The former president of BRB, Paulo Henrique Costa, received, in June 2025, a message from the former governor of the Federal District Ibaneis Rocha (MDB) demanding an outcome for the negotiations between the public bank and Master. In the dialogue, Ibaneis said that the operation was “generating more wear and tear than it should” and that it would not “withstand this wear and tear”. The archive of this WhatsApp conversation is under analysis by the Federal Police, which is investigating signs of fraud in operations carried out by the two financial institutions.
When contacted, Ibaneis admitted that he always demanded an outcome for the negotiations between Master and BRB, but clarified that he was not influenced by anyone, not Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Master, nor political groups. The former governor’s defense states that it was natural to have “concern about the unfolding of all actions that have repercussions in the Federal District”. Paulo Henrique Costa did not comment.
In private conversations, Vorcaro used to say that he maintained contact with Ibaneis and that, at the beginning of negotiations with BRB, the then governor called a political ally in order to seek information about the banker’s background, having received “great references”. Ibaneis confirms that he met Vorcaro “once or twice at social events, but never to talk about the bank”, because he does not understand the financial system, and maintains that the dialogue reported by the banker never took place.
At the time Ibaneis sent the message to the president of BRB, negotiations for the purchase of Master were facing turbulence because, in the previous month, the Central Bank (BC) had discovered a series of inconsistencies in credit portfolios from Daniel Vorcaro’s bank acquired for R$12 billion by the financial institution in the Federal District. This sign of fraud led the monetary authority to tighten supervision over the business even further.
Three months later, in September last year, the BC vetoed the operation. In November, Master was liquidated, as it did not have the strength to survive in the market after a wave of application redemptions. From then on, BRB began to face financial problems, both due to non-compliance with the rules required by the monetary authority and due to funding difficulties. The crisis ended up affecting the former governor of the Federal District, who became the target of investigators.
The former president of BRB defended to the Federal Police that the purchase of Master was technically justified and that Daniel Vorcaro’s bank represented a business opportunity within the institution’s expansion strategy in the Federal District.
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To investigate the facts, the PF has cross-referenced messages found on the cell phones of Daniel Vorcaro and Paulo Henrique Costa and created a timeline to reconstruct the behind-the-scenes of the negotiations and identify the roles played by bank executives and public agents, whether from the Central Bank or the government of the Federal District.
The investigators are also betting on Vorcaro’s testimony to clarify whether the operation between Master and BRB had political influence to help the private bank, which needed resources to gain momentum in the market.
After seeing the transaction fail, BRB was asked by the BC about the need to make a provision of at least R$5 billion. The authority also began to demand a capital contribution from the Federal District government, the controlling shareholder, to bring the institution back to normal. To date, however, this movement has not occurred, and the balance sheets for the third and fourth quarters of last year have not been published.
In March of this year, days before leaving office to prepare his campaign for the Senate for the Federal District, Ibaneis presented to the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC) a request to begin negotiations for a loan to the government, which would be used to contribute capital to BRB. Conducting this negotiation, however, was the responsibility of his successor, Celina Leão.
Last week, Celina met with the president of the BC, Gabriel Galípolo, and with representatives from the financial market to try to advance solutions for the BRB. The governor of the Federal District is negotiating with an investment fund the sale of Master’s credit portfolio, an operation that could represent an immediate inflow of R$4 billion and provide some financial relief to the public bank, but which does not resolve the asset problem.
BRB depends on a loan from the FGC and a group of banks for the Federal District government, which is under negotiation, but there is still no outcome. The original request had been for R$4 billion and rose to R$6.6 billion, the amount needed to resolve the capital problem. If an agreement cannot be reached, other alternatives will have to be considered.
