MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice lifts secrecy on a banker's messages to another judge

The report contains only what the banker sent. Forensic examiners recovered 52 files saved automatically by his phone, but not the judge's replies

Brazilian Supreme Court justice André Mendonça, rapporteur in the Banco Master case, on Tuesday lifted the secrecy order on a Federal Police report of more than two hundred pages containing messages sent by businessman Daniel Vorcaro, the bank's owner and currently in pre-trial detention, to his fellow justice Alexandre de Moraes.

The report contains only what the banker sent. Forensic examiners recovered 52 files saved automatically by his phone, but not the judge's replies. Vorcaro wrote the texts in the notes application, took a screenshot and sent the image via WhatsApp using view-once mode, a method that prevents any record being kept. Moraes has not commented on the conversations and has not been charged; Vorcaro is in pre-trial detention and has not been convicted.

Among the messages is one sent two days before his arrest, in November 2025, asking whether he should be outside the country the following Monday. That night he was detained as he prepared to board a private plane. In another, he suggests pressing the head of the Federal Police and the prosecutor general “so that nobody below them does something outrageous”. The document also records in-person meetings between the two in Brasília and São Paulo between 2024 and 2025, including one at the businessman's home.

The report further details a contract signed in January 2024 between Banco Master and the law firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife, for 108 million reais in 36 monthly instalments, and a second agreement dated May 2025. According to the technical analysis, the last modification to the draft was recorded under the name “Minister Alexandre de Moraes”. The couple responded in a statement that the judge had access to the document but denied he edited it.

Operation Compliance Zero is investigating a 12 billion reais fraud linked to the transfer of credit portfolios, with assets frozen worth 22 billion. Public pension funds are among those affected. Mendonça announced he will take the matter to the court's full bench regardless of any ruling by the Prosecutor General's Office, to which he sent the material. The Brazilian Bar Association expressed “extreme concern” over the institutional situation.

The disclosure comes five weeks before the presidential elections of October 4. Moraes is the justice who oversaw the case in which former president Jair Bolsonaro was convicted. The winner of the elections will appoint judges to the three seats that will fall vacant during the term. Candidate Flávio Bolsonaro called on Tuesday for Moraes to resign.