Seized Messages Call Jailed Banker Daniel Vorcaro the Real Owner of Pixbet

In a WhatsApp exchange from October 2024 found on the phone of a former Federal Police clerk, the Banco Master owner is described as the "boss" who owns the bookmaker and a quarter of Atlético Mineiro. The messages are now part of the Compliance Zero inquiry. Vorcaro's lawyers will not comment; Pixbet says he has never held a stake.

• WhatsApp messages seized by Brazil's Federal Police in Operation Compliance Zero, the inquiry into alleged multibillion-real fraud at the collapsed Banco Master, describe its former owner Daniel Vorcaro as the true owner of the bookmaker Pixbet, UOL first reported, with Focus Gaming News Brasil and DOL following
• The messages, dated 3 October 2024, were exchanged between Marilson Roseno da Silva, a former Federal Police clerk investigators say belonged to a group called "A Turma" that protected Vorcaro and intimidated his opponents, and a contact saved as "Pk Caiava"
• "Do you know whose Pixbet is? The boss from São Paulo. Who has 25% of Galo," Silva wrote, adding that the sponsorship of Atlético Mineiro would "change to Pixbet next year" and that "I think he is going to put me in to manage it"; asked who the boss was, he replied "It's Daniel Vorcaro, who bought 25% there. It's the SAF"
• Pixbet's registered owner is Ernildo Júnior, a target of Operation Arena in August, which froze up to R$1.1bn across five states; Vorcaro's defence told UOL it would not comment and Pixbet could not be reached, Focus reports, while iGaming Future reports Pixbet has denied that he holds or has ever held a direct or indirect interest
• DOL notes that a claim made in a private message "does not, by itself, formally prove" that Vorcaro owns the company; the material has been added to the inquiry

A Message Found in an Associate's Phone

Brazil's Federal Police have added to the Banco Master fraud inquiry a set of WhatsApp messages in which an associate of Daniel Vorcaro describes the former banker as the owner of Pixbet, the fixed-quota betting operator whose licence was suspended in August and whose sites a Paraíba court ordered taken down nationwide this month. The messages were first reported by UOL and have since been carried by Focus Gaming News Brasil, DOL and iGaming Future.

The exchange, on 3 October 2024, is between Marilson Roseno da Silva, a former Federal Police clerk whom investigators place in "A Turma", a group of officials allegedly assembled to protect Vorcaro and intimidate his adversaries, and a contact saved as "Pk Caiava". Discussing whether someone else could win a piece of business, Silva wrote, as quoted by Focus: "Man, he's not going to get it, forget it. Do you know whose Pixbet is? The boss from São Paulo. Who has 25% of Galo. In fact the sponsorship is even going to change there. I think next year it'll be Pixbet. It's his. I think he is going to put me in to manage it." Asked who the boss was, he answered: "It's Daniel Vorcaro, who bought 25% there. It's the SAF."

Galo is Atlético Mineiro. Between 2023 and 2024 Vorcaro invested about R$300m in instalments for a 20.2% stake in the club's SAF through the Galo Forte investment fund, DOL reports. He was removed from the SAF's board in November 2025, the month Banco Master was liquidated, and in May 2026 a R$530m injection by other investors diluted the fund to 6.5%, with the Menin brothers holding 83.5% and the club association 10%. Vorcaro is in preventive custody in the Banco Master case, iGaming Future reports.

What Pixbet's Filings Say and What the Company Says

Pixbet's registered owner is the businessman Ernildo Júnior, and the company is headquartered in Paraíba. Vorcaro does not appear in its ownership structure or in the documents it submitted to the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets when it applied for a federal licence, iGaming Future reports. The same outlet says Ministry of Finance records show Vorcaro held direct interests in other betting companies, including Bet.Bet, in partnership with Pixbet's founder, a platform since renamed betpontobet.bet.br. Júnior was a target of Operation Arena on 13 August, in which police executed search warrants and froze assets of up to R$1.1bn across São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Sergipe, Paraíba and Paraná over alleged money laundering and currency evasion, and the Ministry of Finance suspended Pixbet's licence.

UOL contacted Vorcaro's defence, which said it would not comment, and could not reach Pixbet's press office, Focus reports. iGaming Future reports that Pixbet has denied that Vorcaro holds or has ever held a direct or indirect ownership interest in the platform. DOL, in its own account, cautions that the message "represents an assertion made by the interlocutor and, by itself, does not formally prove" that Vorcaro owns the company. The messages are nonetheless part of the inquiry, and they arrive at a company already fined R$814,567 by the regulator, which could not serve it at its registered address, and without the Flamengo shirt deal that was once the largest in Brazilian football.

A Licensing Regime That Checked the Paperwork and Not the Phone

Brazil's federal licence required applicants to disclose beneficial ownership, and Pixbet's filing named Ernildo Júnior. If the Federal Police's messages are right, the disclosure was incomplete in the most consequential way possible: the undisclosed owner was a banker now in custody over what has been described as the country's largest banking fraud. If they are wrong, an associate was boasting about a job he expected to be given. Either way, the regulator learned of the allegation from a fraud inquiry into a bank, not from its own vetting, and that is the finding that outlasts this case. The Secretariat of Prizes and Bets has spent the month ordering banks to freeze illegal operators' accounts and defending the regulated market against the president; its ability to see who owns a licensee is the question this story puts to it.

The Sponsorship Was the Point

Every line in the message is about football. Pixbet held the largest shirt deal in Brazilian football, the boast is that the Atlético Mineiro deal would move to it, and the reason given is that the man who owned a fifth of the club also owned the bookmaker. That is the conflict sponsorship rules exist to prevent: a betting company that is also the club's investor decides which bookmaker the club promotes, and the fans are the product being sold to both. The deal never happened because Banco Master collapsed first. The messages describe how it was supposed to.

Every Pixbet Story Now Points at the Same Question

The fine for an unreachable address, the court order over missing age checks, the August raid, the frozen R$1.1bn and now the ownership messages are five views of one company, and the common feature is that nothing about it was what its filings said. That is the case the government's critics of the regulated market will make as the president weighs a decree against the sector, and it is the case the licensed operators cannot easily answer, because Pixbet held the same licence they do. The industry's defence is that the system caught it. The messages suggest the system was told.

The Federal Police found a bookmaker's owner in an associate's phone. Brazil's licensing file still names somebody else.