The oversight council of Brazil's federal prosecution service, the Conselho Superior do Ministério Público Federal (CSMPF), moved on Friday (25) toward keeping Attorney General Paulo Gonet in charge of the Master case investigations. All three council members who have voted so far rejected his removal; on the merits, the count is 2 to 1 for dismissing the criminal complaint against the attorney general, with subprosecutor Janice Ascari arguing for preliminary evidence gathering. The session continues with the remaining council members.
The council is weighing an internal proceeding opened after the Federal Police found references to Gonet in messages taken from the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, who is jailed in the financial scandal. Gonet did not attend the session because he is the subject of the proceeding. Vice president of the council, subprosecutor general Nicolao Dino, presided. According to g1, the attorney general says he had no close relationship with the banker and described their contact as "brevíssimo e banal", extremely brief and ordinary.
The votes
Rapporteur Francisco Sanseverino, a subprosecutor general, split his ruling. He first voted against removing Gonet on procedural grounds, then denied the request to appoint a subprosecutor general to review the filings, which rejects the opening of an investigation. According to Poder360, he said that across the more than 200 pages of the Federal Police report there is no record of direct communication between Vorcaro and the attorney general: the mentions appear in conversations between third parties, among them the banker's former lawyer, Ciro Soares, "without any direct or indirect participation of the attorney general". Council member Celso de Albuquerque fully followed the rapporteur's vote.
"One cannot examine phrases or message exchanges in an isolated or decontextualized way, so as not to create an artificial situation that does not correspond to the reality of the facts," Sanseverino said.
Janice Ascari partly diverged. She voted against removing Gonet but partially granted the complaint so that a subprosecutor general is designated to review the criminal complaint and its attached documents, a position equivalent to collecting preliminary information before any ruling on the merits.
The case and what comes next
Background for new readers: Vorcaro was arrested in Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates financial crimes tied to Banco Master. On his phone, the Federal Police found messages in which Ciro Soares presented himself as a go-between with the attorney general and relayed messages from him. On June 19, 2025, according to Poder360, the lawyer sent the banker a photo showing Gonet and Vorcaro seated together at an event in London with two other men, captioned "PG me mandou", a reference to the attorney general. The police report, which also contained references to Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Federal Police director general Andrei Rodrigues, stirred debate at the Supreme Court and led to the internal proceeding.
Sanseverino also said any crime of responsibility by the attorney general would be for the Senate to judge, and that the council can only look for indications of a common crime. On the extension the prosecutor general's office requested in March 2026, before taking a position on Vorcaro's arrest, the rapporteur said there was no favoritism: prosecutors faced a flood of documents and a 72-hour deadline to respond to the third phase of the operation. What comes next depends on the remaining votes, still on Friday (25), with no set end time for the session: if dismissal prevails, the proceeding ends; if the council finds indications of a common crime, a subprosecutor general will be appointed to examine the material.