Brazil's Federal Police has detailed, in a document unsealed late on Thursday (10), the moves of former banker Daniel Vorcaro in the days before his arrest in Operation Compliance Zero, the core of the so-called case Master, an investigation into suspected financial fraud and money laundering at Banco Master. According to the force, Vorcaro knew about the police operation before he was detained, and it is "unlikely" that his trip abroad on the night before the warrants were executed "is mere coincidence".

The material is part of Petition 15.556, the central proceeding of the inquiry, released by Justice André Mendonça, the case's rapporteur at Brazil's Supreme Court (STF), at the request of the court's president, Edson Fachin. In all, 14 proceedings tied to the case Master came out of secrecy, according to news site g1. Here is the case timeline:

• 17 Nov 2025: Vorcaro is stopped at Guarulhos airport, outside São Paulo, as he prepared to board a private jet with a final destination of the United Arab Emirates.
• 18 Nov 2025: the Federal Police officially launches Operation Compliance Zero, phase 1.
• Late Nov 2025: the TRF-1 federal appeals court orders the release of Vorcaro and four other Banco Master executives.
• 27 Feb 2026: the Federal Police signs a new pretrial detention request for the banker based on the elements now public.
• March 2026: Vorcaro is arrested again.
• 10 Sept 2026: the STF lifts the secrecy on the case Master's main files.

What the document says

In the police reconstruction, Vorcaro recorded on 21 October 2025, in his phone's Notes app, the names of Federal Police representatives who had attended a closed meeting with the Central Bank, which investigators read as evidence of early access to protected information. Two days before the operation, on 16 November, he noted a question about a possible closeness between a third party and federal judge Ricardo Soares Leite, the judge authorizing measures against him. Because the inquiry was under seal, the police say the note reinforces the suspicion of a leak.

On 17 November, the eve of the operation, Vorcaro received urgent messages at 7:28 a.m. from his lawyer Walfrido Warde and changed his plans: at 8:48 a.m. he said he would book a flight out of Congonhas airport. From 7:41 a.m. he spoke with journalist Diego Escosteguy about a story in the works; after 11 a.m. he received the link to the article, which mentioned an inquiry before the 10th Federal Court of Brasília, and immediately passed it to Warde. That same day the lawyer filed a petition with the 10th Federal Court of the Federal District asking for access to the investigation and citing the news report as his source.

The document also records that, from 6:34 a.m. that day, Vorcaro was in contact with Central Bank officials Paulo Sérgio and Belline, who considered it "essential" that he speak with the bank's director Ailton Aquino. The virtual meeting was set for 1:15 p.m., and afterward a report circulated on the sale of Banco Master to the Fictor group, news the officials themselves took without surprise, which the police read as a sign of prior alignment. The force also says Vorcaro himself had leaked to the press the Fictor group's interest in buying the bank.

According to the Federal Police, "aware of the future and imminent police action", Vorcaro "uses Central Bank officials who are subordinate to him (due to the payment of improper advantages) to force a virtual meeting on the day immediately before the police operation". The conclusions come from the investigative stage and await judicial review; under Brazilian law, anyone under investigation is presumed innocent until a final conviction. In the document's closing assessment, the investigators wrote:

"There are strong indicative elements of conduct by Daniel Vorcaro and associates aimed at protecting the leadership core of the criminal organization, through advance knowledge of procedural acts and coordination with interlocutors in oversight bodies, alongside logistical planning to leave the country in a window close to the launch of the measures, which, added to communications with authorities and the monitoring of internal procedures, makes up the picture of 'tentacles' in public and private structures."

Court crisis and next steps

The Federal Police used the material to support its new pretrial detention request signed on 27 February 2026, and Vorcaro was rearrested in March. In the TRF-1 ruling that ordered his release and that of the executives about ten days after the first arrest, one of the arguments in his favor was, according to the police, the content of the meeting he held with the Central Bank.

The case Master has reached the Supreme Court in the middle of a crisis among its justices. A police report with messages between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, unsealed on 1 September, shows the banker asking on 15 November 2025: "Do you think I should be out of the country by Monday?" According to BBC News Brasil, the report points to indications that Vorcaro sought advice and exchanged information with Moraes, who responded by releasing police intelligence reports on conduct attributed to Mendonça. The next step is set for Tuesday (15), when the full court examines the validity of the police report on Moraes and the path of a possible investigation against the justice.