Former banker bought and sold Union debts with Cambahyba Farm, a place used to incinerate bodies of those disappeared during the military regime
The founder of Banco Master, Daniel Vorcaro, profited R$ 124 million with purchase and sale operations of precatório at Usina Fazenda Cambahyba, in Campos dos Goytacazes, one of the most symbolic places of political violence during the Brazilian military dictatorship in Rio de Janeiro.
Data on Vorcaro’s assets are contained in documents, to which the Poder360 had access, delivered by the Federal Revenue to the CPMI (Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) of the INSS (National Social Security Institute), after the former banker’s banking and tax secrecy was breached.
The sugar and alcohol plant in the north of Rio de Janeiro occupies an area of 7 farms in 3,500 hectares and was once one of the main agro-industrial properties in the State, but was known for having been used to incinerate the bodies of at least 12 opponents of the military regime in the 1970s.
In 2023, former Dops (Department of Political and Social Order) delegate Cláudio Antônio Guerra was sentenced by the Federal Court to 7 years in prison for hiding a corpse in the complex.
In testimony to the (National Truth Commission), the former agent said he had taken bodies to be burned in the local ovens from 1973 to 1975. According to the commission’s report, Guerra “he responded to calls from Army cavalry captain Freddie Perdigão Pereira and received the bodies directly from the military team”. The bodies were those of political prisoners collected at Casa da Morte, a clandestine torture center in Petrópolis (RJ).
From deactivation to court orders
Cambahyba Farm was completely deactivated in the 1995/1996 harvest. The enterprise occupied 6,763 hectares, of which 85% were dedicated to sugarcane production.
The plant was one of dozens of enterprises in the sugar and alcohol sector that took legal action against the government between the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. The reason: losses due to the pricing policy of the extinct Instituto do Açúcar e do Álcool, a federal agency responsible for regulating, supervising and promoting production in the sector. The aim of the lawsuits was to obtain compensation for financial losses at the time.
In 2020, the Federal Supreme Court ruled that compensation could only be paid if companies proved the damage suffered. After this decision, some of the processes were blocked and many of the court orders were resold on the market as “bad bonds”, with uncertain settlement.
A Vorcaro’s strategy
The acquisition of precatório from Fazenda Cambahyba was part of Vorcaro’s strategy to inflate Banco Master’s balance sheet. The former banker invested in the purchase and sale of credit rights from several bankrupt plants. The move allowed Master to issue more CDBs, because debt issues need to be offset with assets on the balance sheet.
Precatório are public debts recognized by the courts, generally after lawsuits filed by citizens or companies. They arise when the Union, States or municipalities lose a lawsuit and are ordered to pay a certain amount without permission to appeal.
The strategy consisted of investing in credits from old and complex legal proceedings, generally involving bankrupt estates or plants in difficulty, in which the face value of the precatório was much higher than the acquisition price on the secondary market.
Vorcaro used FIDCs (Credit Rights Investment Funds) to “package” and sell his holdings, transferring the risk or making the profit to specialized funds.
From March 8, 2021 to June 30, 2022, the founder of Master invested R$122.2 million in court orders at Fazenda Cambahyba. One of these lots, of R$ 78.502.694,96was transferred by the former banker to his father, Henrique Moura Vorcaro, as a payment in payment – an agreement in which the creditor agrees to receive an asset (property, vehicle, product) to pay off or reduce a debt.
In total, Vorcaro earned R$247 million with the plant’s court orders – which resulted in a profit of R$ 124 million. In addition to the operation with his father, there were lots acquired by Kyoto Fundo de Investimento Multimercado, Cayman Fdic and Londres Fdic.
O Poder360 He searched for Daniel Vorcaro’s defense via messaging app and email, to ask if he would like to comment on the transactions related to court orders. There was no response until the publication of this report. The text will be updated if a statement is sent to this digital newspaper.
historical heritage
After almost two decades of dispute, Cambahyba Farm was considered unproductive by the courts in 2012. The area was expropriated in 2021 and ceded by the 1st Federal Court of Campos to the (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform). In the same year, the place was formalized as a settlement for 300 families from (Landless Rural Workers Movement). The expropriation of the site was a reason for the movement’s demands for years. Currently, the settlement has already been regularized by Incra.
On December 5, 2024, Alerj (Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro) declared the site a state historical heritage site.
