New Messages Show Lula’s Lawyer Intermediary Sought Repeated Access for Banco Master Owner
By Hotspotnews
Senator Flávio Bolsonaro submitted a formal crime report to the Supreme Court on Wednesday accusing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of passive corruption and administrative advocacy in the Banco Master case. The filing rests on WhatsApp messages extracted by the Federal Police from the phone of imprisoned banker Daniel Vorcaro and written by Vorcaro’s then-lawyer, Walfrido Warde.
The messages describe a months-long effort to place Vorcaro in direct contact with the presidency. In September 2024 Warde told his client he had spent a long time with Lula and that Vorcaro “would like” what was discussed. On 4 December 2024 Vorcaro was received at the Palácio do Planalto; the meeting was arranged by former finance minister Guido Mantega and also included Casa Civil minister Rui Costa and the incoming Central Bank president. Forty-nine days later, on 22 January 2025, Warde wrote that he had just seen the president again: Lula asked whether Vorcaro was well, thanked him once more for a bottle of whisky, and sent regards. On 6 March 2025 Warde reported that Lula had agreed to receive Vorcaro a second time and would invite Senator Jaques Wagner to join the meeting because of Vorcaro’s partner Augusto Lima.
The presidency’s official response is that Lula held only the single December 2024 meeting, received no gift, sent no personal message, and was unaware of Warde’s later lobbying. Officials emphasize that the Central Bank liquidated Banco Master and the Federal Police arrested Vorcaro while Lula was in office.
Banco Master’s collapse is now regarded as the largest banking fraud in Brazilian history, with estimated losses in the billions of reais. Vorcaro cultivated an unusually broad political network that reached both the current government and the previous administration. Flávio Bolsonaro himself exchanged messages with Vorcaro throughout 2025 requesting funds for a biographical film about his father; those transfers form part of the same police investigation.
The new complaint was sent to Justice André Mendonça. It does not allege that any specific regulatory decision was changed. It does document how persistently Vorcaro’s lawyer tried to keep the banker close to the highest levels of government after the bank’s liquidity problems were already public. Both leading presidential campaigns are now citing the same set of records against each other in the final weeks of the campaign.
#BancoMaster #Lula #FlavioBolsonaro #Eleicoes2026 #Brasil
Sources
O Globo (column by Malu Gaspar, 22 September 2026)
CNN Brasil (23 September 2026)
Estadão (23 September 2026)
Valor Econômico (22–23 September 2026)
Gazeta do Povo (23 September 2026)
Official statement from the Secretaria de Comunicação Social da Presidência da República (Secom)