Flávio Bolsonaro asked jailed banker Daniel Vorcaro for R$134 million for a film about his father, and financial intelligence records trace about R$65 million to a Texas fund. The same banker's phone records hospitality and a R$427 million fee negotiation around people invoking Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, who presides over the court that will certify the 25 October runoff.

Flávio Bolsonaro, the senator leading Brazil's presidential race, sent banker Daniel Vorcaro an audio message on 8 September 2025 pressing for overdue payments on "Dark Horse", a film about his father, Jair Bolsonaro. Flávio had negotiated US$24 million, about R$134 million, from Vorcaro for the production, according to the recording and messages The Intercept Brasil published in May. Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence unit, recorded about R$65 million in at least seven transfers to a fund in Texas run by a friend of Flávio's brother Eduardo. Justice André Mendonça of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) opened an inquiry into both brothers for alleged corruption and money laundering in July. Both deny wrongdoing.

Vorcaro's phone, seized by the Federal Police (PF), also records his staff arranging a Carnival mansion, a Fasano hotel booking and VIP passes in the name of "Minister Kassio" and negotiating a lawyers' fee agreement of up to R$427 million with a couple his aides called the "Turma do KN", after the initials of Justice Kassio Nunes Marques. Nunes Marques, whom Jair Bolsonaro appointed to the STF in 2020, presides over the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which will certify the 25 October runoff between Flávio Bolsonaro and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He denies ever exchanging messages with Vorcaro, asking him for anything or authorising anyone to speak for him.

The STF is the court supervising the inquiry into the leading candidate and the only court that can authorise an inquiry into the electoral court's president. Six of its 11 justices appear in the material the PF extracted from Vorcaro's phone. Banco Master, the bank Vorcaro built on retail deposits backed by a private guarantee fund, collapsed in November 2025 with an estimated shortfall of about US$10 billion. The fund has paid R$38.4 billion to its creditors.

The candidate and the banker

Thiago Miranda, chief executive of the celebrity news site Portal Leo Dias and a fundraiser for "Dark Horse", pressed Vorcaro in late 2024 for an answer about a dinner with "seu xará" ("your namesake") and "o pai dele" ("his father"), which investigators read as Flávio and Jair Bolsonaro. Vorcaro asked for discretion the next day. The messages do not confirm that the dinner took place. Flávio flew from the United States to Brazil in January 2025 on a jet part-owned by Vorcaro, according to PF documents.

Coaf's report, first disclosed by Revista Piauí, records a first transfer of US$2 million on 13 February and at least seven transfers totalling US$12.33 million, about R$65 million, by 16 September. The funds left Brazil through a money changer, Antonio Freixo Junior, known as "Mineiro", and his firm Entre Investimentos e Participações, and arrived at Havengate Development, a fund in Texas run by Paulo Calixto, an immigration lawyer and friend of Eduardo Bolsonaro. The film's producer is Go Up Entertainment LLC, a US company that did not answer questions about the funding. "Dark Horse" stars USian actor Jim Caviezel as Jair Bolsonaro.

Eduardo Bolsonaro told Miranda in March 2025, in a conversation Miranda forwarded to Vorcaro as a screenshot, that it would be easier to have the money already in the United States and that sending it from Brazil in small amounts would take about six months, according to a PF report. A screenshot in the court documents suggests Eduardo advised Vorcaro's team on managing the funds there. The PF is examining whether part of the money paid Eduardo's expenses in the United States. Eduardo denies receiving Vorcaro money.

Vorcaro complained to Miranda at 12:07 on 1 August 2025 about a Portal Leo Dias report revealing the production; Miranda replied that they had agreed to publicise nothing, said he would consult Mário Frias, the federal deputy who wrote the screenplay, and reported at 13:06 that the item had been removed. Eduardo and Frias took part in the funding talks, according to the messages.

A PF report unsealed in September records the first direct messages between Flávio Bolsonaro and Vorcaro on 20 August 2025. That day Federal District governor Ibaneis Rocha signed the law authorising the state bank BRB to buy part of Banco Master, and that night Vorcaro received Flávio at his home at 21:00. Miranda pressed Vorcaro over late instalments in August. Flávio sent his audio on 8 September; some early coverage placed it in November. In the recording he apologised for its length and said the production was struggling to pay cast and crew. In writing he told the banker: "Irmão, estou e estarei contigo sempre" ("Brother, I am and always will be with you"). Vorcaro sent a further US$1.6 million on 16 September, eight days after the audio and after the date Flávio later gave as the last payment, according to the Coaf figures. In October Flávio invited Vorcaro to a dinner with the production team for 6 November. On 16 November, the day before Vorcaro's arrest, Flávio tried to call him and then wrote that he needed a sign from him.

The Intercept's documents show US$24 million negotiated and at least R$61 million moved between February and May 2025 in six transactions. The PF report puts Flávio's request at R$131 million and the amount paid at about R$60 million, and the PF has indicated about R$61 million reached the film through Havengate. The Coaf figure of R$65 million includes the September transfer.

Flávio Bolsonaro first denied contact with Vorcaro and called the reporting a lie. He then confirmed in a video that he had asked for the money, denied wrongdoing and said no accusations against Vorcaro existed at the time. He has said the money was spent entirely on the film and that questions about it belong to the producer. Valdemar Costa Neto, president of Flávio's Liberal Party, said in a television interview in May that Flávio had visited Vorcaro after the banker's arrest "para ver se conseguia o restante do dinheiro" ("to see whether he could get the rest of the money"). Flávio has said the visit was to close the matter.

PF documents show Flávio registered as "usuário master", the top-level user, on the bank account of Alcazar Holdings, a company administered by lawyer Willer Tomaz that owned a third of the aircraft also part-owned by Vorcaro. The PF wrote that the profile in principle gave him a high level of access and management. His office says he never held an account with Tomaz or his companies as master user.

Mendonça's inquiry, number 5.070, was registered at the STF on 6 August 2026 and unsealed on 11 September. The PF sent the US government a request for Havengate's bank records on 9 October under the two countries' mutual legal assistance treaty, through the Justice Ministry's international cooperation department. Investigators are weighing whether to split the inquiry, closing the more advanced currency-evasion case against Vorcaro first and pursuing Flávio Bolsonaro's role once the US records arrive. No US response had been reported.

Film investors ordinarily sign with the producer for an equity or rights stake and pay into the production's accounts. Vorcaro's money went through a money changer and a Texas fund run by a Bolsonaro family friend, was negotiated by a sitting senator who was not the producer and was paid while Vorcaro was seeking political help to rescue his bank. No contract showing what Vorcaro was to receive has been published, and the record contains no request from Vorcaro to Flávio for official help or any act by the senator on Master's behalf. The Havengate and Go Up Entertainment accounts would show whether the money was a private investment or political patronage.

Entre, the money changer's firm, also appears in a separate fraud inquiry. Coaf reports sent to the Senate's organised-crime inquiry show R$20 million in transactions between Entre and FIDC Gold Style, a receivables fund run by Reag Trust. The same fund received about R$1 billion between 2023 and 2025 from Aster Petróleo, BK Bank and Inovanti, three companies under investigation in Operation Carbono Oculto, the Federal Revenue Service and São Paulo prosecutors' inquiry into money laundering for the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), Brazil's largest criminal organisation, through the fuel sector. Finance Minister Dario Durigan, a member of the Lula government, said on 24 September that the money used abroad to finance "Dark Horse" appeared to come from the "mesmo bolso" ("same pocket") in which Banco Master and organised-crime money had been pooled. Durigan presented no document tracing PCC money to the film and said the Revenue Service, prosecutors, the PF and the STF would establish the origin of each sum. The published records show a fund that took money from PCC-linked companies also dealing with the firm that carried Vorcaro's payments; they do not trace the film transfers to PCC money. Reag declined to comment and Grupo Entre did not respond.

Flávio Bolsonaro met President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in the week of 26 May 2026, less than two weeks after his audio was published, and posted a photograph of the meeting. Eduardo Bolsonaro and the commentator Paulo Figueiredo accompanied him.

The "Turma do KN"

Camilla Ewerton Ramos, a lawyer married to federal appeals judge Newton Ramos, wrote to Vorcaro on the afternoon of 3 June 2025 to praise a vote Nunes Marques had just cast. Hours earlier the STF's Second Panel had rejected the federal government's final motion in a case brought by Destilaria Alcídia, a sugar and ethanol producer, over compensation for decades-old price controls. Banco Master was not a party. It held precatórios, court-ordered federal debts owed to sugar mills, that the PF values at more than R$10 billion, and their worth depended on how the STF calculated what the government owed. Camilla's message is among the material the PF extracted from Vorcaro's phone and sent to the STF, which became public in September 2026.

Vorcaro's aides called the couple the "Turma do KN", the KN group. Messages on a hard drive the PF sent to STF justices, first published by Metrópoles, show Vorcaro's team negotiating a lawyers' fee agreement with the group worth up to R$427 million, tied to unlocking about R$8.5 billion in sugar-sector precatórios. The agreement appears in the published files as a draft under negotiation; no signed version or payment has been published. The PF sees signs of influence-peddling in the material.

Vorcaro's messages also record requests passed through Newton Ramos in the name of "Minister Kassio": a promotional rate at the Fasano hotel in São Paulo, help organising a 10-day trip for five people, private jet travel, VIP wristbands to enter a Carnival box without the usual registration and a Carnival 2025 stay at a mansion in Joá, Rio de Janeiro, owned by actor Márcio Garcia and valued at R$250 million; Metrópoles put the cost of the stay close to R$1.5 million. Vorcaro also asked subordinates to obtain tickets to the 2025 Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix for the couple. Camilla celebrated the June 2025 vote in her message as an excellent ruling.

Nunes Marques said the publication of the messages was an attempt to build a narrative to incriminate him, that he never exchanged messages with Vorcaro, never asked him for anything and never authorised anyone to speak in his name. He called any attempt to tie his judicial work to services provided by his son or third parties irresponsible. Newton Ramos denies favouring Vorcaro in any decision.

The Alcídia votes

The Second Panel ended a virtual session on the federal government's appeal in Destilaria Alcídia's case, ARE 1327995, on 20 February 2024 tied at two votes each, according to the court docket. Justice Edson Fachin, the rapporteur, and Dias Toffoli voted for the company; Gilmar Mendes and Mendonça voted for the government. The court's system recorded Nunes Marques, the panel's fifth member, as impeded. At the next session, on 22 March 2024, Nunes Marques lifted the impediment and declared himself able to vote; he later said his staff had registered it by mistake. On 1 October 2024 the panel rejected the government's appeal, with Fachin, Toffoli and Nunes Marques in the majority and Gilmar and Mendonça dissenting. On 3 June 2025 it rejected the government's motion for clarification by the same split. The decision has been final since October 2025.

Senator Alessandro Vieira's impeachment petition dates the Alcídia ruling to 1 October 2024 and Gilmar Mendes's office dates it to 3 June 2025. Both are correct: they are the merits ruling and the ruling on the final motion. Nunes Marques's vote was decisive in both, because without him the panel was deadlocked.

Gilmar Mendes had received Vorcaro and Master's lawyers in his chambers on 11 April 2024 to discuss the sugar-sector litigation. The meeting was arranged by Chiquinho Feitosa, then Gilmar's brother-in-law, who held a R$500,000 monthly contract with Vorcaro, according to Metrópoles. Gilmar's office says the meeting was institutional, that he knew nothing of Feitosa's dealings and that he answers for no relative's private affairs. Gilmar voted against Master's interest in Alcídia and in related cases involving the mills Raízen and Jalles Machado. The federal Attorney General's Office estimates that the sugar-sector cases together could cost the treasury up to R$145 billion if the mills prevail.

After the 1 October 2024 ruling, Luiz Rennó, Master's then legal director, wrote to Vorcaro that the bank had won Alcídia and forwarded the contact card of Kevin de Carvalho Marques, the justice's son, adding "Dominado aqui" ("Under control here"), according to messages cited in Vieira's petition. Nunes Marques's office says he was not impeded, that the case set a legal thesis of broad application and that his votes show his independence. He has said he voted to keep Vorcaro in prison.

Kevin Marques and the consultancy

Kevin de Carvalho Marques, 26, joined the bar in February 2024, the month his father was first recorded as impeded in Alcídia. Rennó's messages to Vorcaro in 2024 and 2025 discuss payments of R$500,000 a month connected to Kevin. At 10:41 on 4 July 2025 Rennó sent Vorcaro a file containing Kevin's name and telephone number. On 8 August 2025 he wrote that, among the essential payments, the one to "the Consult" was outstanding, and forwarded Kevin's contact again.

Consult Inteligência Tributária is a tax consultancy opened in 2022 by Francisco Craveiro, an accountant from Teresina, Nunes Marques's home city, described in reporting as a long-time friend of the family. The PF suspects Master paid Consult and that Consult passed part of the money to Kevin, a route that would obscure where the money began. Both Master and the meatpacker JBS have been reported as paying Consult. Kevin's firm received R$281,600 from Consult; Kevin confirmed the payment, said it was for tax legal work and denied any professional relationship with Master or receiving its money.

R$281,600 is the only transfer to Kevin's firm on the public record, and it came from Consult. Rennó's figure of R$500,000 a month describes payments he expected or intended. Consult's bank records would show whether Master money entered the company, whether the same money left for Kevin without matching legal work and how the dates line up with the Alcídia votes.

Nunes Marques, declaring himself impeded from the STF's judgment on Justice Alexandre de Moraes's ties to Vorcaro on 15 September 2026, told the plenary: "Meu filho nunca prestou nenhum serviço ao banco e nunca foi remunerado pelo banco" ("My son never provided any service to the bank and was never paid by the bank"). He cited the lifting of bank secrecy as proof.

Article 144 of the Code of Civil Procedure bars a judge from cases in which a spouse or relative up to the third degree acts as lawyer. Article 145 makes a judge suspect when he is a close friend or enemy of a party or its lawyers, when he "receber presentes de pessoas que tiverem interesse na causa antes ou depois de iniciado o processo" ("receives gifts from people with an interest in the case before or after the proceedings begin"), when he advises a party on the case or when he has an interest in the outcome. A broader rule, Article 144 VIII, which barred judges from cases involving clients of a relative's law firm even when represented by another firm, was struck down by the STF itself on 22 August 2023 in ADI 5953, on the grounds that judges could not verify it. Kevin did not act in Alcídia, so his work for Consult does not by itself trigger an impediment. Hospitality would bear on suspicion only if it were shown that the justice himself received it, that it came from someone with an interest in the case and that its value amounted to a gift in the legal sense; Master was not a formal party but held precatórios whose value turned on the ruling. Suspicion is not automatic. Article 146 requires a party to raise it within 15 days of learning the facts, and if the judge rejects it the court decides; a judge may also declare himself suspect for personal reasons. No party raised suspicion in Alcídia, and the hospitality documented so far appears only as requests in messages.

The runoff and the electoral court

Flávio Bolsonaro took 47.03 per cent of valid votes in the first round on 4 October, 56,104,503 votes, against Lula's 45.16 per cent, 53,879,538 votes, according to the TSE's final count completed early on 5 October. Quaest, interviewing 2,154 people from 10 to 13 October, found Flávio on 46 per cent and Lula on 44 per cent; Datafolha, interviewing 2,520 people on 13 and 14 October, put them on 47 and 45 per cent. Both polls have a margin of error of two percentage points.

The TSE's seven members include three STF justices, two from the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) and two jurists. Its president can issue urgent orders alone, sets the agenda, presides over sessions and presides over the certification of the winner. Collective rulings belong to the plenary, which can confirm or overturn a member's decision. A party can challenge a member's impartiality through a suspicion motion, and constitutional questions can go to the STF.

Nunes Marques ordered Meta on the morning of 11 October to suspend "Exército do Lula", a WhatsApp channel run by deputy André Janones with more than 3 million followers, at the request of Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign. The campaign argued, and Nunes Marques accepted, that the channel coordinated the spread of content the electoral courts had already found false. STJ justice Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva, the court's inspector-general and rapporteur of the related case, had asked Flávio's campaign to specify which content was unlawful and which rule it broke; Nunes Marques ruled before that step ended, through an administrative petition. Cueva suspended the order that afternoon and sent the matter to the full court.

Nunes Marques overturned Cueva on 13 October, holding that the inspector-general had exceeded his competence, and recast the case as one of campaign propaganda that had not been registered with the court. Lula's campaign registered the channel's address at 10:33:43 that day, and Nunes Marques authorised the channel to return after 48 hours, with its records preserved and TSE technical staff monitoring it. The TSE's technical staff found no false content in the posts it reviewed. Nunes Marques convened representatives of both campaigns at 15:30 the same day. "Tropa do Flávio", a pro-Flávio channel with about 1.4 million members, faced no equivalent registration demand, and it spread a video presented as showing a woman using drugs at a Lula rally, which was filmed at a show in Argentina in June. Flávio's campaign says its channel is registered with the TSE and does not spread false content. Lula's campaign says the suspension silenced its largest messaging channel in a decisive week. Nunes Marques denies favouring any candidate.

Cueva asked Nunes Marques on 13 October to put the case before the full court urgently, in an extraordinary in-person or virtual session, writing: "A urgência da providência decorre da proximidade do segundo turno das eleições" ("The urgency of the measure arises from the proximity of the second round of the elections"). No session had been scheduled by 14 October, and the channel was still unavailable that day. The Brazilian Association of Jurists for Democracy (ABJD) filed a suspicion motion against Nunes Marques at the TSE on 15 October, citing the channel rulings and unequal treatment of the two campaigns' channels. TSE justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze separately found that an image shared on the pro-Flávio channel was false; no penalty followed.

PT deputies Rui Falcão and Rogério Correia asked the STF on 12 October to investigate Nunes Marques over the Master material for alleged passive corruption, money laundering and influence-peddling, and asked that the request go to a justice with no Master-related recusal. Falcão filed a second request on 13 and 14 October alleging electoral ideological falsehood in the "Exército do Lula" case and asking for Nunes Marques to be suspended from TSE duties until certification, or failing that from the presidential case. Vieira, a senator for the MDB, filed his impeachment petition with the Senate on 24 September over the Alcídia votes. None has been decided.

Nunes Marques, acting alone at the request of the Liberal Party, suspended on 8 June the publication of an AtlasIntel presidential poll, the first taken after Flávio's messages to Vorcaro became public, which had recorded a fall in Flávio's support and asked respondents about his relationship with the bank. He wrote that the poll "possa ter extrapolado os limites da regular aferição estatística" ("may have exceeded the limits of regular statistical measurement") and cited an "alegação objetiva de possível utilização do questionário como mecanismo de indução do entrevistado" ("objective allegation of possible use of the questionnaire as a mechanism to induce the respondent"), including the playing of an investigation audio, according to the TSE's own account. AtlasIntel denied inducing respondents and said the audio was played after the main questions in a separate, voluntary stage. The plenary began reviewing the order on 9 June; Justice Estela Aranha asked for more time, and no final ruling was located.

In July Nunes Marques granted the Liberal Party's request to remove a video by the Plantão Brasil channel that linked Flávio to the PCC and attributed money laundering, currency evasion and embezzlement to him, finding that it presented as proven crimes for which Flávio had not been charged. On 26 July he refused the PT-led federation's request to remove a Flávio video describing Lula as a "defensor do PCC e do Comando Vermelho" ("defender of the PCC and the Comando Vermelho"), finding no sufficient proof that the statement was knowingly false; one report dates that ruling to 3 August. The TSE plenary overturned him in a virtual session from 12 to 14 August by five votes to two and ordered the video removed, with Estela Aranha, Cueva, Toffoli, Floriano de Azevedo Marques and Antonio Carlos Ferreira in the majority and Nunes Marques and Mendonça dissenting.

On 2 September Nunes Marques ruled against Flávio, rejecting the senator's request to take off the air a Lula campaign advertisement that used his audio to Vorcaro and the line "Quem mentiu foi Flávio Bolsonaro, flagrado pela Polícia Federal pedindo 134 milhões" ("The one who lied was Flávio Bolsonaro, caught by the Federal Police asking for 134 million"). The advertisement had aired 254 times on 27 stations since 29 August. He wrote: "Não há falsidade evidente ou descontextualização grave que justifique retirar a propaganda do ar" ("There is no evident falsehood or serious decontextualisation that would justify taking the advertisement off the air"). He found that it did not accuse Flávio of taking part in the bank frauds under investigation.

Nunes Marques faced no rule requiring him to step aside from the presidential case over the Master material, because recusal turns on the parties and neither Vorcaro nor Master is a party to it. He declared himself impeded from the STF judgment on Moraes, saying on 15 September that as TSE president he did not feel comfortable taking part. He has not stepped aside at the TSE in cases involving Flávio Bolsonaro, whose family film the same banker funded.

Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, faces a separate complaint. Lula's coalition told the TSE and the National Data Protection Authority on 10 October that Meta had restricted the reach of its posts, disabled its advertising account on 23 September and failed to remove AI-driven accounts attacking Lula. A PT survey found Flávio's page drew 2.96 times Lula's average engagement despite 17.2 per cent fewer followers. TSE justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze gave Meta 48 hours to answer six questions and ordered records preserved. Meta acknowledged in its filing that technical failures had affected the campaign's adverts and posts, denied favouring Flávio Bolsonaro and said it works with the TSE to detect threats to the democratic process. The campaign says the faults have recurred since December 2025.

How Banco Master was built

Vorcaro, born in Belo Horizonte in 1983, the son of a real-estate broker, agreed in 2018 to buy Banco Máxima, a small lender whose previous controller had been barred from banking by the Central Bank. The Central Bank's board rejected the transfer of control in early 2019 under its then president, Ilan Goldfajn, and approved it unanimously in October 2019 under his successor, Roberto Campos Neto, Jair Bolsonaro's appointee. The bank was renamed Banco Master. Between 2019 and 2024 its net worth rose from R$200 million to R$4.7 billion and its credit portfolio from R$1.4 billion to R$40 billion, according to figures compiled from Brazilian financial reporting.

Master funded that growth largely by selling bank deposit certificates (CDBs) paying well above market rates. Brokerage platforms marketed them to retail savers as safe because they were covered by the Fundo Garantidor de Créditos (FGC), the industry-funded guarantee that repays depositors up to R$250,000 per person per institution if a bank fails. Master put the money into assets that were hard to value, including precatórios, payroll-deductible credit and stakes in companies, and investigators say much of the credit on its books was fictitious or overvalued. Vorcaro told regulators that one large block of credits came from civil-servant associations in Bahia. Investigators describe the structure as Ponzi-like, with new deposits covering earlier obligations.

Campos Neto offered in December 2023 to receive Vorcaro at his country house in Porto Feliz, São Paulo state, according to messages from Vorcaro's phone; the meeting was moved to the Central Bank's São Paulo office. Campos Neto did not respond to questions about the meeting, and the messages do not show what was discussed.

As the Central Bank pressed him to find a buyer in 2024 and 2025, Vorcaro hired former President Michel Temer and former STF justice Ricardo Lewandowski as consultants. Senator Ciro Nogueira, Jair Bolsonaro's last chief of staff, presented a bill, nicknamed the "Master amendment", that would have helped the bank obtain funding; investigators say the text was written by Banco Master. It did not pass.

The BRB rescue and the arrest

BRB, the bank controlled by the Federal District government, became the buyer. Federal prosecutors and the PF say BRB put about R$16.7 billion into Master between July 2024 and October 2025, of which at least R$12.2 billion went into transactions with signs of fraud. Ibaneis Rocha, Vorcaro and BRB president Paulo Henrique Costa met in Zurich on 23 January 2025, according to a PF report sent to the STF on 28 September 2026; Costa had written three days earlier that the governor had asked for the meeting. The report says BRB's strategic decisions were submitted to Ibaneis in advance and links him to capital increases and dealings with private parties. Ibaneis's lawyer, Antônio Carlos de Almeida Castro, said the governor did not interfere in BRB's operations, that Costa had full autonomy and that Ibaneis is not a direct participant in the messages.

The Federal District legislature approved BRB's purchase of part of Master, competition authority CADE cleared it and Ibaneis signed the authorising law on 20 August 2025, the day Vorcaro received Flávio Bolsonaro at home. The Central Bank rejected the deal on 3 September 2025. Master's growth from 2019 to 2024 came from FGC-backed deposits sold to retail savers; the 2025 record shows Vorcaro turning to elected officials for a rescue after the regulator moved against him.

Ibaneis left the governorship in March 2026 to run for the Senate and abandoned the candidacy on 8 July after the Liberal Party withdrew its support over a contract between his law firm and Reag, an asset manager under investigation in the Master case. Costa has been in custody since 16 April 2026.

The PF detained Vorcaro at Guarulhos airport on 17 November 2025 as he prepared to leave the country. The Central Bank ordered Master's extrajudicial liquidation the next day. A federal appeals court released him on 29 November. Mendonça, who took over the case in February 2026, ordered him back to prison on 4 March 2026 during the third phase of Operation Compliance Zero, citing evidence that he had threatened an employee and a journalist. An associate known in the investigation as "Sicário" attempted suicide hours after his own arrest and was declared brain dead. After the liquidation, the PF says, Vorcaro signed contracts worth up to R$2 million with digital influencers to attack the Central Bank, an effort investigators call Project DV, which also monitored journalists.

Vorcaro's lawyers submitted a plea-bargain proposal on 5 May 2026. The PF rejected it on 20 May as superficial and silent about political allies, and the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) rejected a second version. Vorcaro gave the PF nearly four hours of testimony by video link on 15 October from Papudinha, the Brasília prison where he is held, his third interview with investigators, on the BRB deal. His lawyers had published a letter days earlier saying he wanted to speak about "todas as minhas relações" ("all my relationships"). He denied the BRB fraud, and Metrópoles reported that he called the alleged R$12 billion fraud a false storyline ("enredo falso") built by a rushed police operation and said a deal involving the Tirreno loan portfolios "não foi concluído, nem gerou qualquer prejuízo ao BRB ou a seus clientes" ("was not completed and caused no loss to BRB or its clients"). The PF scheduled testimony from Augusto Lima, Vorcaro's former partner, for 16 October, after earlier postponements.

Who carries the cost

Master's shortfall, the gap between its liabilities and the real value of its assets, is estimated at about US$10 billion. The R$12.2 billion in BRB transactions with signs of fraud is a separate figure from prosecutors and the PF. Guarantee payouts, BRB's recapitalisation requirement and pension funds' exposure to uncovered bonds are different measures again, and the final loss to each party depends on what the liquidation recovers.

The FGC had paid R$38.4 billion to about 675,000 creditors of the Master conglomerate by 4 March 2026, 94 per cent of what it expected to pay. The fund had estimated its Master exposure at R$40.6 billion for about 800,000 investors, against liquid reserves of R$125 billion in November 2025. The payouts are cash the FGC has spent; it takes over the repaid depositors' claims and will recover part of the money from Master's estate. Savers above the R$250,000 limit are unsecured creditors for the excess, and their returns stopped accruing on 18 November 2025. The fund's board approved on 4 March an advance of 60 months of contributions from member institutions, about R$32.5 billion, collected from 25 March, citing payouts for Master, Will Bank, Reag and Banco Pleno.

Will Bank, Vorcaro's digital lender, was liquidated on 21 January 2026 after it missed payments to the Mastercard network on 19 January. The Central Bank told the federal audit court in December that it had not liquidated Will alongside Master because closing it would have "efeitos sociais extremamente adversos e dificilmente reversíveis" ("extremely adverse and hardly reversible social effects"). Will held about 7 million accounts in 2025, most belonging to lower-income customers in small towns in the Northeast with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Central Bank. The FGC expects to pay R$6.3 billion to about 6 million Will creditors and had paid R$115 million by early March.

At least 18 state and municipal pension institutes hold R$1.86 billion of Master's financial bills, which the FGC does not cover, according to Ministry of Social Security data. Rioprevidência, the Rio de Janeiro state fund, holds R$970 million; Amprev, in Amapá, R$400 million; and the municipal institutes of Maceió, São Roque and Cajamar between R$87 million and R$97 million each. That is exposure, not yet a loss: recovery depends on the liquidation. The ministry said in January that states and municipalities, as final guarantors of their employees' pensions, must cover any shortfall in benefits, and that no extra charge may be imposed on active employees, retirees or pensioners.

Rioprevidência, which pays pensions to about 235,000 Rio de Janeiro state employees and dependants, put about R$970 million into Master financial bills in nine operations between November 2023 and July 2024, according to the PF; the fund says its total exposure to the Master conglomerate is almost R$1 billion. UOL reported on 16 October a PF figure of about R$2 billion for Rioprevidência's dealings with Master, a discrepancy the published material does not resolve. The PF and Federal Highway Police arrested Deivis Marcon Antunes, Rioprevidência's former president, on 3 February 2026 on suspicion of fraudulent management, corruption and misappropriation. The Rio state audit court had barred new investments of that kind in October 2025.

BRB needs R$8.8 billion in new capital to absorb potential losses on assets it bought from Master, and at least R$2.6 billion of those assets have no backing, BRB president Nelson Antônio de Souza told the Senate Economic Affairs Committee in June. The figure comes from an internal audit and is a recapitalisation requirement, not a realised loss. The Federal District government owns 53.7 per cent of BRB. It raised R$1.17 billion through a debt securitisation on 25 May and, under an agreement with the federal government reported on 1 June, is to borrow up to about R$6.5 billion from the FGC over 15 years with two years' grace, secured on federal transfers to the district. The district agreed to freeze public tenders, hiring and tax incentives in exchange. The STF endorsed the operation in late May; it required approval by the Federal District legislature.

The União Brasil connection

Antônio Rueda, president of the União Brasil party, began talks with Master's commercial director, Fernando Mascarenhas, in November 2023, the month Rioprevidência's purchases began, according to messages from Vorcaro's phone published by UOL on 16 October. The messages show Rueda travelling with Master executives on Vorcaro's aircraft to discuss deals in Rondônia and Amazonas, Vorcaro offering him his jets in December 2023 with the words "Usa como seu" ("Use it as your own") and one of them flying Rueda's relatives to the Formula One race in Miami in May 2024. In July 2024 Rueda deleted 10 messages and told Vorcaro: "Apaga essas mensagens" ("Delete these messages"). The same month he put Vorcaro in contact with BRB president Paulo Henrique Costa, according to UOL. Master hired Rueda & Rueda Advogados in August 2024 for four cases under contracts totalling R$15.4 million and paid law firms linked to Rueda R$6.4 million, according to financial documents cited by UOL. UOL reported that the PF attributes the appointment of Rioprevidência's president to Rueda's coordination with Governor Cláudio Castro.

ACM Neto, the party's vice-president and a former mayor of Salvador, spent a weekend in September 2024 at Vorcaro's house in Trancoso, Bahia, with Rueda and federal deputy Elmar Nascimento, and wrote nine days after an October 2024 meeting with Vorcaro and Rueda that matters in Brasília were "consolidadas" ("settled"), UOL reported. Master executives credited him with helping place the bank on a Ministry of Social Security list of institutions eligible for pension-fund investment. Master paid his consultancy R$5.4 million.

Vorcaro's messages list target investments in Rio de Janeiro, Campos dos Goytacazes, Maricá, Belo Horizonte, Alagoas, Amazonas and Rondônia. Amapá's pension committee, chaired by Jocildo Silva Lemos, approved the R$400 million investment, and an Amazonas official who had led the state institute for 28 days signed a R$50 million authorisation. A consultancy working with Ricardo Siqueira Rodrigues, identified by the PF as an intermediary, operated on a 10 per cent commission; an R$8.9 million commission linked to Amapá was discussed in July 2024 and R$11 million in payments were recorded in August 2024. In his rejected plea proposal, Vorcaro said Rueda and ACM Neto were to receive commissions of about 10 per cent on pension-fund investments and that ACM Neto received cash; the published messages do not show any commission paid to either man. The PF asked for search warrants at addresses linked to both; the STF did not authorise them.

Rueda said his relationship with Master was "eminentemente profissional" ("essentially professional"), that the legal services were provided and taxed and that he would take legal action over the political use of confidential information. ACM Neto called the leaks "seletivos, manipulados e fora de contexto" ("selective, manipulated and out of context"), said his consultancy fees were for real work under a contract that began in January 2023, with invoices and taxes paid, and denied influencing pension decisions. Neither has been charged.

Following the money

Master's tax filings record R$80.2 million paid to the law firm of Justice Alexandre de Moraes's wife in 2024 and 2025. The published record shows R$281,600 reaching Nunes Marques's son, through a consultancy, and no payment reaching the "Turma do KN".

Favourable STF rulings in the sugar-sector cases raised the value of Vorcaro's precatórios, the BRB purchase would have recapitalised his bank with public-bank money and Central Bank forbearance would have kept it open. Vorcaro pursued each: the meeting with Gilmar Mendes on Alcídia, the Zurich meeting with Ibaneis, and a message to Moraes on 16 November 2025, the day before his arrest, asking for help arranging a meeting with Central Bank president Gabriel Galípolo: "Tentar que o Galípolo me receba e eu apresente o que vamos protocolar essa semana. Vamos resolver tudo" ("Try to get Galípolo to receive me so I can present what we will file this week. We will resolve everything"). Moraes did not respond to requests for comment.

Rennó's messages about Kevin Marques, the sugar-sector fee negotiation and the hospitality requested in the justice's name run alongside the Alcídia votes; the film transfers run alongside the BRB negotiations and the Federal District law. The PF has opened inquiries into the film money and the BRB deal and sees signs of influence-peddling in the "Turma do KN" material. A finding that money bought a decision would require the payment records, proof of the official's knowledge and a link to a specific ruling or act.

The wider web

Barci de Moraes Advogados, the firm of Moraes's wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, signed a three-year contract with Master in early 2024 worth up to R$129 million, paid in monthly instalments of about R$3.6 million that internal messages treated as a priority. Moraes edited the final draft, according to file metadata reported in September; the firm said he did so after Master's compliance team asked whether any legal impediment existed. Viviane says her firm produced 36 legal opinions and held 94 meetings for the bank and never acted for it before the STF. Moraes has said his meetings with the Central Bank president in 2025 concerned the effects of US sanctions on him. Investigators have examined messages suggesting Vorcaro sought Moraes's input on matters affecting Master.

Walfrido Warde, then one of Vorcaro's lawyers, wrote to the banker on 1 August 2025, days after the US Treasury Department sanctioned Moraes under the Global Magnitsky Act: "Acho que nós deveríamos ajudar na defesa do seu amigo Alexandre lá nos EUA" ("I think we should help defend your friend Alexandre over there in the United States"). Warde wrote that he had "uma estratégia matadora" ("a killer strategy"), a case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights arguing the sanctions were politically motivated, and wanted nothing in return. Vorcaro replied that he would talk to Moraes, according to messages from the banker's phone made public in September 2026. Warde left Vorcaro's defence in January 2026. Moraes was reported to have been removed from the sanctions list in December 2025. No response from Moraes or Warde was located. The Trump administration had imposed 50 per cent tariffs on many Brazilian goods in 2025, citing the prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro, and later sanctioned Moraes's wife.

Toffoli, the first rapporteur of the Master case, placed it under seal on 2 December 2025 and left it in February 2026 after the PF reported his travel on an aircraft of a company in which Vorcaro was a partner. The PF also sent Fachin a report on transfers between Maridt, a company Toffoli owns with relatives, and funds linked to Master through the Tayayá resort in Paraná. Toffoli denied ever receiving money from Vorcaro or having a friendship with him. Mendonça met Vorcaro in March 2025, and a Vorcaro associate reportedly donated about US$1 million to Mendonça's think tank. Gilmar Mendes met Vorcaro through his then brother-in-law and voted against him.

Federal deputy Cezinha de Madureira was targeted by a separate PF operation on 14 September 2026 over suspected influence-peddling in the higher courts; Justice Flávio Dino's decision states that the deputy dealt with cases directly with Nunes Marques. No response from Nunes Marques to that report was located.

Temer, Lewandowski and Barci de Moraes Advogados were engaged under service contracts, and Viviane's firm has listed the work it delivered. Vorcaro also paid relatives, in-laws and associates of judges, and his staff discussed some of those payments in the same messages as rulings. Brazilian law allows a judge's relative to be paid by a litigant for real work if the judge stays out of the client's cases; the payment is a crime if it is given in exchange for a decision. STF president Edson Fachin received a PF report on the six justices named in the Vorcaro material, Moraes, Toffoli, Nunes Marques, Luiz Fux, Gilmar Mendes and Mendonça, and instructed the PF that it must be strictly descriptive, without value judgements.

Master and the press

Metrópoles, the Brasília news site founded by former senator Luiz Estevão, signed an advertising contract with Banco Master in 2024 worth about R$20 million, according to messages from Vorcaro's phone reviewed by UOL and Folha de S.Paulo and published on 15 October. Contacts began at a coffee meeting in May 2024 arranged by Guilherme Barros, a former Vorcaro consultant. Master paid R$1 million in June 2024 and R$900,000 in July 2024 for "financial education" projects for its insurer Kovr and Will Bank, and paid the rest in 2025 in R$5 million instalments. When Master's marketing director, Ana Matos, questioned the cost, Vorcaro replied that he had already approved the deal with Lilian Tahan, Metrópoles's chief executive.

Tahan sent Vorcaro at least 14 articles about the financial sector and Master before publication, and at least 11 were changed after his requests, by cuts, rewrites or removal; two were published at his request, according to the same messages. On 2 April 2025, after Vorcaro objected to a report on a R$1 offer for the bank's assets, Tahan replied: "Tiramos" ("We took it down"). In August 2025 Vorcaro asked for a profile of Renato Gomes, the Central Bank director who opposed the BRB deal, to drop a passage on bankruptcy and add material on internal conflict at the Central Bank, and for an interview with Campos Neto to focus on him and not on Gomes; both requests were met. That month he asked Tahan to hold back criticism from Ricardo Cappelli, an opposition candidate for Federal District governor, and she replied: "Deixa comigo" ("Leave it with me"). On 17 November 2025, the day of his arrest, Tahan sent him drafts on the sale of Master to Fictor and published them after his changes.

Tahan said she checks stories with sources, including business, political and judicial figures, and that the advertising contract had no link to editorial coverage, citing Metrópoles reports on Master and on Vorcaro-linked companies Ambipar, Fictor and Oncoclínicas. She said Gomes became newsworthy for opposing the BRB deal and that Estevão had criticised the acquisition. Vorcaro's requests on the Central Bank coverage came in the same weeks as the removal, at his request, of the Portal Leo Dias item on the film on 1 August 2025, and before the influencer contracts the PF calls Project DV, signed after the liquidation.

The parties and the recruitment network

The PF opened an inquiry in May 2026 into a network that Vorcaro allegedly financed with at least R$4.3 million from 2023, recruiting foreign women for private parties in Brazil and abroad. Messages published by UOL on 13 October show Vorcaro selecting women, paying intermediaries and discussing the purchase of half of the Allure Eventos model agency for R$1.5 million in three instalments, as well as the acquisition of Ford Models for about US$6.7 million. The messages mention Ukrainian refugees. Among the cases the PF is examining is that of a 19-year-old Ukrainian woman who arrived in Brazil in October 2023 for a Halloween party. The messages also include 21 invoices from SL Consulting between April 2024 and March 2025 totalling about US$70 million, without proof that all of it went to the network. Prostitution between adults is not a crime in Brazil; favouring the prostitution of others and keeping a place for sexual exploitation are. Article 149-A of the Penal Code defines trafficking in persons by its means: threat, violence, coercion, fraud or abuse. The PF is examining whether the women were coerced or deceived. Vorcaro said on 13 October that he had never exploited or disrespected women.

Other messages published the same day cover 28 February 2025, when Vorcaro hosted a party at his São Paulo triplex while following events remotely. At 20:56 an employee identified as Michael wrote: "Emprestei quarto do lado para ministro com 5 menina" ("I lent the room next door to the minister with five girls"). On 7 March a woman asked Vorcaro for R$10,000 for a friend who, she wrote, had stayed with "Kassio"; Vorcaro asked for payment details. PF and STF investigators consider it possible the references concern Nunes Marques; the messages do not establish whether the money was paid or prove the "Kassio" named is the justice. Nunes Marques's statement repeated his denial of any contact with Vorcaro. None of the published messages names him, and no published evidence establishes who the "minister" or "Kassio" was, whether the justice attended or what took place.

Piauí published on 15 October a reconstruction of the party from 125 messages on Vorcaro's phone. In the early hours of 26 February 2025, a request attributed to Newton Ramos asked Vorcaro's travel agent for a Fasano booking for "KN" from that Friday to Saturday, the link Piauí uses to read the unnamed "minister" as Nunes Marques. On 28 February a driver reported women arriving at the building at 14:04, and at 14:25 a staff member asked whether to collect their phones. The cost of food and staff was about R$27,000 by one count; an expense report puts it at R$62,300. The same day Vorcaro was told that the Central Bank had raised Master's compulsory deposit requirement from R$800 million to R$1.25 billion. Nunes Marques said he never exchanged messages with Vorcaro or asked him for anything, and that he voted to keep the banker in prison. His statement did not address whether he attended the party.

Who watches over the Court?

Each STF justice declares his or her own recusal; Nunes Marques lifted his own impediment in Alcídia and later attributed it to a staff error. The National Council of Justice, which disciplines Brazil's other judges, has no authority over STF justices under the court's 2005 ruling in ADI 3367. A criminal inquiry into a justice requires the STF's authorisation, ordinarily at the PGR's request. Removal belongs to the Senate under the 1950 impeachment law, and the Senate president alone decides whether a petition goes forward. The Senate has received 176 impeachment petitions against STF justices since 2001 and has never removed one.

The STF plenary met on 15 September to decide whether the PF's material on Moraes could support an investigation. On a preliminary question, whether to judge the Moraes case together with a challenge to Mendonça's conduct as rapporteur, the court stood at four votes to three for keeping them separate: Fachin, Mendonça, Fux and Cármen Lúcia against Gilmar Mendes, Cristiano Zanin and Moraes. Dino withdrew his vote and asked for more time. Nunes Marques declared himself impeded and Toffoli declared himself suspect for personal reasons. Fachin set no date to resume; the court's rules release a case automatically 90 days after a request for more time.

Paulo Gonet, the Prosecutor General, asked the STF on 1 September to annul the PF report on Vorcaro's relationships, which covers his dealings with Moraes, with Gonet himself and with PF director-general Andrei Rodrigues. Gonet argued that Mendonça had abused his power by ordering the police to examine authorities with privileged standing without a request from prosecutors, and wrote: "Ao juiz não cabe acusar, menos ainda ao juiz cabe realizar investigações pré-processuais" ("It is not for the judge to accuse, still less for the judge to conduct pre-trial investigations"). The federal police delegates' association asked Gonet on 5 September to step aside from the Master case. Gonet told the STF he had opened a procedure into possible interference in the report's production. Prosecutors have described Vorcaro's testimony to Mendonça's team as an attempt to push Rodrigues aside and said he offered no evidence against him beyond their attendance at the same events.

Four senators asked in May that Nunes Marques be removed as rapporteur of MS 40.823, a writ asking the STF to order the Senate to install a parliamentary inquiry into Master, citing his friendship with Ciro Nogueira, who is under investigation in the case. The writ says the inquiry request has 53 signatures, above the 27 required, and that Senate President Davi Alcolumbre has not read it into the record. Fachin rejected the senators' motion on 3 June as filed after the deadline. The writ was filed in March and still awaited Nunes Marques's decision in July.

The Central Bank refused the BRB rescue and liquidated Master, the PF built a case from the phone, Mendonça sent Vorcaro back to prison and opened the inquiry into the Bolsonaro brothers and Toffoli left the case. Scrutiny was limited or delayed by the seal Toffoli placed, Fachin's instruction that the PF report on justices be descriptive, the suspended plenary judgment on Moraes, the prosecutor's challenge to a report that names him, the unread inquiry request in the Senate and the two-day life of the inspector-general's check on the TSE president. Each delay has a stated procedural basis, and no investigator has alleged that any of them was coordinated to protect Vorcaro.

Can the institutions investigate themselves

Vorcaro's spending reached people in the Supreme Court, the Senate, the Federal District government and a presidential campaign, and it included a bill investigators say his bank drafted for a senator and paid influencers attacking the regulator. His executives tracked judicial votes and paired them in messages with payments to people close to the judges. The record supports a finding that Vorcaro deliberately bought proximity to people with power over his bank.

Nunes Marques lifted his own recorded impediment in Alcídia and cast the deciding votes, and Master's legal director then celebrated the result and sent the justice's son's contact while discussing payments. Kevin attributes the R$281,600 he received to legitimate tax work, Gilmar voted against the bank after meeting Vorcaro and Nunes Marques voted to keep Vorcaro in prison. The documented findings come from different sources: Coaf recorded the transfers to Havengate, Master's tax filings record the payments to Moraes's wife's firm, Kevin Marques confirmed the payment from Consult and the messages come from the PF's extraction of Vorcaro's phone as published by journalists. None of these sources, as published, shows a judge or politician taking an official decision in exchange for Vorcaro's money.

Consult's and Kevin Marques's banks hold records the PF can obtain with court orders. Havengate's US accounts were requested from the US government on 9 October. The STF holds its internal record of the Alcídia impediment. Hotels and agents hold the "KN" bookings. Meta holds the moderation logs the TSE ordered preserved, and the TSE technical staff hold their report on "Exército do Lula".

The STF is the only body that can authorise a criminal inquiry into Nunes Marques, and six of its 11 justices appear in the Vorcaro material the PF sent to its president. Mendonça, who supervises both the Master investigation and the inquiry into Flávio Bolsonaro, met Vorcaro in March 2025. Fachin, who decides where the PT deputies' requests go, was the rapporteur in Alcídia and voted with Nunes Marques in the majority. The Senate, the only body that can remove a justice, has Vieira's impeachment petition before it, and Flávio Bolsonaro sits in that chamber. Gonet, the Prosecutor General who would have to request any inquiry, is himself covered by a PF report on Vorcaro's relationships and has asked the STF to annul it. The full TSE had not scheduled a session on "Exército do Lula" by 14 October, and its president, Nunes Marques, presides over the certification of whoever wins. Neither the PGR nor Fachin had acted on the 12 and 14 October requests by the morning of 16 October, nine days before the runoff.

Timeline

  • 2018: Vorcaro agrees to buy Banco Máxima.
  • Early 2019: The Central Bank board under Ilan Goldfajn rejects the transfer of control.
  • October 2019: The board under Roberto Campos Neto approves it; the bank becomes Banco Master.
  • October 2020: Jair Bolsonaro nominates Nunes Marques to the STF; the Senate approves him by 57 votes to 10.
  • October 2023: Vorcaro's circle stages a Halloween party for which models are flown in from abroad; a 19-year-old Ukrainian woman who arrived for it is among the PF's cases.
  • November 2023: Rueda opens talks with Master's commercial director; Rioprevidência begins nine purchases of Master financial bills, running to July 2024.
  • December 2023: Campos Neto offers to receive Vorcaro at his country house; the meeting moves to the Central Bank's São Paulo office.
  • Early 2024: Barci de Moraes Advogados signs its contract with Master.
  • February 2024: Kevin Marques joins the bar. The Alcídia panel ties on 20 February with Nunes Marques recorded as impeded.
  • 22 March 2024: Nunes Marques lifts the impediment.
  • 11 April 2024: Gilmar Mendes receives Vorcaro on the sugar-sector litigation.
  • May 2024: Metrópoles and Master begin talks on an advertising contract later worth about R$20 million.
  • July 2024: BRB's transfers to Master begin, by the PF's account; Rueda puts Vorcaro in contact with BRB's Costa and asks him to delete messages.
  • August 2024: Master hires Rueda & Rueda Advogados.
  • September 2024: ACM Neto, Rueda and Elmar Nascimento spend a weekend at Vorcaro's house in Trancoso.
  • 1 October 2024: Nunes Marques casts the deciding vote as the panel rejects the government's Alcídia appeal; Rennó forwards Kevin Marques's contact with "Dominado aqui".
  • Late 2024: Miranda presses Vorcaro about a dinner with Flávio and Jair Bolsonaro.
  • January 2025: Flávio Bolsonaro flies from the United States on a jet part-owned by Vorcaro.
  • 23 January 2025: Ibaneis Rocha, Costa and Vorcaro meet in Zurich.
  • 2 April 2025: Metrópoles removes a report after Vorcaro objects.
  • 13 February 2025: The first "Dark Horse" transfer, US$2 million, reaches Havengate.
  • 26 February 2025: A Fasano booking for "KN" is requested through Newton Ramos.
  • 28 February 2025: The triplex party; the Central Bank raises Master's compulsory deposit to R$1.25 billion.
  • Carnival 2025: Vorcaro's staff arrange the Joá mansion for "KN" and Newton Ramos.
  • 7 March 2025: A woman asks Vorcaro for R$10,000 for a friend who "stayed with Kassio".
  • March 2025: Eduardo Bolsonaro advises on moving the film money to the United States; Mendonça meets Vorcaro.
  • 3 June 2025: The panel rejects the government's final Alcídia motion; Camilla Ewerton Ramos praises Nunes Marques's vote.
  • 4 July and 8 August 2025: Rennó pairs Kevin Marques's contact with outstanding Consult payments.
  • 1 August 2025: Vorcaro has a report on the film removed; Warde proposes helping Moraes against US sanctions.
  • 20 August 2025: Ibaneis signs the BRB law; Vorcaro receives Flávio Bolsonaro that night.
  • 3 September 2025: The Central Bank rejects the BRB purchase.
  • 8 September 2025: Flávio sends the audio about overdue film payments.
  • 16 September 2025: Vorcaro sends a further US$1.6 million to Havengate.
  • 16 November 2025: Vorcaro asks Moraes to help arrange a meeting with Galípolo; Flávio tries to call Vorcaro.
  • 17 November 2025: The PF detains Vorcaro at Guarulhos.
  • 18 November 2025: The Central Bank liquidates Master.
  • 29 November 2025: An appeals court releases Vorcaro.
  • 2 December 2025: Toffoli places the case under seal.
  • 21 January 2026: Will Bank is liquidated.
  • 3 February 2026: Rioprevidência's former president, Deivis Marcon Antunes, is arrested.
  • February 2026: Toffoli leaves the case; Mendonça takes over.
  • 4 March 2026: Mendonça orders Vorcaro's re-arrest; the FGC approves R$32.5 billion in advance contributions.
  • March 2026: Senators file MS 40.823 seeking a Senate inquiry into Master; Ibaneis leaves the governorship.
  • 16 April 2026: Costa is arrested.
  • May 2026: The PF opens the sexual-exploitation inquiry; Vorcaro's first plea proposal is rejected on 20 May.
  • 13 May 2026: The Intercept Brasil publishes the "Dark Horse" audio.
  • Week of 26 May 2026: Flávio Bolsonaro meets Trump.
  • June 2026: BRB discloses an R$8.8 billion capital requirement; Fachin rejects the senators' motion against Nunes Marques on 3 June; Coaf data on Entre and the Reag fund become public on 11 June.
  • 8 July 2026: Ibaneis abandons his Senate candidacy.
  • 8 June 2026: Nunes Marques suspends an AtlasIntel poll at the Liberal Party's request; the plenary review is paused on 9 June.
  • July 2026: Mendonça opens the inquiry into Flávio and Eduardo Bolsonaro; Nunes Marques orders removal of a video linking Flávio to the PCC.
  • 26 July 2026: Nunes Marques refuses to remove a Flávio video calling Lula a defender of the PCC and Comando Vermelho.
  • 12 to 14 August 2026: The TSE plenary overturns him by five votes to two and orders the video removed.
  • 2 September 2026: Nunes Marques refuses Flávio's request to remove a Lula advertisement linking him to Master.
  • 1 September 2026: Gonet asks the STF to annul the PF report that covers him.
  • 11 September 2026: The inquiry into the Bolsonaro brothers is unsealed.
  • 15 September 2026: The STF plenary suspends the Moraes judgment; Nunes Marques declares himself impeded and denies his son received Master money.
  • 21 to 22 September 2026: The "Turma do KN" messages are published.
  • 24 September 2026: Vieira files his impeachment petition; Durigan links the film money to a pool containing organised-crime funds.
  • 28 September 2026: The PF sends the STF its report on Ibaneis.
  • 4 October 2026: First round: Flávio Bolsonaro 47.03 per cent, Lula 45.16 per cent.
  • 9 October 2026: The PF asks the United States for Havengate's records.
  • 10 October 2026: Lula's campaign files its complaint against Meta.
  • 11 to 13 October 2026: Nunes Marques suspends "Exército do Lula", Cueva restores it and Nunes Marques overturns Cueva.
  • 12 to 14 October 2026: PT deputies ask the STF to investigate and suspend Nunes Marques.
  • 13 October 2026: UOL publishes the party messages and its investigation of the recruitment network.
  • 15 October 2026: Piauí publishes its reconstruction of the party; UOL and Folha publish the Metrópoles messages; Vorcaro testifies on BRB; the ABJD files its suspicion motion.
  • 16 October 2026: UOL publishes messages on Rueda, ACM Neto and the pension funds.
  • 25 October 2026: Presidential runoff.