Master Case Deepens Pressure on Brazil’s Supreme Court and Congress

Brazil’s Banco Master scandal is becoming more than a banking case. It now sits at the center of a political fight involving Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF), the Senate and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, after new reports detailed large payments to a law firm linked to one of the country’s most powerful justices.

The firm Barci de Moraes Sociedade de Advogados, owned by Viviane Barci de Moraes, wife of STF Justice Alexandre de Moraes, was hired by Banco Master between February 2024 and November 2025, according to G1. The firm said it provided legal consulting and litigation work, but denied handling any case for Master before the Supreme Court.

What the Reports Say

Gazeta do Povo reported, citing evidence seized by the Federal Police and sources familiar with the investigation, that the contract could have paid R$129 million over three years, in monthly installments of R$3.6 million. The outlet said the document was found on the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, Banco Master’s controlling shareholder.

DW, citing Brazilian press reports and Federal Revenue data sent to a congressional inquiry, reported that Master paid R$80 million to the firm between 2024 and 2025. DW also noted a separate figure from Folha de S.Paulo: R$40.11 million paid in 2024. The difference between the full contract value, reported payments and annual figures has not been fully explained in the source material.

G1 reported that the firm issued a statement saying 15 lawyers worked on the account and that three other specialist firms were hired under its coordination. The statement listed 94 meetings, 36 legal opinions and work on compliance, regulatory, criminal and administrative matters.

The Master Investigation

Banco Master was liquidated by Brazil’s Central Bank in November 2025. DW reported that, at the time of liquidation, the bank had R$80 billion in assets but only R$4 million in cash, a gap the Central Bank cited as evidence of severe liquidity problems.

Vorcaro has been arrested in the case, which the Federal Police has investigated under Operation Compliance Zero. G1 reported that the probe examines alleged financial fraud and other crimes, including corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization.

The case has also touched Congress. DW reported that the Senate’s Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPI), Brazil’s congressional investigation format, was expected to close the following week by decision of Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, despite opposition from its rapporteur, Senator Alessandro Vieira.

Political Fallout

The scandal is unfolding as Lula faces a rougher Congress. Metrópoles reported that, on April 30, lawmakers overturned Lula’s veto of the so-called Dosimetry Bill, which changes sentencing rules and benefits people convicted over the January 8, 2023 attacks on government buildings in Brasília. The outlet said the veto was rejected by 318 votes to 144 in the Chamber of Deputies and 49 to 24 in the Senate.

Metrópoles described the vote as Lula’s second defeat in less than 24 hours, after the Senate rejected his nomination of Jorge Messias, Brazil’s attorney general, to the STF.

In an opinion column, Estadão’s Eliane Cantanhêde argued that the sequence represented a victory for bolsonarismo and a sign that Lula had lost political control. She also suggested that tensions around the Master case had reshaped relations between Moraes, Alcolumbre and the Planalto Palace, the seat of Brazil’s executive branch.

Those claims are analysis, not proven findings. The factual record is narrower but still politically serious: a failed bank under federal investigation paid large sums to a law firm tied to a Supreme Court justice’s family, Congress is moving against Lula on high-stakes legal questions, and the Senate’s handling of the Master inquiry has become part of the dispute.