By The Rio Times | Created at 2026-09-18 07:26:47 | Updated at 2026-09-18 08:43:18
1 hour ago
Brazil · Politics
Key Facts
—What happened. Folha reported that Daniel Vorcaro sought a route to Justice Gilmar Mendes in 2024.
—The alleged go-between. A businessman then the justice’s brother-in-law was on Vorcaro’s payroll, Folha reported.
—The meeting. Vorcaro saw Gilmar Mendes at the Supreme Court on 11 April 2024, outlets reported.
—The catch. Gilmar Mendes then voted against Banco Master’s interest in the case, records show.
—The denial. His office says he knew nothing of any dealings between the two men.
—Where it stands. No court has found wrongdoing, and Gilmar Mendes has not been charged.
Brazilian outlets have moved the Banco Master affair on to another Supreme Court justice. The reporting is about access, not about any proven favour.
One-stop reference
Company Intelligence
Every listed company in Latin America — financials, ownership and structure for 1,450+ companies across 26 exchanges, in one place.
Folha columnist Monica Bergamo reported this week that former banker Daniel Vorcaro sought a direct line to Justice Gilmar Mendes. Metropoles and Revista Forum followed the story on 17 September 2026, adding detail and the justice’s response.
What the Reporting Says
The account begins with a businessman named Francisco Feitosa de Albuquerque Lima, known as Chiquinho. Folha reported a contract with Vorcaro worth R$500,000 a month, for lobbying in the education sector.
That is roughly US$97,000 at the Central Bank PTAX rate of 5.1521 reais for 17 September 2026. Feitosa is a former senator and the brother of Guiomar Feitosa, then married to Gilmar Mendes.
Outlets quote a message he is said to have sent Vorcaro about the justice. In Portuguese it reads, “Voce tem que comecar uma relacao direta com ele”, followed by a line about the future.
The English sense is that Vorcaro had to start a direct relationship, because it mattered for the future. None of this has been tested in court, and the messages have surfaced through the reporting rather than any ruling.
The Meeting at the Court
Metropoles and Revista Forum 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 Brasilia.
The subject, according to those reports, was a long-running dispute over the Destilaria Alcidia sugar mill. The case concerns compensation claimed from the federal government and paid through court-ordered debt instruments.
Banco Master held credits tied to that outcome, the outlets reported, which is why it mattered to Vorcaro. Estimates from the federal attorney general’s office, reported by Metropoles, put the wider group of cases at up to R$145bn.
That is about US$28bn at the same Central Bank rate for 17 September 2026. The figure is an estimate reported by the press, not a sum any court has ordered.
What Gilmar Mendes’s Office Says
The justice’s office issued a statement, quoted by Metropoles and Revista Forum. It says Chiquinho Feitosa is the minister’s former brother-in-law, the justice having separated from Guiomar Feitosa in November 2025.
It says the justice had no knowledge of any dealings between Feitosa and Vorcaro. It also says the meeting took place in an institutional setting, with lawyers present, and points to his voting record.
In the case decided on 3 June 2025, the office says, Gilmar Mendes voted against the payment; he was outvoted. The Second Panel decided three to two in the mill’s favour, with Fachin, Nunes Marques and Toffoli in the majority.
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.
A Separate Approach, Also Reported
SBT News columnist Basilia Rodrigues reported a second approach, this one in 2025. Vorcaro is said to have visited the Brasilia 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.
Who Vorcaro Is and What Happened to His Bank
Daniel Vorcaro, born in 1983 in Belo Horizonte, bought Banco Maxima in 2018. He renamed it Banco Master in 2021 and grew its credit book very fast.
The bank sold certificates of deposit at rates far above the market average. On 17 November 2025 the Central Bank ordered its liquidation, and Vorcaro was detained at Guarulhos airport soon afterwards.
He was boarding a private jet, which his lawyers said was a business trip. Estimates of the loss to Brazil’s deposit guarantee fund run to about R$41bn, or roughly US$8bn.
A federal police operation put the fraud at around R$12bn, about US$2.3bn, and about 800,000 investors were affected. Vorcaro denies wrongdoing through his lawyers, and no trial on the merits has been held.
How Brazil’s Supreme Court Works
The Supreme Federal Court, known as the STF, has eleven seats and one is currently vacant. Justices are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, then serve until the retirement age.
Gilmar Mendes was appointed in 2002 by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and is the longest-serving member. Andre Mendonca was nominated by President Jair Bolsonaro and Flavio Dino by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The court also acts as the first and only instance for cases involving people with special standing. That is why a bank failure has ended up inside the court rather than in a lower one.
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 justice’s office describes the meeting reported here as an institutional one. That characterisation has not been tested by any body with the power to examine it.
The Week Around the Report
On 17 September 2026 the Federal Police handed the full extraction of Vorcaro’s phone to Justices Fux and Mendonca. 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. Mendonca 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. Flavio Dino asked for more time on 15 September, freezing a provisional four to three vote.
That vote was on whether to split the Mendonca case from the process involving Moraes. Dino has separately pressed for a deeper inquiry into a March 2025 meeting between Mendonca and Vorcaro.
Diario Carioca reported that court president Edson Fachin is expected to put off the Mendonca 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 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
This paragraph is the important one, and it should be read plainly. 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.
What It Means If You Hold Brazilian Assets
The direct financial exposure here 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 now been frozen or challenged in a single week.
Brazil votes on 4 October 2026, so 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 description of a broken protection pact between Gilmar Mendes and Mendonca. The two are plainly at odds in public, but we found no document using that term.
One detail is often garbled: the word “irmao” 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
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 is a precatorio?
It is a court-ordered payment owed by the Brazilian state. They are tradable, and banks buy them at a discount.
Why does this involve the Supreme Court at all?
People with special standing in Brazil are tried only by that court. The Banco Master inquiry reached several of them.
Sources: Correio Braziliense, on the scale of the Banco Master loss, Terra, on the federal police fraud estimate, 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, 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
