Messages extracted from the cell phone of Daniel Vorcaro by Brazil's Federal Police show that the lawyer Ciro Soares, a former attorney for Banco Master, sent the ex-banker a photo on June 19, 2025 of Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet smoking a cigar beside him at a private club in London. Right after sending it, the lawyer wrote "PG me mandou", Portuguese for "PG sent it to me", the initials of the prosecutor-general's name. The Attorney General's Office (PGR) confirmed the photo is authentic and said it would not comment, according to a report by O Globo on Friday.
In the image, Vorcaro sits close to Gonet, who holds a cigar in front of a table with whisky glasses; Ciro Soares himself appears in the picture beside the ex-banker. According to Folha de S.Paulo, people familiar with the investigations say the photo was taken on April 25, 2024, during a whisky tasting at the private George Club in London's Mayfair district, an event reportedly paid for by Vorcaro. Columnist Malu Gaspar, of O Globo, reported that Master's then owner spent R$ 3.2 million to host the private Macallan tasting.
Each side gave its version. In a statement to Folha, the PGR press office said the photo is from the 2024 event, which Gonet himself said he attended with several other authorities, and noted that Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice André Mendonça had acknowledged there was nothing improper in the mentions of the prosecutor-general. The press office of Ciro Soares said the image "is from a 2024 event, when there was no investigation into the businessman Daniel Vorcaro" and that "there is nothing irregular about the photo".
At an STF session last Tuesday, Gonet said he had a single meeting with Vorcaro, in April 2024, with several authorities present.
"I had no close relationship with Mr. Vorcaro. The only meeting I had with Mr. Vorcaro took place with several authorities in April 2024. The only call mediated by a lawyer was very brief and banal. The work of the Federal Prosecutor's Office, in the lower courts and at the Supreme Federal Court, has always aimed at the full clarification of the facts and the success of the criminal prosecution", the prosecutor-general said.
How the messages became public
The exchanges between Gonet and Vorcaro, mediated by Ciro Soares, began surfacing about two weeks ago, when Justice Mendonça released a Federal Police report with the contents extracted from the phone of the ex-banker, who is held in preventive detention in the investigations into Banco Master. The document also mentions Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Mendonça asked Chief Justice Edson Fachin to take the matter to the full court. The session began on Tuesday (the 15th) and was suspended after Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to review the case, with no date set to resume.
Cited in the report, Gonet argues the Federal Police document is null because, in his view, it was produced at Mendonça's request, without a prior request from the prosecution or from the police itself, and because the law requires authorization by the court's plenary before a Supreme Court justice can be investigated. During the session, Mendonça distinguished the messages mentioning Gonet from the other seized dialogues: "I am not making a value judgment about the prosecutor-general here, also because the information that came out is, in my assessment, information of a different density".
The exchanges between Soares and Vorcaro recorded by the Federal Police go beyond the London photo. In April 2024, the lawyer wrote to the then banker "Friendship is everything, you know, brother" and then "Gonet is firme", a Portuguese word suggesting loyalty. In March 2025, he sent a photo of himself beside the prosecutor with the message "Call here. He wants to talk to you". He also forwarded messages he presented as sent by Gonet, including "Great! I'm rooting for you!" and "I already miss you! I'm boarding to Rome". About a second edition of a legal forum sponsored by Master in London, later canceled, he relayed the message "Yay! I hope there are cigars and Macallan". The next day, the lawyer asked whether Gonet's son could join the group on the trip; Vorcaro replied: "Of course".
Next steps
On Friday (the 18th), Vorcaro's defense asked Fachin to revoke his preventive detention. The PGR, headed by Gonet, is expected to respond in the coming days. At the STF, the review of the Master case remains suspended until Dino returns the case file to the full court.