Master messages pull Brazil's top election justice into the scandal

A contract found on Daniel Vorcaro's phone promised a law firm up to BRL 427 million if Banco Master won a batch of sugar industry lawsuits. The banker's aides called the people behind it "the KN crew," and messages obtained by news site Metrópoles show that KN is Supreme Court Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, who also presides over the Superior Electoral Court.

The firm belongs to Camilla Ramos, whose husband, Newton Ramos, sits on the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, an appellate court. The now-liquidated Master had acquired IOU bonds against the federal government over price controls imposed by the defunct Sugar and Alcohol Institute on sugar and ethanol producers. A spreadsheet on Vorcaro's phone valued the claims at roughly BRL 8.5 billion, and Ramos's firm would keep 5% of any payout.