Banco de Brasília (BRB), a bank controlled by the federal district government in Brasília, has asked a local civil court to allow the assets of Banco Master owners and related defendants to be used to satisfy a future damages award. The request is part of BRB's lawsuit over the sale of what it describes as bad or even nonexistent credit portfolios. The reporting is based on a single source, Metrópoles.
According to the petition cited by Metrópoles, BRB argues that limiting the case to Banco Master alone may not be enough to cover the losses it says it suffered. The bank asked the 13th Civil Court of Brasília either to extend liability to the personal assets of individuals linked to the alleged scheme or, failing that, to hold the defendants jointly liable for the damage.
What the bank alleges
The defendants named in the case, according to the report, include Banco Master, businessman Daniel Vorcaro, João Carlos Mansur, Daniel de Faria Jerônimo Leite, Daniel Monteiro, and a group of investment funds. BRB's lawyers said those parties acted directly or indirectly in conduct that allowed the alleged wrongdoing to occur and continue.
The legal filing follows an earlier court order, issued in February, that froze and attached bank shares held by people linked to Banco Master and Reag, both of which were put into liquidation by Brazil's Central Bank. But BRB argued that those shares, valued at about R$ 376.4 million, or roughly USD 68 million at recent rates, would still fall far short of the full losses at issue.
"The attached shares alone are not sufficient to guarantee future compensation," BRB's lawyers argued in the petition, according to Metrópoles.
Billions in disputed assets
Metrópoles reported that BRB moved R$ 30.4 billion, roughly USD 5.5 billion at recent rates, in Banco Master credit portfolios from July 1, 2024 onward. Brazil's Federal Police, according to the same report, found that about R$ 12 billion of that amount may have involved nonexistent assets.
That allegation sits at the center of the crisis now hitting BRB. The bank's president, Nelson Antônio de Souza, has said BRB will need to book provisions of about R$ 8.8 billion, roughly USD 1.6 billion at recent rates, to absorb potential losses. In banking terms, provisions are reserves set aside to cover assets that may not be recoverable.
The court has not yet ruled on BRB's latest requests. For now, the petition marks an effort to widen the pool of assets available if BRB eventually wins compensation.
Why the case matters
The dispute matters beyond one bank. BRB is a public-sector financial institution with political importance in Brasília, while the wider case touches on regulatory oversight, asset quality, and the credibility of bank balance sheets in Brazil's financial system.
It also overlaps with a broader criminal and regulatory inquiry. Metrópoles noted in a related report that the Federal Police had been given one month to deliver an investigation to Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's highest constitutional court.
For now, the core legal question is straightforward: whether the court will treat the alleged losses as a corporate dispute confined to Banco Master, or as a broader scheme that could justify pursuing the wealth of individuals and affiliated funds. Given the scale of the claimed losses, that distinction could determine whether BRB can recover a meaningful share of the money at all.
accessed on 21 April 2026