The Senate's Economic Affairs Committee canceled on Monday (9/3) the public hearing scheduled for Tuesday with banker Daniel Vorcaro, controller of Banco Master, who is preventively detained in Brasília. The decision comes amid investigations into financial frauds and mentions of STF ministers in data from Vorcaro's cell phone. Minister André Mendonça authorized unrecorded lawyer visits to the detainee.
The Senate's Economic Affairs Committee (CAE) suspended on Monday night (9/3/2026), at 8 p.m., the public hearing scheduled for Tuesday (10/3) at 10 a.m., which was to hear Daniel Vorcaro, controller of Banco Master. Vorcaro has been preventively detained in the Federal Penitentiary of Brasília since Friday (6/3), after being arrested on Wednesday (4/3) in São Paulo by the Federal Police, as part of Operation Compliance Zero investigating national financial system frauds.
Hours before the cancellation, the committee's agenda had been updated for a semi-presential format. Vorcaro's attendance was not mandatory, per a decision by STF Minister André Mendonça, who deemed presence in committees optional. Before his arrest, the banker had signaled willingness to provide clarifications.
On the same night, Mendonça authorized Vorcaro's lawyers to visit him in prison without prior appointment and without monitoring or recording, granting the defense's request. The facility is maximum security.
Meanwhile, STF President Edson Fachin and Mendonça, the case's rapporteur, met to discuss mentions of Ministers Alexandre de Moraes and Dias Toffoli in PF reports based on Vorcaro's cell phone. Records indicate messages, calls, and social invitations attributed to Moraes and Toffoli. Moraes denied message exchanges and visits to a property linked to Vorcaro in Trancoso, Bahia. His wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, confirmed in a statement providing legal services to the bank from February 2024 to November 2025, with 94 meetings on areas like compliance and regulatory.
For Toffoli, data point to phone contacts, messages, and references to the Tayayá resort in Goiás. Senator Alessandro Vieira (MDB-SE) gathered 27 signatures for a CPI investigating the ministers' conduct in the Master case, stating: “We will conduct an absolutely necessary investigation to restore Brazilians' trust in institutions”.
Investigations reveal Vorcaro's contacts with Central Bank servers, such as Belline Santana and Paulo Sérgio Neves de Souza, targets of searches on 4/3 and removed for indications of undue advantages. The BC reported suspected crimes to the PF. The scandal involves right- and left-wing politicians, with pension funds investing in the bank's financial letters and electoral donations linked to Vorcaro's family.
