Moraes Denies Lobbying Banco Central as BC Confirms Meetings on Magnitsky

Overview

• Brazil’s central bank confirmed it held meetings with Alexandre de Moraes to discuss the effects of U.S. Magnitsky sanctions, echoing the minister’s stated rationale for the contacts.
• In a later, detailed note, Moraes said he met Gabriel Galípolo twice in his STF office on August 14 and September 30, denied any phone calls or visits to the BC, and rejected having pressed on the BRB–Master deal or having his wife’s firm act on that transaction before the BC.
• O Globo and Estadão reported multiple phone calls and a meeting in which Moraes allegedly sought approval for the BRB purchase of Banco Master, and highlighted missing entries in Galípolo’s public agenda and changes between versions of Moraes’s notes.
• Reporting detailed a contract worth roughly R$3.6 million per month—about R$129–130 million in total—between Banco Master and the law firm of Moraes’s wife to represent the bank before public bodies, while agencies said they had no records of filings by the firm.
• Political and institutional fallout escalated with lawmakers pursuing impeachment signatures and a CPI, STF ministers privately defending Moraes, and Justice Dias Toffoli ordering a Dec. 30 confrontation in the Master fraud investigation involving Daniel Vorcaro, a former BRB president and a BC director.