Former Central Bank Inspection Director Paulo Sérgio Neves de Souza sold a coffee farm for R$3 million to an investment fund linked to banker Daniel Vorcaro’s brother-in-law, Fabiano Zettel.
Neves de Souza is identified by investigations by the Central Bank and the Federal Police as an “informal consultant” for Master within the organization, and would have received resources to help the bank circumvent supervision.
The information was published by Economic Value and confirmed by Estadão. The former director’s defense did not speak out until the publication of this report and the space remains open.
The payment was discovered by the Central Bank itself, which passed the information to the Federal Police. This was one of the reasons for the employee’s dismissal in January of this year, and also served as the basis for the third phase of Operation Compliance Zero.
The transaction would have taken place in 2021, when Neves de Souza was Director of Inspection, and coincides with the strong growth of Master, as shown by Estadão.
Questioned internally by the BC, Neves admitted the deal and stated that he did not know that the fund was linked to Vorcaro. He stated that, as the price of coffee had risen after the sale, he was able to lease the property again to continue using the farm, in the interior of Minas Gerais.
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The suspicions are that this payment was just one of the bribes received by the former BC director to provide informal services to Master, from within the Central Bank.
Neves was the target of measures by Minister André Mendonça, of the Federal Supreme Court. He is required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet and is prevented from communicating with others involved or accessing any Central Bank system.
According to investigations, Souza also received indirect favors. When Vorcaro found out that he and his family would be taking a trip to Disney, he ordered “a guide for these people”, according to messages found on the banker’s cell phone.
In addition to Souza, another BC employee accused of participating in the scheme is Belline Santana, former head of the Banking Supervision Department. As shown by the EstadãoBelline even delayed sending documents required by the Federal Police to support Vorcaro’s arrest request, in November last year. Only after being warned by investigators that he could face legal action did he pass on the information.
Both participated in a messaging group to facilitate direct communication with Vorcaro. The two servers received resources through shell companies used by Vorcaro, coordinated by Zettel: Super Participações, from where the resources came, passing through Varajo Consultoria Empresarial, which acted as a pass-through account, until reaching the bank accounts of the two servers.
In the hierarchy between the two, Paulo Sérgio was the one who held the highest position during much of Master’s growth. From 2017 to 2023, he was Director of Supervision at the Central Bank, one of the highest positions, to the point of having a seat on the body’s collegiate board and voting on the decision on the basic interest rate at meetings of the Monetary Policy Committee (Copom).
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It was up to him to sign and recommend to the BC leadership the authorization of the transfer of the then Banco Máxima to Daniel Vorcaro in 2019.
According to the PF, Souza maintained direct dialogue with Vorcaro, providing continuous consultancy to the banker. This included strategic guidance on how the bank should behave in administrative processes, review of documents and minutes that would be sent to the BC and review of institutional communications that would be made by the Master to the financial market. Belline also had a similar role.
Internally, Paulo Sérgio was the person who most defended the bank’s numbers, and even had heated discussions with the president of the Central Bank, Gabriel Galípolo, throughout 2025.
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It was during this period that BRB made a proposal to purchase Master, in March of that year, which forced the BC to look into the numbers to evaluate the business.
In September 2025, the Central Bank ordered the Internal Audit (Audit) to review the work done by the Department of the two servers. In January of this year, they were removed from office, and this week they were targeted by the STF.
