Brazil's Federal Police delivered on Thursday (Sept 17) the full contents of Daniel Vorcaro's mobile phone to the offices of justices Luiz Fux and André Mendonça of the STF, Brazil's Supreme Court. Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, is jailed and under investigation in the sprawling inquiry known as the Master case. The handover was confirmed by news site Metrópoles and by Folha de S.Paulo.
The two justices requested access on Wednesday (16), a request first reported by Metrópoles and confirmed by Folha. Fux's request came one day after messages extracted from the phone became public showing a close relationship between the former banker and lawyer Rodrigo Fux, the justice's son, Folha reports. Dialogues revealed on Tuesday (15) also discuss payments that would go to lawyer Kevin Marques, son of justice Kassio Nunes Marques.
The material is the same the Federal Police had already delivered to justices Cristiano Zanin and Gilmar Mendes on Monday (14), according to Metrópoles. Folha reports that the data was also sent to Alexandre de Moraes, and that Nunes Marques is expected to request access as well.
How the case got here
Vorcaro is jailed within the Master case, a set of inquiries into suspected wrongdoing at the bank he controls. In May, federal police arrested his father, Henrique Vorcaro, also an investigation target, on suspicion of belonging to a so-called "violent core" of the group, made up of cells known as "A Turma" and "Os Meninos" and accused, according to a police source cited by G1's Andreia Sadi blog, of intimidation, coercion, obtaining confidential information and hacking into devices. In June, the Supreme Court upheld his pretrial detention.
Access to the phone became a dispute inside the court. Before Tuesday's (15) session, Zanin had asked Mendonça, then the reporting justice for the case, for the full content. Mendonça replied that the material needed for the analysis was already available and that releasing the full set could "disrupt" the session; he said a complete copy remained sealed in his office. The Federal Police then told Chief Justice Edson Fachin that it held a copy and could hand identical versions to every justice without breaking the chain of custody. Zanin and Gilmar went on to request the material directly from the police, and Gilmar asked Fachin to give all justices access.
What comes next
The fight over the data added to open divisions among the justices. In Tuesday's session, the bench stopped judging an order motion after Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to review the case, leaving undecided whether to open an investigation tied to the messages attributed to Vorcaro and Moraes, whose interpretation remains, according to Metrópoles, contested and part of ongoing investigations. Gilmar publicly criticized how Mendonça and Fux handled the case's proceedings; Mendonça pushed back, saying there was "selective concern" about the exposure of third parties in the leaked messages. During the session, he also said he had only learned at that moment of the references to fellow justices.
On the police track, the Federal Police summoned Daniel and Henrique Vorcaro to testify on September 30, at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. respectively, the last step before the conclusion of the investigation's third phase, according to G1's Andreia Sadi blog. Henrique's defense asked on Wednesday (16) for his release, arguing he has been held for more than 90 days with no appeal against the detention ruled by the Supreme Court. The suspended court judgment has no date to resume, and Nunes Marques may still request access to the phone data.