Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, talks on the phone as he arrives for the swearing-in ceremony for justices Nunes Marques and Andre Mendonca as president and vice president of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro denied any wrongdoing Wednesday in his reported request for millions from jailed banker Daniel Vorcaro, a revelation that could harm the lawmaker’s expected run for the country’s presidency in October against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Earlier, The Intercept Brazil published voice messages of Bolsonaro asking Vorcaro, who is at the center of a major corruption scandal, for 61 million reais ($12 million) to produce “The Dark Horse,” a movie Bolsonaro says he is making that focuses on the life of his father, jailed former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Vorcaro, the former CEO of the shuttered Banco Master, is the center of a fraud and graft scandal that has engulfed several high-ranking officials in Brazil since the beginning of the year. Vorcaro is accused, among other things, of defrauding Banco Master clients out of millions of dollars by convincing them to make shady investments. The case remains under investigation by the country’s federal police and Supreme Court.
