Messages pulled from the phone of banker Daniel Vorcaro by Brazil's Federal Police show that he and former communications minister Fábio Faria acted on at least two occasions to fulfill requests attributed to Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes concerning the content of stories in Brazil Journal, a business news site widely read in São Paulo's financial market. The findings were reported by Folha de S.Paulo and draw on a 218-page Federal Police analysis of data from the phone seized from Vorcaro in Operation Compliance Zero. Valor Econômico and Brasil 247 also reported the case.
In the first episode, on April 26, 2024, Vorcaro approached Geraldo Samor, the founder of Brazil Journal, during an event in London that gathered Supreme Court justices. According to the police analysis, Vorcaro told Samor that "Alexandre asked" for a story to include the information that "the three STF justices met privately with the former prime minister" Tony Blair. The police report describes the exchange as Vorcaro passing on to Samor a request from "Alexandre" about a news story.
The London forum
The contact came during the Brasil de Ideias legal forum, held in London in April 2024. Other passages of the report show Vorcaro helping organize the event and discussing Moraes's attendance and demands with aides and with Fábio Faria. Days earlier, Vorcaro had told another contact he was putting together a "super exclusive event with Alexandre de Moraes in London".
In a second episode located by the Federal Police, Vorcaro again handled the content of a Brazil Journal story, this time with Fábio Faria. The banker asked the former minister to check with "Alexandre" whether he wanted to "change or add anything" to the text, and pressed for a quick answer. Faria replied that the content was fine and sent the message "pode liberar", or release it.
Ties to the outlet
Links between Vorcaro's family and the outlet had already surfaced. Estadão reported in March that Fabiano Zettel, Vorcaro's brother-in-law, is the final investor in a fund that held a stake in the companies behind Brazil Journal and the politics site PlatôBR between 2024 and early 2025. In November, Samor wrote publicly that "neither Banco Master nor any of its shareholders has any kind of shareholding, direct or indirect, in the capital of Brazil Journal". Folha said it sought comment from the site and had received no reply by publication on Tuesday (Sept 1).
The material now goes to the Supreme Court, Brazil's top judicial body. The Attorney General's Office argued on Tuesday that the investigation led by Justice André Mendonça, which documented ties between Moraes and Vorcaro, is void. According to news site G1, Mendonça intends to put the case before the full court next week, and court President Edson Fachin will set the date. The justices must decide whether Moraes should be investigated over the messages attributed to him, and whether Mendonça overstepped his powers by investigating a colleague without the court's authorization.