A photograph showing Brazil’s prosecutor-general Paulo Gonet with banker Daniel Vorcaro at a London gathering involving cigars and whisky has become the focal point of competing readings of their relationship. The image was taken at the George Club on April 25, 2024, according to reporting on the material recovered from Vorcaro’s phone.¹

Commentators on the right say the photo and related exchanges conflict with Gonet’s public assertion that his contacts with Vorcaro were limited and insignificant. One report also points to messages in which lawyer Ciro Soares described Gonet as reliable and recounted an alleged intervention in a contest for leadership of a prosecutors’ council—an account not independently confirmed by a direct exchange involving Gonet.¹ Paulo Figueiredo amplified the photo report on X with a mocking reference to Gonet’s reputation for probity.Paulo Figueiredo (8) (pfigueiredo08)²

The competing account stresses the limits of what the image and messages establish. It says the photograph alone does not indicate wrongdoing, and that Gonet attended the London event alongside other authorities. The Prosecutor-General’s Office says it was the pair’s only in-person meeting.³

Gonet told Brazil’s Supreme Court that he had no close relationship with Vorcaro, acknowledging the London meeting and a later, lawyer-mediated phone call but characterising the call as brief and mundane. He has denied personal, professional, financial or contractual ties, as well as any effort to assist Vorcaro in the investigation.³

Messages cited in the reporting include references to a possible London trip for Gonet’s son, Pedro, with expenses potentially paid by Vorcaro. Yet the report says there is no indication that the planned 2025 trip occurred. It also notes that the PGR took positions adverse to Vorcaro’s interests, including opposing house arrest and rejecting a proposed plea agreement—facts offered to counter suggestions that the contacts translated into favourable official treatment.³