Vorcaro’s phone logs 316 interactions with Moraes; Federal District seeks R$2.2 billion for BRB

This is a translation of the original article in Portuguese. Read the original (Português).

Data extracted from the cellphone of banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, records 316 interactions with Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) in the two months before the banker’s arrest in November 2025. The information was revealed by the portal UOL and echoed by the newspapers O Estado de S. Paulo and Diário da Região. Lawyers for Vorcaro and Moraes declined to comment.

According to Estadão, the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, some of the messages had been automatically deleted, but secondary records were preserved.

In another front of the case, the Attorney General’s Office of the Federal District asked STF President Edson Fachin to set a compensation of R$2.2 billion to the Banco de Brasília (BRB) for the frauds attributed to Master. The Federal District, the controlling shareholder of BRB, says it is a victim of the conduct under investigation. Because the bank is public and controlled by the district government, losses linked to Master weigh on the Federal District itself.

BRB’s crisis is tied to its dealings with Master, according to Estadão. To gain breathing room, the bank is selling asset portfolios to BTG Pactual, including more than half of its real estate credit portfolio, without any change in shareholder control. BRB is also considering creating a development bank, modeled on Minas Gerais’s BDMG, to manage the Federal District government’s operations. In addition, the district government asked the STF for the Union’s approval of a R$6.6 billion loan involving the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC), a guarantee that the National Treasury had refused.

The closeness between Moraes and Vorcaro appears in yet another episode. Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) notified the operators of two airplanes linked to the banker to clarify whether they carried paying passengers, an activity these aircraft are not allowed to perform. According to the newspaper Correio Braziliense, one of the planes may have flown the minister from Brasília to São Paulo in August 2025.

At the Supreme Court, the investigation runs in several directions. Fachin approved the plea bargain of João Carlos Mansur, founder of the asset manager Reag Investimentos, which held assets of Master in custody. Mansur offered help in recovering about R$20 billion. The STF president also asked the Prosecutor General’s Office for an opinion on the request to release Vorcaro, who is detained at Papudinha, in the Federal District, according to the newspaper Correio do Povo. There is no deadline for a decision.

Fachin also denied requests for freedom from Fabiano Zettel, Vorcaro’s brother-in-law, who wanted his pretrial detention reviewed or replaced with humanitarian house arrest. Zettel has been held since March 4.

The case also reaches Congress. In testimony to the Federal Police on August 27, in the Operação Compliance Zero inquiry, businessman Leonardo Serrano, owner of a travel agency, reported that Vorcaro used his services to pay for trips, lodging and events for Senator Ciro Nogueira in Paris, New York, Lisbon, London and the French Alps, according to Estadão. The senator did not comment, and Vorcaro’s defense could not be reached.

Reporting from UOL (Reportagem sobre o celular de Vorcaro, citada por O Estado de S. Paulo e Diário da Região), O Estado de S. Paulo (p. 12, 29 e 30 (Brasília/DF e nacional)), Diário da Região (p. 7 e 10 (nacional e Brasília/DF)), Correio Braziliense (p. 4 (Brasília/DF)), Correio do Povo (p. 4 (Brasília/DF)).