A group tied to former banker Daniel Vorcaro, of the Banco Master now in liquidation, obtained information from sealed proceedings at Brazil's federal prosecutors' office (MPF) through queries registered under the staff logins of the agency's own employees, according to the Federal Police. The finding appears in a police report sent to the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, and made public on Thursday night (Sept. 10), after Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the case, lifted secrecy over part of the investigation at the request of the court's president, Edson Fachin.
According to CNN Brasil, an analysis of data extracted from Vorcaro's cell phone showed recurrent, irregular access to sealed proceedings not only at the prosecutors' office but also within the Federal Police, the Civil Police and the Central Bank. "The messages show that there was recurrent and irregular access to sealed proceedings underway at the MPF, the Federal Police, the Civil Police and the Central Bank," the report states. The police say the access relied on third parties' staff logins, improper extraction of documents and unauthorized queries in internal systems, and that the protected information was used for "purposes unrelated to the public interest". In the table of people named in the inquiry, the PF records that the logins of two prosecutors' office employees were used repeatedly to reach sealed cases, and speaks of "possible improper use, with or without conscious participation", leaving open whether the employees knew their credentials were being used.
The messages and the "operational executor"
Messages reproduced in the document show Luiz Phillipi Machado de Moraes Mourão, described by police as Vorcaro's "operational executor" and identified as "Felipe Mourão" in the chats, sending the then-banker results of queries to internal systems. Folha de S.Paulo reports that the queries covered investigations into Master itself and into BRB, the Banco de Brasília, and that among the seized messages is an "I want it all" attributed to the group. In June 2024, according to the report, Mourão sent a list of names of people and companies and said Vorcaro could add others "to pull the sealed ones". Asked which documents he wanted to receive, Vorcaro replied: "All of them, obviously".
In one episode described by investigators, a document attributed to the MPF was used to find out who had hired a helicopter that allegedly flew over the former banker's house in Bahia state. The police say Mourão was paid R$ 1 million a month for work that included access to confidential information, coercion and the fabrication of dossiers, and place him in a unit called "A Turma", described in the report as an alleged militia set up to monitor and intimidate people seen as adversaries of the bank or connected to the inquiries. The report describes an "organized structure, with a functional division of tasks" aimed at "the repeated practice of unlawful conduct on several fronts".
A brief timeline
Master, now in liquidation, is the target of Compliance Zero, a Federal Police operation investigating suspected fraud involving the bank. Mourão was arrested in that operation on March 4, hanged himself in his cell at the Federal Police superintendency in Minas Gerais the same day and was confirmed dead two days later, according to Folha. The Master investigations also run at the Supreme Court, where Mendonça ordered the partial release of the case files on Thursday.
Vorcaro is an investigative target and has not been convicted. In testimony to the Federal Police, he denied obtaining privileged information from the Central Bank, according to CNN Brasil. Secrecy has been lifted from only part of the inquiry, and the release of further sections depends on the rapporteur's decision.