The senior council of Brazil's Federal Prosecutor's Office (CSMPF) has scheduled a session for September 25 to examine messages from former banker Daniel Vorcaro that mention the Prosecutor General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet. The exchanges were recovered from the phone of the former Banco Master coordinator by federal police. Gonet denies any close ties.
Gonet addressed the matter on Tuesday during an extraordinary session of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) that was debating the validity of a federal police report involving Justice Alexandre de Moraes. He asked to speak after Justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur on the case, mentioned him by name, according to CNN Brasil.
"There is not, nor has there ever been, a relationship of proximity with Mr. Vorcaro. The only meeting I had with Mr. Vorcaro took place with several authorities, in April 2024. The only phone call, intermediated by a lawyer, was extremely brief and banal," Gonet said.
The messages
According to the federal police report, whose seal of secrecy was lifted by Mendonça on September 1, lawyer Ciro Soares, a former defense counsel for Master, appears as the main go-between for Vorcaro and the prosecutor general. On March 15, 2025, Soares sent the former banker a photo of himself beside Gonet and then wrote "Call me here" and "He wants to talk to you." Forensic examiners logged four consecutive voice calls between Vorcaro and the lawyer, lasting 57 seconds, 27 seconds, 17 seconds and 3 minutes and 49 seconds. In the police reading, the records indicate the banker spoke with the prosecutor general through the lawyer's phone.
On March 29, 2025, Soares wrote to Vorcaro that "Gonet asked whether his son could come with us to London." On April 11, the former banker approved paying the London travel expenses of "Pedro and ciro", a reference, according to the report, to Pedro Gonet, the prosecutor general's son, and the lawyer.
Gonet's defense
In a filing to the council, Gonet wrote that he has no "friendship whatsoever" with Vorcaro and no personal stake in cases in which the banker is a party or a suspect. According to the document, the only in-person meeting took place in April 2024, in London, at an event held by Grupo Voto and the legal news outlet Consultor Jurídico. On the brokered call, Gonet described a "brief greeting" and said Soares had told him that day that Banco Master was about to complete its purchase of bank BRB. "It was not a matter within my professional remit, but as a courtesy, I offered congratulations," Gonet wrote.
Gonet argues that nothing justifies opening a proceeding against him and says he is "legally fully able to act freely and unhindered in the proceedings involving Banco Master." At the STF, he has asked that the federal police report be voided and argued that Mendonça should have taken any suspicion to the court's president, Edson Fachin, for the full bench to weigh. The CSMPF, the internal disciplinary body of the federal prosecutors, is set to meet on September 25.