A Operation Compliance Zero was triggered by the PF last year based on an investigation requested by the Federal Public Ministry to investigate suspicions of financial fraud involving Banco Master and companies linked to banker Daniel Vorcaro. As investigations progressed, the case went beyond the financial market and began to cover suspicions of corruption, money laundering, criminal organization, system invasion, leakage of confidential information and co-option of public agents.
Throughout 2025 and 2026, the operation unfolded into nine phases that revealed an increasingly broader schemereaching Vorcaro’s family members, financial sector executives, federal police officers and important figures in national politics.
Suspected fraud on Master
The first phase of the operation was launched in November 2025, one day after the announcement of the intention to purchase Banco Master by Fictor Holding. Investigators began to analyze the issuance of Bank Deposit Certificates (CDBs) that offered returns much higher than those practiced by the market, focusing on the financial operations of Banco Master, controlled by Daniel Vorcaro.
The suspicion was that part of these securities did not have guarantees compatible with the amounts raised from investors. According to the Federal Police, the model could have created a billion-dollar exposure for clients and partner institutions.
The first phase of the operation resulted in the arrest of Vorcaro and six others under investigation, including Augusto Ferreira Lima, owner of Banco Pleno. Furthermore, the removal of BRB president, Paulo Henrique Costa, and financial director Dario Oswaldo Garcia. Authorities estimated, at that time, that the potential loss associated with the operations under investigation could reach R$12 billion.
Billionaire blockade
As the investigation progressed, the police began to focus their efforts on identifying the destination of the resources moved by the group.
whose main objective was to map assets, companies and investment funds that could have been used to hide amounts of suspicious origin, characterizing money laundering.
were shipped 42 search and seizure warrants, including some carried out against Daniel Vorcaro’s family members, including his father, his sister and his brother-in-law. Pastor Fabiano Zettel, Vorcaro’s brother-in-law, was arrested when trying to board a flight to the United Arab Emirates, but was released.
Businesspeople and investors linked to the economic group were also the target of legal measuressuch as Nelson Tanure and João Carlos Mansur. The court ordered the blocking of more than R$5.7 billion in goods and financial assets. During the searches, agents seized luxury watches, high-end vehicles, documents and cash.
Alleged electronic espionage
launched in March, It represented an important change in the direction of the investigations.
In addition to financial crimes, the Federal Police began investigating the existence of a group dedicated to illegally obtaining information, monitoring people and intimidating opponents. At this stage, Daniel Vorcaro was arrested again. His brother-in-law, Fabiano Campos Zettel, and Luiz Phillipi Mourão, known as “SicarioIn total, 15 search and seizure warrants were issued.
According to researchers, Mourão coordinated a parallel structure responsible for collecting confidential information, monitoring authorities considered threats to the group’s interests and pressuring possible witnesses, with reference to the use of physical violenceaccording to the exchange of messages revealed between Vorcaro and “Sicário”.
The investigations also pointed to the actions of someone who would have carried out surveillance, intimidation and destruction of evidence. The phase resulted in the freezing of goods and assets estimated at around of R$22 billion. Hours after his arrest, Mourão died in custody. The Federal Police later concluded that the death was the result of suicide.
Corruption of politicians and Banco BRB
In the fourth phase of the operationlaunched on April 16, 2026, the Federal Police began to examine contributions totaling R$16.7 billion made by BRB in operations linked to Banco Master between 2024 and 2025. The police’s objective was to understand the alleged corruption of public agents and the real political connections involving financial fraud schemes.
According to researchers, at least R$12.2 billion of these transactions would present inconsistencies related to the origin of the assets used as collateral. The then removed president of BRB, Paulo Henrique Costabecame one of the main targets of the stage and was
TLawyer Daniel Monteiro, identified as the financial operator of the scheme, was also arrested. In total, seven search and seizure warrants were carried out.
Political core
In the fifth phaseheld on May 7, 2026, the Federal Police aimed to explore the political relationships of the criminal scheme and the alleged network of improper payments to public agents. Right at the beginning of the investigation, the PF
According to investigators, the parliamentarian would have received periodic payments from Daniel Vorcaro or companies linked to the economic group. The amounts investigated would vary between R$300,000 and R$500,000 per month.
Also at this stage, Felipe Cançado Vorcaro, the banker’s cousin and identified as responsible for part of the financial transactions analyzed by investigators, was arrested. In total, ten search and seizure warrants were issued, and the PF’s focus was based on evidence that Ciro Nogueira had acted in favor of Daniel Vorcaro’s interests, receiving, in return, monthly payments and other benefits, such as international travel and accommodation in luxury hotels.
At the time, a Federal Police document proved that Ciro received 265 cash deposits totaling R$3.5 million. “In specific indexes, there is even a record of cash deposits made by Ciro Nogueira himself, which accentuates the seriousness of the evidence of direct insertion of cash into the formal system”, informed a report from the Financial Activities Control Council (Coaf), present in the document presented by the Police.
Intimidation and system invasion
While deepening investigations into corruption, the Federal Police identified signs of improper access to government databases.
and focused precisely on this core. Among those arrested were Henrique Vorcaro, the banker’s father, and federal police officer Anderson Wander da Silva Lima. In total, seven preventive arrest warrants and 17 search and seizure warrants were served.
According to researchers, confidential information about international travel, passports and migratory movements was accessed irregularly and shared with members of the organization.
The PF maintains that these data allowed monitor people considered relevant to the interests of the investigated group. Furthermore, evidence emerged of attempts to destroy evidence after the first phases of the operation. Among the Police’s actions at this stage, the focus was on investigating possible corruption crimes; money laundering; criminal organization; breach of functional secrecy; hacking of computer devices and threats and intimidation.
Leaks in the investigation itself
A few days later, Operation Compliance Zero reached the Federal Police itself.
On May 19, 2026, the seventh phase was launchedwhich targeted a federal criminal expert suspected of sharing confidential information.
The server was removed from his duties by order of the Federal Supreme Court, and the investigation sought to clarify whether the leak of information allowed investigators to anticipate proceedings, hide documents or hinder the production of evidence.
Cláudio Castro and Rioprevidência
The eighth phase of the investigationlaunched on May 26, targeted operations involving around R$3 billion from state funds linked to the government of Rio de Janeiro.
which investigated investments made mainly through Rioprevidência, responsible for managing retirement and pensions for state employees. The value of the transfers, according to the PF, reached around R$3 billion.
Authorities investigated whether the resources were directed to funds linked to Banco Master under conditions incompatible with the safety criteria normally required for this type of application. In total, the agents carried out ten search and seizure warrants in Rio de Janeiro and the Federal District.
Jaques Wagner
The ninth phase, which began on Thursday (18), began analyzing the relationship between
In addition to the parliamentarian, the PF also carried out searches of companies and residences in Augusto Limaowner of Banco Pleno and former partner of Daniel Vorcaro in Bahia. He was responsible for implementing it in Bahia, while Wagner was governor, a credit system for public servants that was later taken to the Master. Credcesta constituted the bank’s main financial asset.
According to PF documents, the PT senator would have . Also according to the Federal Police, the The senator himself would have chosen an apartment in the Poème Horto residential complex, built in an elite neighborhood in Salvador, the Forest Garden. The document states that Wagner sent Lima information about the project and the broker responsible for selling the unit.
Furthermore, the PF pointed out that the senator would have received other economic advantages from the banker, including the transfer of more than R$5.5 million to BN Financeiraa company run by the politician’s relatives and which, for investigators, occupies a central role in the “axis of payments supposedly destined for Jaques Wagner’s family nucleus”. Still among the advantages supposedly received, the PF cited the free use of aircraft funded by Lima and Banco Master and receiving tickets for shows abroad.
A PF investigation also highlighted the senator’s role in regulatory topics of interest to the Master group. He cited, as an example, the fact that Wagner presented a parliamentary amendment (nº 30), during the processing of Provisional Measure nº 1,106/2022, with limits for charging interest.
Os (or equivalent to about R$ 250 thousand) at the senator’s residence. According to a note released by Jaques Wagner’s office, part of the money comes from official daily allowances paid in kind by the Federal Senate itself, for official parliamentary missions abroad, in addition to its own resources, duly declared in Income Tax.
