SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s government on Tuesday shut down Banco Master, a bank worth up to $16 billion in assets, following a sprawling federal police fraud investigation.

Central Bank executive Fabio Carlos Ferreira said in a statement that all assets belonging to Banco Master and its current and former administrators have been seized. The bank, which has faced liquidity problems for months, is now under the control of a government-appointed administrator.

Clients and creditors will seek to recover their money from a private entity sponsored by other banks, a standard procedure in previous Brazilian bank crises.

Hours earlier, the director-general of Brazil’s federal police, Andrei Rodrigues, told lawmakers that the force had uncovered a 12-billion Brazilian reais ($2 billion) fraud wi

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