Two justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), André Mendonça and Luiz Fux, told the Federal Police in formal letters sent on Saturday (September 19) that they have been unable to access the copy of the full data extracted from the cellphone of Daniel Vorcaro, former controller of Banco Master and a person under investigation in the inquiry known as Operation Compliance Zero. In the letters, both justices asked for technical support to examine the material, roughly 500 gigabytes, which the Federal Police delivered to their offices on Thursday (17).

According to InfoMoney, each justice sent a separate letter to the force's director general, Andrei Rodrigues. The letters state that, as of Saturday afternoon, the offices had not achieved "effective access to the material contained therein". They list the same two possible causes, "technical operational difficulties" or "some type of defect contained in the delivered media", and say the data therefore remains unavailable for examination and analysis. The justices requested "the necessary technical operational assistance" and a check of "the soundness of the material specifically delivered" to confirm the integrity of the drive.

How the case got here

• November 18, 2025: the Federal Police seize Vorcaro's phone in the first phase of Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates alleged fraud at Banco Master. The device is identified in the letters by its serial number and two IMEI codes.
• Revelations: messages extracted from the phone have fueled a crisis at the STF, Brazil's highest court. The material includes conversations between the former controller and lawyer Rodrigo Fux, son of Justice Luiz Fux, and references to Justice Kassio Nunes Marques.
• Distribution: justices request access to the material, and the Federal Police deliver copies of the full data to court offices. The latest delivery, on Thursday (17), went to Fux and Mendonça, who had requested it.
• Tuesday (15): in a court session, Mendonça said he had only then learned of references to other members of the court in the material, and that an earlier backup copy remained sealed and unopened in his office.

On who has received copies, the reports differ. According to g1, the Federal Police made the material available to the offices of Mendonça, Fux, Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino, Alexandre de Moraes and Kassio Nunes Marques. InfoMoney, citing the newspaper O Globo, reports that Thursday's delivery raised to five the number of justices holding the content: besides Fux and Mendonça, Cristiano Zanin, Gilmar Mendes and Alexandre de Moraes had already received it directly from the Federal Police.

What the material contains

According to accounts given to g1, the data is organized in folders with chats, audio files and logs, the records of activity on the device. The Federal Police used the forensic software IPED (Digital Evidence Indexer and Processor), which indexes the evidence and allows keyword searches across chats and documents. Forensic experts also used tools to recover deleted or password-protected data and to trace records of message and file transfers. To convey the scale, g1 estimates the 500 GB would hold about 140,000 high-resolution images, more than 120,000 MP3 audio files and around 40 hours of high-definition film.

The Federal Police had not publicly responded to the letters by the time of writing. The next step is the force's reply, with the technical support requested by the justices and the verification of the drive's integrity. Neither source mentions a deadline.