Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master, told Senator Flávio Bolsonaro that he was struggling to complete money transfers in a disappearing WhatsApp message sent a day before Vorcaro’s arrest, according to a report by UOL. The outlet said it recovered the message by analyzing activity logs from Vorcaro’s phone.
“Things are very difficult, but we’ll get through this,” Vorcaro wrote, according to the report. He added that if he made it through the following week, they could “resolve everything” afterward. UOL said Vorcaro appeared to know an operation that would lead to his arrest was approaching.
The message followed two temporary images sent by Bolsonaro, who wrote that he would stand by Vorcaro and asked him for help. Vorcaro replied that a person he had sent money to had not completed the transfers. He said he had sent two installments and had arranged to try again on Tuesday.
UOL reconstructed the exchange using PDFs that the iPhone temporarily stores after screenshots are taken, matching their data with the phone’s activity log. Vorcaro reportedly drafted the message in the Notes app, took a screenshot and sent it through WhatsApp as an image that disappeared after being viewed.
The report said the conversation concerned financing for Dark Horse, a film about Jair Bolsonaro’s political career. Vorcaro had committed to provide 134 million reais in 14 installments. By the time of his arrest, seven payments totaling 67 million reais had been made, according to the report.
Brazil’s Federal Police is investigating Flávio Bolsonaro on suspicion of money laundering, corruption and foreign-exchange evasion in connection with the film. The report said the offices of both Bolsonaro and Vorcaro were contacted but did not comment.
Sources: Folha Poder.