🔍 A Senate side quest

On Wednesday, a Senate hearings committee created to investigate organized crime approved a sweeping set of subpoenas and financial record disclosures related to Banco Master — the liquidated and fraud-ridden lender whose unraveling has become one of Brazil's most politically delicate financial scandals of recent years.

Banco Master, run by banker Daniel Vorcaro, had for years been issuing high-yield financial instruments and parking them in funds managed by firms with opaque ownership structures — and shadier connections. The bank grew aggressively during a period when fintechs flourished and regulatory oversight was relaxed.

When Master's financial fragility became impossible to ignore, its owner sought to sell the bank to the state-controlled Bank of Brasília — a deal regulators blocked before liquidating Master entirely. Federal investigations suggest Master attempted to offload fraudulent loan portfolios worth up to BRL 12 billion (USD 2.3 billion), and its alleged ties to criminal organizations — as well as to powerful politicians and Supreme Court justices — have opened multiple lines of investigation…

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