The Metrópoles portal negotiated at least R$51.9 million in payments with Daniel Vorcaro, in 2024 and 2025, according to a report in the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, based on the analysis of messages found by the Federal Police on the cell phone of the former owner of Banco Master.
From the aforementioned dialogues, it is not possible to infer how much of this amount was actually paid to the portal by the former banker's companies.
When contacted by Folha, Metrópoles confirmed the different values cited by the newspaper, which total R$51.9 million, but stated that it only received R$26.9 million, due to the liquidation of Master, which took place in 2025.
To arrive at this value, the report cites different messages exchanged by Vorcaro with Ana Lúcia Matos, who held the position of Master's communications and marketing superintendent. Part of the amounts cited in the report had already been made public previously.
In July 2024, Ana mentions two financial education projects that, together, would have cost around R$900,000. They were closed with the portal through Kovr and Will Bank, Master Group companies.
Subsequently, in December 2024, it submits to Vorcaro a payment schedule of R$20 million that would be made in four installments, from January to October 2025.
In June 2025, a proposal was sent to Vorcaro by the CEO of Metrópoles, Lilian Tahan, regarding the sponsorship of the broadcast of Series D of the Brazilian Football Championship. According to Ana's messages, the negotiated value was R$6 million.
"Lilian called me together with Luis Estevão to explain about a Series D football sponsorship initiative, 6 million. Shall we do it?", asked Ana in another message.
Later on, in August 2025, another conversation between Ana and Vorcaro makes reference to a project negotiated with Metrópoles, totaling R$25 million. According to one of the messages, it was paid in five installments and there is an indication that he had at least one of the installments paid.
"We are paying 6 million in installments for the D series project + 25mm from the last project. This one in 5 installments. Of the last one, we will pay the 2nd installment this week", Ana wrote to Vorcaro, according to the newspaper.
In a note to Folha, Metrópoles states that the R$25 million refers to "new advertising campaigns justified by the good returns from previous campaigns".
"It turns out that Master was liquidated and no payment was made. Therefore, Metrópoles received [R$] 26.9 million from the Master/WillBank group and not the advertised [R$] 52 million", says the note afterwards.
As for the other amounts, the website states that the R$900,000 referred to financial education projects; R$20 million for advertising campaigns; and R$6 million, for Series D broadcasts.
"The [R$] 20 million consisted of advertising campaigns, at a time when Master, in negotiations with BRB, sought to strengthen the image and publicize the Bank's services. Similar initiatives took place in other media outlets, such as TV Globo, Record, Band, Veja, SBT, Estadão and Folha de S.Paulo itself."
In April, the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo had already revealed that, according to reports from Coaf (Financial Activities Control Council), Master had paid R$27.28 million to Metrópoles, from 2024 to 2025.
When contacted at the time by the report, former senator Luiz Estevão, owner of the portal, stated at the time that these amounts related to football sponsorships and "dissemination of advertising content and marketing of the brands" of Master and Will Bank, a liquidated institution that belonged to the same conglomerate.
A report by UOL, reproduced by Folha last Thursday (15), showed that Vorcaro edited texts from the Metrópoles website before they were aired — at least 14 texts were previously sent to the former banker, 11 of which were altered.
In one of the messages to Ana Matos, Vorcaro referred to the negotiations with Metrópoles as the "most important thing [in] our life".
The group's CEO, Lilian Tahan, denied that there was a relationship between advertising contracts and coverage of topics of interest to the bank.
When asked about sending texts for Vorcaro to read, she replied that "checking with the source whether the article reflects the context given to the vehicle is a practice that I adopt with business, political and judicial figures."
