible action for the benefit of private interests. “This is a necessary, proportional and institutionally responsible measure, aimed at clarifying: the nature of the dialogues carried out; the limits between institutional action and private interests; and the possible existence of undue overlap between public functions and relevant private relationships.”
TH Joias fails to testify
The CPI would hear, in the same session in which the requests were voted, the former state deputy of Rio de Janeiro Thiego Raimundo dos Santos Silva, known as TH Joias, arrested in September last year by the Federal Police on suspicion of links with the Red Command. His appearance depended on judicial authorization, which had not yet been issued at the date of the session.
With that, Contarato outlined invitations, calls and breaches of confidentiality and closed the meeting. The request that summoned TH Joias was written by Alessandro Vieira.
*Estadão Content
