Justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) see little chance that former banker Daniel Vorcaro will sign a new plea bargain, according to an R7 report published this Friday (28). The assessment inside the court is that the former controlling shareholder of Banco Master, which was liquidated by the Central Bank, is unlikely to turn his defense team's new push into a ratified deal.
Vorcaro's lawyers are trying to make a third cooperation proposal viable. According to CNN Brasil, the team was reinforced with criminal lawyer Daniel Bialski and requested a hearing with the case rapporteur at the STF, Justice André Mendonça. The lawyers also asked for authorization to meet their jailed client for up to six hours a day. The strategy is to restart the relationship with the rapporteur from scratch, after friction between Mendonça and lawyer José Luís de Oliveira Lima, known as Juca, which sources describe as one of the causes of the first plea attempt's collapse.
Mendonça has already signaled distance. On August 14, the justice told ICL Notícias that he does not negotiate plea bargain conditions with Vorcaro's lawyers. Investigators interviewed by the same outlet said on August 20 that they would only reopen negotiations for a complete plea deal, with a commitment that the former banker will not lie again.
The two previous attempts collapsed. Gazeta do Povo reported in July that the Prosecutor-General's Office (PGR) and the Federal Police decided to end negotiations on the deal then on the table. On Sunday (23), Folha de S.Paulo reported that the Federal Police will refuse Vorcaro's new plea proposal.
Deposition to the Federal Police
This Friday, Vorcaro testified for four and a half hours to the Federal Police, by videoconference, in the inquiry into whether he benefited former Central Bank supervisors Paulo Sérgio Neves de Souza and Bellini Santana during oversight of Master, according to G1. In a statement, the defense said the former banker answered the questions "clearly and consistently" and maintained that there was no act of corruption involving the civil servants.
Vorcaro has been in pretrial detention since March. He had already been arrested in November 2025, in the first phase of Operation Compliance Zero, and released days later by decision of the 1st Region Federal Appeals Court. The next steps now lie with the institutions. The Federal Police planned to conclude the inquiry into the Master frauds and indict the former banker, and it is up to Mendonça to decide whether to grant the defense the requested hearing. Any new plea bargain would first require acceptance by the Federal Police and the PGR before it could reach the STF for ratification.