Jailed Banker in Brazil’s Biggest Bank Failure Sought a Top Judge’s Ear
Key Facts
Brazil’s biggest bank failure has become a test of whether its Supreme Court can judge a case touching its own members. Reports now say the jailed banker at its centre sought a direct line to Justice Gilmar Mendes.
Jailed banker Daniel Vorcaro, founder of the failed Banco Master, sought a direct line to Justice Gilmar Mendes, Folha de S.Paulo reported. Mendes, the Supreme Court’s longest-serving justice, says he knew of no such dealings and later voted against the bank’s interest.
Why This Matters Beyond Brazil
Banco Master was a private bank that Daniel Vorcaro built from Banco Maxima, which he bought in 2018. It sold certificates of deposit at rates far above the market average and grew its credit book very fast.
The Central Bank ordered its liquidation in November 2025, and Poder360 calls the loss the largest in Brazilian history. Estimates of the cost to the deposit guarantee fund, known as the FGC, run to about R$41 billion (US$7.9 billion).
That is roughly US$8 billion, and CNN Brasil reported it as the largest rescue in the fund’s history. About 800,000 investors were affected, and federal police put the alleged fraud at around R$12 billion (US$2.3 billion).
Vorcaro has been in preventive custody in Brasília since March 2026, and he denies wrongdoing through his lawyers. The case sits at the Supreme Federal Court, known as the STF, because people with special legal standing are involved.
For such people the STF is the first and only instance, so its own justices oversee the inquiry. Every report linking a justice to Vorcaro therefore raises a question larger than one person’s conduct.
That question is whether Brazil’s top court can credibly rule on a scandal that keeps reaching its own members. Brazil votes in national elections on 4 October 2026, so every leak about the courts is also campaign material.
What the Reporting Says
The account comes from Monica Bergamo, a columnist at the São Paulo daily Folha de S.Paulo. Metrópoles and Revista Fórum, two Brazilian news sites, followed the story on 17 September 2026.
It begins with a businessman named Francisco Feitosa de Albuquerque Lima, known as Chiquinho. Feitosa is a former senator and the brother of Guiomar Feitosa, a lawyer then married to Gilmar Mendes.
Folha reported a contract with Vorcaro worth R$500,000 (about US$96,900) a month, for lobbying in the education sector. That is roughly US$97,000 at the Central Bank’s PTAX reference rate of 5.1521 reais per dollar for 17 September 2026.
Outlets quote a message Feitosa is said to have sent Vorcaro about the justice. In Portuguese it reads “Você tem que começar uma relação direta com ele”, followed by a line about the future.
In English, Vorcaro had to start a direct relationship with him, because it mattered for the future. None of this has been tested in court, and the messages surfaced through reporting rather than any ruling.
The Meeting in the Justice’s Chambers
Metrópoles and Revista Fórum reported that Vorcaro met Gilmar Mendes on 11 April 2024. The meeting is described as lasting about fifteen minutes in the justice’s chambers in Brasília.
Its subject, according to those reports, was a long-running dispute over the Destilaria Alcidia sugar mill. The mill claimed compensation from the federal government, paid through court-ordered debt instruments called precatórios.
Precatórios can be traded, and banks buy them at a discount. Banco Master held credits tied to the outcome, the outlets reported, which is why the case mattered to Vorcaro.
The AGU, the government’s legal service, put the wider group of cases at up to R$145 billion (about US$28.1 billion). That is about US$28 billion at the same rate, but it is a press-reported estimate, not a court-ordered sum.
The Second Panel, one of the STF’s two five-member panels, decided the case on 3 June 2025. It ruled three to two for the mill, with Justices Fachin, Nunes Marques and Toffoli in the majority.
A Second Approach Through the Justice’s Then Wife
Basília Rodrigues, a columnist at the broadcaster’s site SBT News, reported a second approach, this one in 2025. Vorcaro is said to have visited the Brasília office of the lawyer Guiomar Feitosa.
She was then married to Gilmar Mendes and is a partner at a large litigation firm. According to that column, she asked for case details and declined to take him on.
Rodrigues quoted her as saying her impression was that he wanted to get closer. The engagement never happened, the column said, and the marriage ended in late 2025.
What Gilmar Mendes’s Office Says
The justice’s office issued a statement, quoted by Metrópoles and Revista Fórum. It calls Chiquinho Feitosa his former brother-in-law, noting the justice separated from Guiomar Feitosa in November 2025.
It says the justice had no knowledge of any dealings between Feitosa and Vorcaro. It says the meeting took place in an institutional setting, with lawyers present.
It also points to his voting record, saying he voted against the payment in the sugar mill case. On that record, the bank did not get what it wanted from him, because he was outvoted.
The Rio Times found no statement from Vorcaro’s lawyers on the Gilmar Mendes reporting. We also found no statement from the Supreme Court press office on it.
Who Gilmar Mendes Is
Gilmar Mendes joined the STF in June 2002, appointed by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Before that, he served as Attorney General of the Union, the federal government’s chief lawyer, from 2000.
He presided over the court from 2008 to 2010 and is now its longest-serving member. Justices are nominated by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and serve until the retirement age.
The STF has eleven seats, and one is currently vacant. André Mendonça was nominated by Jair Bolsonaro, and Flávio Dino by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Judicial ethics guidance in Brazil discourages contact between a justice and a party with an interest in a pending case. Where such contact is established, the usual remedy is recusal rather than a criminal consequence.
The Wider Week at the Court
On 17 September 2026 the Federal Police handed the full extraction of Vorcaro’s phone to Justices Fux and Mendonça. Five of the ten sitting justices now hold that material, according to Brazilian outlets.
The others are Cristiano Zanin, Gilmar Mendes and Alexandre de Moraes, who received copies earlier. Mendonça, who now runs the Banco Master case, said in a statement to g1 that he had been warned of reprisals.
He said he had nothing to fear and would keep doing his duty with serenity. Flávio Dino asked for more time on 15 September, freezing a provisional four-to-three vote.
That vote was on whether to split the Mendonça case from the process involving Moraes. Dino has separately pressed for a deeper inquiry into a March 2025 meeting between Mendonça and Vorcaro.
Diário Carioca reported that court president Edson Fachin is expected to put off the Mendonça item set for 23 September. No new date for that item had been published when this article went out.
The Party Petition and the Depositions
The opposition Novo party asked Fachin on 17 September to bar Moraes from voting in the case. Its president, Eduardo Ribeiro, argued that a person defending himself in a file cannot also judge it.
The petition also asks that an earlier vote by Moraes be annulled. Two justices, Kassio Nunes Marques and Dias Toffoli, have already stood aside in related matters.
Federal Police have scheduled depositions from Daniel Vorcaro and his father Henrique for 30 September. Those sessions are investigative steps and carry no finding of any kind.
No Formal Finding Names Gilmar Mendes
No formal finding, indictment or court ruling names Gilmar Mendes in connection with Banco Master. He has not been charged, and no body has concluded that he did anything improper.
Everything above is reporting by named outlets about messages and meetings, and his office disputes the inference. Vorcaro, too, is presumed innocent, and no trial on the merits has been held.
What It Means If You Hold Brazilian Assets
The direct financial exposure is already priced, because Banco Master was liquidated ten months ago. What is new is the widening circle of justices touched by the same phone extraction.
For foreign investors, the practical question is whether the court can settle disputes about itself. Two of its own procedural votes have been frozen or challenged in a single week.
With the 4 October vote close, every step will be read through an electoral lens. If you hold Brazilian bank paper, the deposit guarantee fund’s depleted reserves are the more concrete issue.
What Is Not Yet Known
It is not known whether Gilmar Mendes was aware of the contract described by Folha. His office says he was not, and no document made public contradicts that.
It is not known what was actually said in the fifteen minutes in his chambers. The reporting describes the subject of the meeting, not a transcript of it.
The Rio Times could not verify a widely repeated claim of a broken protection pact between Gilmar Mendes and Mendonça. The two are plainly at odds in public, but we found no document using that term.
One detail is often garbled, because the word “irmão”, meaning brother, appears in messages from Rodrigo Fux, a son of Justice Fux. CNN Brasil reported that usage, and it is not attributed to the businessman in the Gilmar Mendes story.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does this matter?
The Supreme Court oversees the Banco Master inquiry, and its justices would judge any case against powerful suspects. Reports of approaches to a justice raise questions about the court’s neutrality, though none has been proven.
Has Gilmar Mendes been accused of a crime?
No. No charge, indictment or court finding names him in the Banco Master matter.
Did the meeting help Banco Master?
Gilmar Mendes voted against the payment, according to his office. He was outvoted, and the Second Panel decided three to two in the mill’s favour.
What was Banco Master?
It was a private Brazilian bank that the Central Bank liquidated in November 2025. Its failure cost the deposit guarantee fund about R$41 billion, or roughly US$8 billion.
Sources: Correio Braziliense, on the scale of the Banco Master loss, Poder360, Master’s failure is the largest loss in Brazilian history, CNN Brasil, Master is the largest rescue in the FGC’s history, Terra, on the federal police fraud estimate, Jornal de Brasília, Operation Compliance Zero and Vorcaro’s arrest, O Tempo, Vorcaro’s defence seeks release from preventive custody, Poder360, Toffoli leaves the case, Metropoles, Vorcaro meeting with Gilmar Mendes and the office response, Revista Forum, on the Folha report and the later vote, SBT News, Coluna da Basilia, on the approach to the lawyer Guiomar Feitosa, Wikipedia, Gilmar Mendes career dates, Imirante, Federal Police deliver the full phone data to Mendonca and Fux, Gazeta do Povo, Mendonca on warnings of reprisals, Gazeta do Povo, the Novo party petition against Moraes voting, Diario Carioca, Fachin expected to postpone the Mendonca item, 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 · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief
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