ASP Regula, the São Paulo City Hall agency responsible for monitoring private cemeteries in the capital, changed the way it analyzes the plans of works of the concessionaires after a meeting with representatives of the companies themselves, held on March 26, 2026.
Documents obtained byAgência Públicain partnership with the newsletter,Hungarian Nights,show that, with the new guidelines,the city of São Paulo's agency began to admit that certain project issues should be addressed during the implementation of the interventions, granting partial approvals.
The change reached the Parelheiros Cemetery, managed by the Maya Group. The three shareholders of the concessionaire had given the Master Bank full ownership of the company's shares.as guarantees of two loans, totaling R$ 78 million.
A technical opinion that required the resubmission of the Pareleiros plan was reviewed by the agency's management, with explicit reference to the guidelines defined after the meeting. SP Regula classified the outstanding issues as "primarily formal", granted partial approval to the project and recommended the start of interventions in the approved areas.
Another plan, from a concessionaire with no known connection to Master, also had its technical understanding reviewed based on the same guidelines. The documents show a broader change in the analysis procedure, which reached a financially linked company to the bank.
SP Regula stated to the report that the meeting is part of the "common workflow" and that it did not change the documentation required of concessionaires. According to the agency, there was a "technical, contractual and regulatory analysis procedure adjustment".It argues that partial approvals only allow the start of interventions considered suitable, without dispensing with the correction of outstanding issues or equating to the definitive approval of the plans.
The Pareleiros report was revised
On May 25, Geison de Oliveira Zatti, the Project Analysis and Monitoring Manager at SP Regula, noted that the previous technical report on Pareleiros had concluded that the plan needed to be resubmitted. According to him, however, the assessment did not fully consider the guidelines adopted in themeeting on March 26 between the agency's and funeral and cemetery service concessionaires' management and boards.
The meeting established, according to the document, measures of "simplification and rationalization of the procedure for analyzing and approving Intervention Plans".The guidelines were formalized the following day and sent to the companies via a presentation prepared by the SP Regula projects department.
Upon reviewing the analysis, the manager stated that the inconsistencies were "primarily formal" and would not cause material damage to the execution. He also considered a term by which the concessionaire would commit to regularizing the outstanding points during the works. The management then recorded that "revises the previously stated understanding" and expressed approval of the partial approval of the plan.
The authorization did not cover the cloakroom, the front wall, the portico, and other historical elements. The order to begin interventions in the other areas depended on the presentation of the technical execution responsibility (ART) for the entire cemetery.
Another process by Grupo Maya shows that the partial approval of projects with pending issues had already occurred before the meeting. On March 19, the agency partially approved the plan for Campo Grande Cemetery, although the report pointed out 28 items to complement, clarify, or correct, including accessibility issues, licenses, schedule, and the design of the Memorial of Political Victims.In this case, the technical area itself proposed the partial approval: the document does not demonstrate reversal of opinion by a superior.
The directive also reached another company
The effects of the March guidelines are still observed in the process of the Cemetery of Freguesia do Ó, managed by Velar, without any known connection to the Master Bank. On July 31, an analyst pointed out problems in the ninth version of the plan, including the incompatibility of the ossuary structural project with the architectural proposal, the lack of ART (Administrative Regularization Term), and a ramp with a 10% slope that exceeded the 8.33% stipulated in the accessibility standard. She concluded that the documentation needed to be re-evaluated and supplemented.
On the same day, the manager in charge registered that the technical analysis had not fully incorporated the guidelines discussed with the concessionaries in March. He classified the inconsistencies as "primarily formal," and subject to correction during the interventions, and partially approved the plan. The records show a managerial review of the technical understanding; on their own, they do not demonstrate any irregularity in the manager's actions or that the outstanding issues were waived.
Velar denies irregularities and confirms that its president participated in the March 26 meeting, convened to discuss the criteria and processes for analyzing the plans. It states that it has supplemented and re-evaluated the documents cited in the case of the Cemetery of Freguesia do Ó and that it is awaiting the analysis of SP Regula for the approval of the works. Regarding accessibility, it says that it has recovered the paving in an emergency and that the project includes an elevator.
There was also partial approval at the Dom Bosco Cemetery, managed by Cortel, despite pending issues recorded in the May 18 report. The agency restricted interventions in areas related to the clandestine burial ground of Perus and possible remains of disappeared political figures. The document does not record the reversal of a technical opinion. Fabiano Zettel, Vorcaro's nephew, was a member of the board of a Cortel concessionary. The company states that he left the position in October 2025 and that he was not a shareholder or controller of the group.
Financial link with Master
In the case of Grupo Maya, the relationship with the bank is direct: Conata Engenharia, Infracon Engenharia and RMG Construções e Empreendimentos offered all the shares held in the concessionaire as collateral for the two R$ 78 million loans.
According to the contracts examined in the UOL report,Master received the fiduciary ownership of these shares while the debts remained open, as well as rights related to certain corporate decisions. The existence of this collateral does not, by itself, mean that the bank managed the cemeteries or had influence over the decisions of SP Regula.
An investigation published on Thursday, September 24, byPúblicaand Noites Húngaras detailed otherbusiness connections between the controllers of Grupo Maya and the circle of Daniel Vorcaro. Among them is Maya Plano Funeral, which shares business groups and executives with the concessionaire and has, among its partners, a holding managed by Thiago Assumpção Henriques, a lawyer linked to the business of the banker's family.These relationships differ from the analysis of the construction plans and do not demonstrate interference by Master in the agency's procedure.
Last week, Minister Flávio Dino of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) ordered the Federal Police (PF) to conduct investigations into the relationships between São Paulo cemetery concession companies and Banco Master, and requested information from the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) regarding funds linked to the companies.
André Mendonça's brother is part of SP Regula
Alexandre de Almeida Mendonça, brother of the STF ministerAndré Mendonçais part of SP Regula. Alexandre joined the agency as a manager in February 2024, became superintendent in July of that year, and assumed the position of executive secretary in June 2026.
He does not sign the documents analyzed by the report.SP Regula states that Alexandre did not participate in the March 26 meeting or act on the cemetery intervention plans.The investigation did not identify any evidence that he ordered the change in criteria or participated in the decisions regarding Parelheiros.
At the Supreme Court, André Mendonça is involved in a case regarding measures determined by Flávio Dino to limit prices and expand transparency and oversight of funeral concessions in São Paulo.The trial began on March 14, 2025, and was suspended after Mendonça's request for further consideration, on March 15. Upon returning the case, the minister disagreed on confirming Dino's measures.
On March 14, 2025, Mendonça also received Daniel Vorcaro for approximately two hours at the Iter Institute in São Paulo. The minister stated that the meeting took place at the initiative of the businessman and dealt exclusively with another case, related to interest payments on Master pre-judgment claims.
There is no evidence in the examined documents of a relationship between the meeting, André Mendonça's actions in the Supreme Court, his brother's position at SP Regula, and the partial approvals of the construction plans.The records indicate that the agency adopted more flexible guidelines after discussing them with the concessionaires, reviewed technical understandings in Parelheiros and in Freguesia do Ó, and authorized construction stages even when there were still outstanding issues to resolve.
SP Regula told the report that it continuously monitors the economic and financial capacity of the concessionaires and that banking or corporate relationships, in isolation, do not constitute contractual irregularities. Those cited for this report did not respond until publication. The space remains open.