How an obscure banker slipped into Brazil’s political inner circle, triggering a scandal

For years Daniel Vorcaro was best known in Brazil’s financial world as the head of Banco Master, a bank whose breakneck expansion left some analysts puzzled. Less noticed during Master’s ascent was Vorcaro’s ability to build a contact book that included Supreme Court justices, the heads of Brazil’s Senate and House, and top officials in the country’s central bank. But after Vorcaro was arrested last week for the second time for his role in an alleged multibillion-dollar fraud scheme, the contents of his cellphone, leaked by lawmakers who obtained files from a Federal Police investigation, revealed a spider web of influence which could embarrass some of the nation’s top power brokers in an election year.

The case is a ticking time bomb, said Senator Alessandro Vieira, who is pushing for a congressional inquiry into Vorcaro’s relationship with Supreme Court justices. “There are very powerful figures in the Republic with clear involvement,” said Vieira, whose party is part of the ruling coalition. Some are already facing scrutiny.

Two central bank officials were pushed out of their roles when regulators found they had been advising Vorcaro. Supreme Court Justice Dias Toffoli stepped down from overseeing a Federal Police investigation into the fraud case after the Brazilian press revealed his family’s company had financial links to the banker. Toffoli said in a statement at the time that he never received any payments from Master or Vorcaro.

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In July, as Vorcaro worked to save his bank from liquidation, he vented to his girlfriend in a text message that “this bank business … is just like the mafia,” one of several occasions when he suggested that the country’s dominant lenders were out to get Master. Federal Police investigators found text messages that suggest Vorcaro plotted to intimidate people he viewed as foes, including a journalist, with the help of an associate he called “Sicario,” as hit men employed by Mexican drug cartels are known, according to the leaked files. Vorcaro’s lawyers denied, in a statement, that Vorcaro had committed any irregularities or fraud, intimidated journalists, coopted public agents, or took any action to interfere with law‑enforcement work.

Vorcaro, 42, got his start in his family’s real estate business. His rapid rise in finance began when he bought a troubled bank, rebranded as Banco Master in 2021, initially used to finance property developments. His lack of a track record in banking and preference for open‑collar shirts without a tie set him apart from the buttoned-up world of Brazil’s financial sector.

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