Grab a seat, because Brazil's Banco Master saga just got a new episode, and this one pulls in one of the country's biggest news portals. Metrópoles negotiated at least R$ 51.9 million (roughly US$ 10 million) in payments with Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master, in 2024 and 2025. The reporting comes from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, which analyzed messages found by the Federal Police on the banker's phone, and was echoed by Folha de S.Paulo.
The figures appear in conversations between Vorcaro and Ana Lúcia Matos, the bank's head of communications and marketing. In July 2024 she mentions two financial education projects worth about R$ 900,000 combined, closed with the portal through Kovr and Will Bank, companies in the Master Group. In December of that year she submits to Vorcaro a payment schedule of R$ 20 million, split into four installments between January and October 2025.
In June 2025 the CEO of Metrópoles, Lilian Tahan, enters the chat with a proposal to sponsor the broadcast of the fourth division of the Brazilian football championship, priced at R$ 6 million. Ana pitched it to the boss like this:
"Lilian called me together with Luis Estevão to explain a series D football sponsorship initiative, 6 million. Shall we do it?"
Then, in August 2025, another exchange refers to a R$ 25 million project with Metrópoles, divided into five installments. According to Estadão, there are signs at least one installment was actually paid.
What Metrópoles says
The messages do not show how much of the total was effectively paid. Asked by Folha, Metrópoles confirmed the figures cited by Estadão, which add up to R$ 51.9 million, but said it received only R$ 26.9 million, because of the liquidation of Banco Master ordered in 2025.
The revelation adds to a recent series of Estadão reports based on Vorcaro's phone messages, including one showing the banker edited scripts for videos by presenter Gabriela Prioli sold as spontaneous opinion, and another on videos commissioned to attack journalists. Metrópoles, for its part, pointed out that Folha admitted receiving R$ 516,000 from Master, an amount the portal compared to 2.58% of what it itself received.
For anyone following along: the full coverage is on the Estadão and Folha websites, and Metrópoles has been answering the reports on its own portal and in official statements.