Lobbyist Chiquinho Feitosa, a former brother-in-law of the senior justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal, Gilmar Mendes, told Banco Master founder Daniel Vorcaro that he discussed matters of interest to the banker at a dinner with justices Gilmar Mendes and Cristiano Zanin on May 28, 2024. Zanin denies any contact with either man about the case. The message is part of a trove of texts that federal police extracted from Vorcaro's phone and was reported by Poder360 on Friday (Sept 25).
At 8:55 p.m. that day, Feitosa wrote to Vorcaro: "Querido amigo, estou aqui jantando com Gilmar, Zanin e as esposas. Conversei alguns assuntos de nosso interesse e passei as informações que o Fernando me deu" (Dear friend, I am here at dinner with Gilmar, Zanin and the wives. I discussed some matters of our interest and passed on the information Fernando gave me). Vorcaro replied: "Ótimo, vou estar. Nos vemos amanhã" (Great, I will be there. See you tomorrow).
In a statement, Zanin said he "never had any relationship with Daniel Vorcaro, nor with Chiquinho Feitosa". The justice added that he "never dined with them, never received them in a hearing and never spoke with them about any matter".
Contacted by Poder360, Feitosa said he does not recall the dinner "with precision" and denied discussing Vorcaro's interests with Supreme Court justices. "If I was in the presence of the ministers, it was on a social occasion, with other guests", he said. Feitosa ran as an alternate Senate candidate in 2014 on the ticket of Tasso Jereissati, of the PSDB party, and is the brother of Guiomar Feitosa, Gilmar Mendes' former wife.
Gilmar Mendes' office said the justice did not take part in the dinner described by Feitosa. "The minister had no knowledge of any understanding between him and third parties, was not approached by him [Chiquinho Feitosa] on the matters mentioned and is not responsible for the private or professional relationships of a former relative", the office said. Asked specifically about the May 28, 2024 gathering, the office neither confirmed nor denied that the dinner took place. Gilmar says that in cases involving Master claims he voted against the bank's interests.
The lobbying at the Supreme Court
According to Poder360, the messages show that Vorcaro sought, through Feitosa, closer access to the justices who were ruling on the validity of unpaid precatórios, court-ordered government debts held under Master's name. The bank booked those unpaid debts to inflate the cash position it showed to regulators, the outlet reported. On April 19, 2024, Feitosa advised Vorcaro to "start a direct relationship" with Gilmar. A hearing did take place: Gilmar confirms that he received Vorcaro and Master lawyers, in an institutional setting, to discuss a case from the sugar and ethanol sector. In another exchange, on June 1, 2024, Feitosa wrote from Fortaleza that he was at the birthday party of then education minister Camilo Santana with Gilmar, and invited Vorcaro to call. Santana's office said he never had personal or professional contact with Vorcaro.
The messages alone do not show that the justices granted the banker's requests or committed any wrongdoing. Vorcaro has been jailed in Brasília since March 4 and, according to the federal police, is suspected of running the largest financial fraud in the country's history; the phone that yielded the exchanges was seized in Operation Compliance Zero in November 2025. On Sept 14, the police delivered a full copy of the device's data to the offices of Zanin, Gilmar and Alexandre de Moraes, Metrópoles reported. The material remains under review by the justices, and no decision on this episode has been made by the court.