Messages extracted from Daniel Vorcaro's phone by Brazil's Federal Police show that the Banco Master owner treated Senator Otto Alencar (PSD), who chairs the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ), as his "advisor" and "commander". According to a report by the newspaper O Globo published on Friday (19), a Federal Police report says lawyer Ciro Soares acted as a go-between: he would tell Vorcaro when he was with the senator, send photos of himself beside him and call the banker to pass on messages attributed to the lawmaker. Alencar denies any closeness to Vorcaro and, according to the paper, is not under investigation.
The case so far
Vorcaro was arrested in November 2025 at Guarulhos airport, outside São Paulo, as he prepared to board a private jet bound for Malta. The operation, code-named Compliance Zero, investigates the alleged issuance of fake credit instruments, and the Central Bank later put Master into extrajudicial liquidation. Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues told a Senate inquiry on organized crime that the suspected scheme may have moved around 12 billion reais. The contents of Vorcaro's phone, about 500 gigabytes, were sent to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) under restricted access, and excerpts have fed police reports such as the one citing Alencar.
The messages
In messages translated from Portuguese, the first exchange cited by investigators is dated May 30, 2024, when Alencar sat on both the CCJ and the Economic Affairs Committee, which reviews bills of interest to the financial industry. "Otto wanted to talk to you", Soares wrote. After a phone call, Vorcaro replied: "Send a hug to our commander there. He is our advisor and our commander". On December 5 of that year, the lawyer wrote: "Dani, very important that we talk. Otto made a big move for you. He was waiting for you yesterday and today". Vorcaro answered that he was in "a very complicated moment".
The exchanges continued through 2025, the year Alencar took over as CCJ chairman. On November 12, days before Vorcaro's arrest, Soares wrote: "I'm with Otto now. He's asking about you". Vorcaro replied: "Send him a hug. We are building a turnaround. But I will need you all". In the same chat, in crude language, Soares wrote that the senator had been tough that day in the Senate hearing on the reappointment of Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, approved the same day. On June 19, after a missed call, Soares messaged: "Big Otto says he misses you". "And I miss him", Vorcaro answered, then urged the senator to attend a London event sponsored by Master: "He has to go. We'll drink the top Macallan", a reference to the whisky. The reports also describe attempts to arrange face-to-face meetings between the two in Salvador and Brasília.
The responses
Reached by the paper, Alencar first said he is a friend of Soares, the PSD's lawyer in Bahia, and denied any contact with Vorcaro. "I never saw him or exchanged messages. I never went to a party, to London, or brokered a conversation with Vorcaro or absolutely anyone", said the senator, who also denied phone contact. After the story was published, he acknowledged speaking with Vorcaro "two or three times by phone" on Soares's device, and said Vorcaro had asked for his backing on the so-called Master amendment, which would raise the deposit insurance limit of the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC) from 250,000 to 1 million reais. Investigators say the proposal was introduced by Senator Ciro Nogueira (PP-PI) in an arrangement with the bank, and was rejected by the rapporteur of the Central Bank autonomy amendment, Senator Plínio Valério (PSDB-AM). Alencar said he opposed the measure and had been warned of its risks by then Finance Minister Fernando Haddad.
Soares, who according to O Globo is also not a target of Master-related inquiries, said a meeting between "a political leader and a business leader" would be natural, but denied arranging lunches or encounters between the two. Vorcaro's defense did not comment on the messages and says the banker is available to the authorities to give clarifications. On Friday, Supreme Court justices André Mendonça and Luiz Fux told the Federal Police they could not open the copies of the phone data they received and asked for technical help, news site G1 reported. As of now, no investigation targets Alencar or Soares in the Master case.