Marco Aurélio Santana Ribeiro, known as Marcola, who was then chief of staff to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, discussed the situation of Banco Master with Walfrido Warde, a lawyer for the banker under investigation Daniel Vorcaro, in a WhatsApp group called "Amigos" (Friends). The messages, exchanged in July 2025, are part of the material the Federal Police extracted from Vorcaro's phone for the inquiry into the Master case, a sprawling scandal surrounding the fall of the bank. The disclosure was made by the newspaper O Globo on Thursday (24) and was also reported by radio CBN.
In the exchange, Warde asked Marcola to pass on to the president a complaint against the Central Bank. In the lawyer's view, the bank's president, Gabriel Galípolo, was dragging his feet on talks to sell Master to BRB, the public bank of Brasília. "@Marco Aurélio Marcola teremos de ir pra cima do Bacen. Peço pra avisar o presidente" (we will have to go after the Central Bank; please tell the president), Warde wrote, adding that Galípolo "does not have the stuff for the job". Four minutes later came the reply from the then chief of staff: "Vixe. Blz" (roughly, oh boy, all right).
The exchanges came after Vorcaro reported learning of a meeting in which Galípolo had allegedly pointed to accounting errors at Master. "Não dá mais (...) Temos que ir pro embate" (this is not working anymore, we have to fight), Vorcaro wrote to his lawyer. "Avise presidente amanhã e vamos pra guerra" (tell the president tomorrow and let's go to war), he asked. "Ja fiz isso" (I already did), Warde answered. When the lawyer complained again that Galípolo "asked for the BRB deal and is stalling", Marcola wrote: "Avisarei aqui. Dou notícias" (I will tell them here. I will give you news). According to O Globo, the Central Bank had by then already found, in audits, signs of fraudulent management in Master operations involving BRB and had referred the material to federal prosecutors.
Timeline of the case
- April 2024: according to O Globo, Warde starts working with Marcola to arrange contact between Vorcaro and Lula; in an audio message, the lawyer says the chief of staff was asking for an email listing the banker's topics of interest to schedule a meeting.
- December 4, 2024: the only meeting between Lula and Vorcaro, according to the government.
- July 2025: the messages in the "Amigos" group, which also included Rafael Valim, Warde's law partner.
- September 2025: the Central Bank formally rejects the BRB purchase of Master after five months of review.
- September 24, 2026: O Globo publishes the conversations seized by the Federal Police.
Responses from the parties
Contacted by reporters, Marcola, who has since left government, said through advisers that he "never brokered negotiations, forwarded documents related to public purchases and tenders or acted in favor of any private interest". In a statement, he said the matter "concerned the threat of liquidation of a bank" and that, when approached by the institution's interlocutors, he "merely said he would make the institutional referrals and take the information to the proper channels". The version reported by CBN adds that he only asked for a formal audience request to be filed. Warde did not comment, and Vorcaro's defense also declined to comment.
The presidential communications office, Secom, said Lula met Vorcaro only once, on December 4, 2024. "There was no other contact between the president and Daniel Vorcaro. The president has no knowledge of the supposed articulation" by Warde and "did not send any message", the note says. At that meeting, Vorcaro said he felt persecuted, and Lula replied that any complaints should be technically examined by the Central Bank, according to Secom. The Central Bank said it would not comment.
The Federal Police inquiry into Master remains open. Galípolo confirmed on Thursday (24) that he was summoned to testify as a witness, with a deposition expected in early October. The former Central Bank president Roberto Campos Neto, BTG Pactual owner André Esteves and the bank's supervision director Ailton de Aquino were also called, according to Estado de Minas (Folhapress). The Master investigations also involve two former Central Bank officials, Paulo Sérgio Neves de Souza and Belline Santana, who are under investigation on suspicion of acting in Vorcaro's interest inside the regulator; their defense denies any favoritism. None of those cited in this episode has been convicted.