Brazil's Federal Police (PF) postponed to Friday (28) the testimony of Daniel Vorcaro, former controlling shareholder of Banco Master, in an inquiry into whether Central Bank employees received improper advantages to benefit the institution. The hearing had been scheduled for Thursday (27), but a technical problem prevented it from taking place, according to g1 and Folha de S.Paulo. Vorcaro, held in pretrial detention since March at the Brasília prison known as Papudinha, was to testify by videoconference.

According to Folha, it would have been the former banker's first testimony since two plea bargain proposals were rejected, and the first with his current defense team, led by attorneys Sérgio Leonardo and Daniel Bialski. People close to the defense told g1 that Vorcaro is expected to present his version of the facts under investigation. Vorcaro is a suspect in the inquiry and has not been convicted in this case. In a statement quoted by Folha, the defense said it waited for the signal to be restored so the hearing could proceed.

The suspicions about the employees

The inquiry centers on former Central Bank supervisors Paulo Sérgio Neves de Souza and Bellini Santana. According to the PF and the Central Bank itself, there are suspicions that the two received financial advantages and acted to favor Master in internal discussions about oversight and financial relief, during the period when the bank faced a liquidity crisis that ended with its liquidation by the Central Bank.

In a deposition given to the PF in May, to which TV Globo had access, the Central Bank's supervision director, Ailton de Aquino, said the two employees resisted deepening oversight of Master credit portfolios that a technical team concluded did not exist. Aquino said he was informed by the Central Bank's president, Gabriel Galípolo, of reports received under anonymity about payments linked to Vorcaro. When questioned, Bellini said, according to Aquino's account, that he received two installments of R$ 500,000 and later monthly payments through a company he created, under a contract he attributed to social projects. Paulo Sérgio, in turn, said he sold a rural property in Guaxupé, Minas Gerais, for R$ 4.5 million and claimed he only later found out the buyer had family ties to Vorcaro.

Among the messages analyzed by the PF is one sent by Paulo Sérgio to Vorcaro in April 2025: "Ailton thought it was very good, in other words, 5 billion can avoid damage of 58 billion", in reais. According to Aquino, the conversation dealt with a possible liquidity line from the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC), Brazil's deposit insurance fund, for Master.

Timeline of the case

• 2023: Bellini says he was approached by a person linked to attorney Leonardo Palhares with a proposal related to social projects.
• Early 2025: the Central Bank grows suspicious of Master's billion-real credit assignment operations to Banco de Brasília (BRB), despite the institution's liquidity troubles.
• November 2025: Vorcaro is arrested in the first phase of Operation Compliance Zero and released days later by order of the TRF-1 federal appeals court.
• January 2026: Galípolo informs Aquino of the anonymous reports about payments to the employees.
• March 2026: Vorcaro is placed in pretrial detention, where he remains.
• May 2026: Aquino testifies to the PF, detailing the suspicions.

The next step is the rescheduled hearing on Friday (28). After the testimony, it will be up to the PF to decide whether to order further investigative steps or close the inquiry into the alleged favoritism, which has not yet produced charges from the Federal Prosecutor's Office in this branch of the investigation.