A Lawyer, US$6.4 Million and a Threat From a Prison Cell
Key Facts
A single line in an internal bank audit has moved Brazil’s Banco Master affair from allegation to arithmetic. The Federal Police found that the bank paid R$33 million, about US$6.4 million, to a law firm during 2024.
The lawyer is Dalide Corrêa, and what makes the payment newsworthy is not its size but how a Master executive described her. In an internal message authorising the transfer, he called her firm a direct channel with the Supreme Court.
What the Audit Found
The material surfaced during the police investigation into Banco Master. It comes from an audit that BRB commissioned into its own dealings with the bank, not from a police examination of the contract.
The Federal Police have stated that they have not yet carried out diligences on that contract. No conclusion has been reached about its legality or about whether services were actually rendered.
That caveat matters and should travel with the figure. An audit trail showing a payment is not a finding that the payment bought anything.
The same audit records a second and larger number. It shows R$40 million, roughly US$7.8 million, paid in 2024 to the firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, wife of Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
Who Dalide Corrêa Is
Dalide Corrêa is 67 and a lawyer from Bahia. She is a former director of the IDP, the Brasília law institute founded by Justice Gilmar Mendes.
Her earlier career took her through Caixa Econômica Federal, the Senate’s constitution committee, the aviation regulator and the Supreme Court itself. She has run her own firm since 2010.
The phrase that gives the story its weight is not a police characterisation. It is what Ângelo Ribeiro, Master’s finance director, wrote to Alberto Félix, its treasury superintendent, when authorising payment.
Neither man has explained what he meant by it. Estadão broke the detail and other Brazilian outlets have carried it since.
The Vote That Complicates the Story
A simple protection narrative runs into a problem in the court records. Consultor Jurídico reported this week that Gilmar Mendes voted against Banco Master’s interest after meeting Daniel Vorcaro.
The case concerned court-ordered payments owed to a sugarcane distillery, which Master held. The justice met Vorcaro at his Supreme Court office on 11 April 2024, with Master lawyers present.
He voted on 3 June 2025 against payment of the claim, which was the outcome Master did not want. He was outvoted three to two.
His office says the meeting took place at the court, in an institutional setting rather than a private one. That sequence does not resolve the questions, but it does not fit the simplest version of them either.
The Banker’s Threat
Gazeta do Povo reported on Friday that Daniel Vorcaro has been making threats from prison. The report says he has said he will reveal his relationships with justices and with the Prosecutor-General’s Office.
The stated condition is the release of his father, Henrique Vorcaro, who is held in Minas Gerais. His defence is seeking humanitarian house arrest on health grounds, in a request before Justice André Mendonça.
The report rests on sources described only as familiar with the investigation. No source is named, and the newspaper does not say what documents, if any, exist.
A deposition is scheduled for 30 September. Veja has carried a parallel account in which Vorcaro says he holds documents.
Two Petitions Before the Court
Daniel Vorcaro’s defence petitioned Justice Edson Fachin on Friday as president of the court. It seeks revocation of his preventive detention or, failing that, house arrest with an electronic tag and a travel ban.
The argument is unusual, because it turns on the court’s own paralysis. The cases went to the presidency on 12 September, and a plenary session three days later was interrupted by a request to review.
The defence wrote that the halting of proceedings cannot halt the guarantee of liberty. It asks Fachin to pass the matter on immediately if he considers the presidency the wrong forum.
A separate petition was filed the day before by the father’s defence. The two men have two filings, and conflating them would misstate both.
The Convergence Around One Justice
Justice André Mendonça now sits at several points of the same story. He holds Henrique Vorcaro’s house-arrest request, and Justice Flávio Dino has barred the Federal Police from any investigative act that could reach him.
Dino’s decision came on 17 September, as he widened the Master inquiry to cover São Paulo cemetery and crematorium concessions. His reasoning was that investigating a sitting justice falls exclusively to the court’s president and its full bench.
A private lawyer, Ivan Pereira de Souza Duarte, filed an impeachment request against Mendonça with the Senate on the same day. It was not filed by senators, and a separate senators’ request is still gathering signatures.
Mendonça was also drawn by lot as rapporteur of the electoral case against the Bolsa Família increase. Four separate threads now run through one justice.
What Is Reported and What Is Not
Metrópoles reported this week, from messages taken off Daniel Vorcaro’s phone, that a Rio mansion was reserved for a justice identified only by initials. The property is in Joá, the week was Carnival 2025, and the reservation was put at about R$1.45 million or US$281,000.
Investigators have drawn an inference about whose initials those are. That is a reading of messages rather than an admission or a finding, and this newspaper is not naming a justice on it.
What remains true across all of it is the absence of any formal step. No justice has been charged, indicted or found against in the Banco Master matter.
What has changed this week is the volume of documentary material. The story has moved from what people said to what was written down.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did Banco Master pay the lawyer?
An internal audit found R$33 million, about US$6.4 million, paid to Dalide Corrêa’s firm during 2024. The Federal Police have not yet examined the contract.
Who called her a direct channel with the court?
Ângelo Ribeiro, Banco Master’s finance director, in an internal message to the bank’s treasury superintendent authorising the payment. Neither man has explained what he meant.
Has any justice been charged?
No. No charge, indictment or court ruling names any justice in the Banco Master matter.
Did Gilmar Mendes help Banco Master?
Court records show he voted against the bank’s interest on 3 June 2025, after meeting Daniel Vorcaro at the court in April 2024. He was outvoted three to two.
What is Vorcaro threatening?
Gazeta do Povo reports he has threatened from prison to reveal his relationships with justices and the Prosecutor-General’s Office unless his father is released. The report rests on unnamed sources.
Who filed the impeachment request against Mendonça?
A private lawyer, Ivan Pereira de Souza Duarte, filed it with the Senate on 17 September. A separate request by senators is still gathering signatures.
Sources: Estadão via O Povo, on the lawyer and the payment, Revista Oeste, on the Federal Police finding the audit, Consultor Jurídico, on the vote against Master, Gazeta do Povo, on the threat from prison, Migalhas, on the petition to Justice Fachin, CNN Brasil, on Dino barring the Federal Police, Banco Central do Brasil, PTAX dollar reference rate
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error
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