Former banker Daniel Vorcaro, jailed in the Banco Master scandal, said in plea-bargain proposals rejected by the Federal Police and by the Attorney General's Office (PGR) that the R$ 5 million donated in 2022 to the campaigns of then president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos), now governor of São Paulo, were bribes arranged with Gilberto Kassab, president of the PSD. The account was revealed by UOL on Thursday and confirmed by Folha de S.Paulo. Because all three proposals were rejected for lack of new facts, no cooperation deal was ever signed, and the version remains the banker's own, untested account.

According to the reporting, the transfers were made by Fabiano Zettel, Vorcaro's brother-in-law, who is also under investigation in Operação Compliance Zero, and are described as "financial counterparts" arising from an "improper arrangement with Gilberto Kassab" to keep Credcesta, a payroll-linked credit card run by PKL One Participações, a company tied to Master, operating in São Paulo state. The business reportedly began under governor João Doria (then in the PSDB). According to Vorcaro, once Tarcísio became the likely winner of the 2022 election, Augusto Lima, the banker's former partner in charge of expanding the product, moved to secure its continuation under the incoming administration.

"With the 2022 election in São Paulo and the rise of Tarcísio de Freitas as the likely winner, Augusto Lima, who was responsible for the negotiations to expand Credcesta, sought to guarantee the continuity of the business with the São Paulo state government," reads the proposal, as quoted by Folha.

The alleged arrangement, according to the account, provided for payments of 5% of Credcesta's net results in São Paulo and for money to fund campaigns of parties in Kassab's political group. Kassab is now the vice presidential running mate of Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) in October's election. Vorcaro also described planned informal payments of about R$ 10 million in cash, delivered by Thiago Botelho, known as Papel, for PSD campaigns. The election donation was initially to be paid fully in cash, the proposal says, but was converted into official transfers because partner parties would only accept official donations. Vorcaro claims the promised counterparts were honored and that Credcesta stayed linked to the state government for more than a year.

How the account became public

The material appears in three plea proposals, all refused by the Federal Police and the PGR. The last one was rejected in late August, after testimony given on August 27 at the Papudinha penitentiary to João Azambuja, an auxiliary judge on the staff of Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça, who oversees Operação Compliance Zero at the court; lawyers for the banker and a member of the prosecution service attended, according to Metrópoles. On how the R$ 5 million was split, the reports diverge: Folha records R$ 2 million to Bolsonaro and R$ 3 million to Tarcísio; the UOL account, as relayed by Metrópoles and Brasil de Fato, puts R$ 3 million with the former president and R$ 2 million with the governor.

The case so far

• May 2022: PKL One, the company behind Credcesta, is accredited as a payroll credit provider by the São Paulo state government, still under the Doria administration, according to Tarcísio's office.
• October 2022: Zettel donates R$ 5 million in officially declared contributions to the Bolsonaro and Tarcísio campaigns.
• January 2023: Tarcísio takes office as governor and Kassab becomes his Government Secretary.
• 2026: Vorcaro, imprisoned in the Master scandal, submits three plea proposals; the third is rejected in late August.
• September 3: UOL publishes the account, confirmed by Folha; Kassab and Tarcísio deny the allegations.

Bolsonaro did not respond to Folha before publication, and Augusto Lima did not comment, according to Metrópoles. Kassab called the account "absolutely fanciful" and said he refutes it "with vehemence". "I never dealt with donations with Augusto Lima or Daniel Vorcaro. In fact, I have no relationship with Daniel Vorcaro, I have never spoken to him, in person or by phone," he said in a statement. "I did not take part in or receive any donation from Vorcaro, Lima or Botelho. I have never received values in cash."

In a statement, Tarcísio's office said the 2022 campaign "had more than 600 donors and was conducted in strict observance of electoral law", that the governor has no ties to the cited donor, and that the campaign accounts were properly filed and approved by the electoral court. The note also says the accreditation of PKL One is not a contract with the state and involves no public money.

No new deposition is scheduled, and the PGR has not announced a fresh review of the material. Any cooperation deal would require the acceptance of the Federal Police and of prosecutors, who have already rejected the account three times for lack of new facts.