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Joe Kent says Trump was ‘poised’ for better Iran deal than JCPOA before war
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Before the Iran war, President Donald Trump was “poised” to strike a “better deal” with the regime than the President Barack Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent asserted in a Thursday post on X.
“Prior to letting the Israelis lead us into this war, President Trump was actually poised to cut a better deal than the JCPOA (aka the Obama Iran deal),” Kent wrote.
“The Iranians feared and respected Trump in a way they never respected Obama—he took out the terror mastermind Qasem Soleimani, yet was prudent enough not to get sucked into the quicksand of another Middle Eastern quagmire that would only favor Iran and strengthen its hardliners,” he continued.
Joseph Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 11, 2025. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“That’s why, as soon as he returned to office in January 2025, the Iranians stopped their proxies from attacking us and were immediately open to negotiations,” Kent added.
Kent, who quit the counterterrorism post in March due to his opposition to the Iran war, asserted in the Thursday post that Trump could “still correct course” on the issue.
“President Trump can still correct course, but he has to break the current stalemate cycle we are in: Get us out of the military standoff. Restrain the Israelis. Leverage the potential of sanctions relief to open the Strait of Hormuz and secure a new deal on the nuclear issue,” he advised.
EX-COUNTERTERRORISM CHIEF SAYS TRUMP MUST RESTRAIN ISRAEL BEFORE HE CAN DECLARE VICTORY IN IRAN
President Donald Trump makes a speech at a state banquet with China’s President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026 (Brendan Smialowski/ AFP via Getty Images)
In response to Fox News Digital’s request for a comment from the White House on Thursday, spokesman Davis Ingle provided a statement slamming Kent.
“Joe Kent’s self-aggrandizing resignation letter and recent comments are riddled with lies. Most egregious are Kent’s false claims that the largest state sponsor of terrorism somehow did not pose a threat to the United States and that Israel forced the President into launching Operation Epic Fury. As Commander-in-Chief, President Trump took decisive action based on strong evidence which showed that the terrorist Iranian regime posed an imminent threat and was preparing to strike Americans first. President Trump’s number one priority has always been ensuring the safety and security of the American people,” Ingle said in the statement.
While testifying at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said that during the 30 months prior to when Operation Epic Fury began, “Iran and its proxies had been attacking U.S. service members and diplomats about 350 times … about every third day.”
But Kent asserted in a post on X, “Iran’s proxies attacked our troops & diplomats under Biden, NOT under this Trump admin prior to Epic Fury, hence the 30 months time frame. When Trump returned to office in January of 2025 those attacks stopped.”
SHIP SEIZED NEAR STRAIT OF HORMUZ BY ‘UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL,’ BROUGHT TOWARD IRAN
Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Navy Adm. Brad Cooper testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on May 14, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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“Iran stoped [sic] its proxies from attacking us b/c they knew Trump would hit back & they wanted to reach a deal w/Trump. A deal was in the works, that deal would have thwarted Israel’s goal of getting us committed to a war against Iran, so Israel did everything they could to get us into a war with Iran,” he added.
“Iran holding back its proxies & the protests against the regime in January show that Trump’s max pressure & strategic targeted strike campaign was working, tragically this success was squandered by letting the Israelis drive our decision making,” Kent claimed.
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CIA director has met officials in Havana for talks, Cuba claims | Cuba
CIA director John Ratcliffe met Cuban officials in Havana on Thursday as a way to improve dialogue between the US and the communist-run island, the Cuban government said.
The meeting took place “in a context marked by the complexity of bilateral relations, with the aim of contributing to the political dialogue between both nations”, a statement said.
The CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Exchanges “made it possible to demonstrate categorically that Cuba does not constitute a threat to US national security, nor are there any legitimate reasons to include it on the list of countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism”, the Cuban statement added.
Havana “has never supported any hostile activity against the United States, nor will it permit actions against any other nation to be carried out from Cuba”, the statement emphasised, referring to allegations of a Chinese presence.
The visit comes after US-Cuba relations deteriorated significantly. Washington imposed a fuel blockade in January, and President Donald Trump has slapped sanctions on the island and mused about taking it over.
Conditions on the island are poor, with regular power outages and supply shortages becoming the norm.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has renewed an offer of $100m (£74.6m) in aid on the condition that the assistance be distributed by the Catholic church, bypassing the government.
In a post on X, Cuba’s president Miguel Diaz-Canel urged the US to lift its blockade instead.
“The damage could be eased in a much simpler and faster way by lifting or relaxing the blockade, since it is known that the humanitarian situation is coldly calculated and induced,” he said.
But, if Washington showed “true willingness” to provide aid, he added, “it will encounter no obstacles or ingratitude from Cuba”.
Despite tensions, intergovernmental talks are ongoing, with a high-level diplomatic meeting taking place in Havana on 10 April – the first time a US government plane had landed in the Cuban capital since 2016.
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Former death row inmate Richard Glossip granted bond after 29 years
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Former death row inmate Richard Glossip is set to be released on bond as he awaits retrial over a 1997 killing for which he was nearly executed three times — and had three last meal requests.
Examining the “ample” record in Glossip’s case, Judge Natalie Mai found Thursday that she could not deny bail to the longtime prisoner, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 1998.
She issued an order setting bond at $500,000 and mandated that Glossip remain in Oklahoma wearing an electronic monitoring device.
Former death row inmate Richard Glossip walks to a courtroom inside the Oklahoma County Courthouse in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (© BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
The ruling comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in February overturned Glossip’s conviction and death sentence, finding prosecutors failed to correct false testimony from key witness Justin Sneed, the admitted killer who avoided execution by testifying against Glossip.
SUPREME COURT TOSSES CONVICTION AND DEATH SENTENCE OF OKLAHOMA INMATE, ORDERS NEW TRIAL
The high court ordered a new trial, citing concerns that jurors never heard critical information about Sneed’s mental health history and credibility.
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In Thursday’s order, Mai noted the unusually extensive record developed over nearly three decades of litigation and said the state could not meet the high constitutional standard required to deny bail in a capital case.
Former death row inmate Richard Glossip sits next to his lawyer Don Knight in an Oklahoma County courtroom in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Glossip’s attorney, Don Knight, said that Glossip ate a remarkable three last meals and will get the chance “to taste freedom.”
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“We are extremely grateful that Judge Natalie Mai has granted Richard Glossip a bond. In doing so, she rejected the State’s claim that there is a strong case for guilt. For the first time in 29 years of being incarcerated for a crime he did not commit, during which he faced nine execution dates and ate three last meals,” Knight said.
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“Mr. Glossip now has the chance to taste freedom while his defense team continues to pursue justice on his behalf against a system that the United States Supreme Court has found to be guilty of serious misconduct by state prosecutors. Mr. Glossip is deeply grateful to the many thousands of people who have expressed support for him over the years and now looks forward to the day when he is exonerated and truly free from this decades-long nightmare.”
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Former death row inmate Richard Glossip leaves an Oklahoma County courtroom in an Oklahoma County courtroom in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (© BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
He was convicted for the 1997 killing of his former boss, Barry Van Treese. The motel owner was beaten to death by Sneed, a maintenance worker, but state prosecutors said Glossip ordered him to carry out the crime in a murder-for-hire plot.
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Glossip has been incarcerated since January 1997.
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Closing arguments begin in Elon Musk’s landmark lawsuit against OpenAI | Elon Musk News
Elon Musk accuses OpenAI of breaching charitable trust and prioritising profit over AI safety and nonprofit values.
Published On 14 May 2026
Lawyers for OpenAI and Elon Musk began closing arguments in a landmark trial that could impact the future of the ChatGPT maker.
On Thursday, each side presented a concluding statement to jurors, who will decide whether OpenAI and its leaders profited from a venture that was meant to be a “charity”.
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list of 4 itemsend of listThe lawsuit was brought by Musk, the world’s richest man and the founder of a rival artificial intelligence (AI) model, Grok.
Musk sued OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman and its president Greg Brockman, alleging that the company strayed from its founding mission to build AI that was safe and beneficial to humanity.
Musk was not present for the closing statements on Thursday, as he is currently in China on a diplomatic visit with United States President Donald Trump.
His lawyer, Steven Molo, used his final remarks to accuse OpenAI of breaching its charitable trust by enriching investors and insiders at the nonprofit’s expense. He also sought to paint Altman as untrustworthy.
“I confronted Sam Altman with the fact that five witnesses in this trial, all people that he’s known for years and worked with, called him a liar under oath. Liar’s a very powerful word in a courtroom,” Molo said.
The five people Molo referenced were Musk; Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s former chief scientist; former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati; and former board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley. Musk invested $38m in OpenAI’s early years.
“Sam Altman’s credibility is directly at issue in this case,” Molo said.
The lawsuit also accuses Microsoft, which invested $1bn in OpenAI in 2019 and another $10bn in 2023, of aiding and abetting OpenAI’s wrongful conduct.
“Microsoft was aware of what OpenAI was doing every step of the way,” Molo said.
OpenAI’s lawyers pushed back, arguing that Musk waited too long to claim the company breached its founding agreement. Part of the defence team, Sarah Eddy, suggested that it was Musk who was unreliable.
“Mr Musk is the one whose testimony is contradicted by every other witness and by all the documents,” Eddy said.
Eddy added that, by 2017, everyone associated with OpenAI — including Musk, who was still on its board — knew it needed more money to fulfil its mission than it could raise as a nonprofit.
She also indicated that Musk himself hoped to profit from the company.
“Mr Musk wanted to turn OpenAI into a for-profit company that he could control,” she said. “But the other founders refused to turn the keys of AGI [artificial general intelligence] over to one person, let alone Elon Musk.”
The question of whether the lawsuit was filed within the statute of limitations may turn out to be a key point.
In a court filing last month, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers wrote that “if the jury finds that Musk failed to file his action within the statute of limitations, it is highly likely” that she will “accept that finding and direct verdict to the defendants”.
If the jury decides the lawsuit was filed on time, it must then determine whether OpenAI had a “charitable trust” and whether the company and its executives violated that trust.
The case comes as OpenAI moves towards a planned initial public offering that is expected to be among the largest ever.
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CIA Director Ratcliffe meets Cuban officials in Havana amid renewed US pressure
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CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with counterparts from Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior on Thursday during a high-level visit to the island nation amid “complex bilateral relations” between the long-time adversaries.
A CIA official told Fox News correspondent David Spunt that Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials including Raulito Rodriguez Castro, Minister of Interior Lazaro Alvarez Casas and the head of Cuban intelligence services in Havana to “personally deliver President Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.”
During the meeting, the official said Ratcliffe and Cuban officials discussed intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security issues, all against the backdrop that Cuba can no longer be a safe haven for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with counterparts from Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior on Thursday. (Jemal Countess/AFP via Getty Images, File)
Sources told Fox News Ratcliffe emphasized that the U.S. is extending a genuine opportunity for collaboration, and as evidenced by Venezuela, President Donald Trump must be taken seriously.
The Cuban government wrote in a statement that its delegation presented evidence attempting to “categorically demonstrate that the island poses no threat to U.S. national security,” arguing Cuba should not remain on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
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The dialogue presents Cuba with a rare chance to stabilize its failing economy and deliver for its people, but the window of opportunity will not stay open indefinitely, sources said. The Cuban government must decide whether to seize the moment or continue down an unsustainable path that only leads to deeper isolation and instability.
While the director emphasized Trump prefers dialogue, sources said the Cubans should have no illusions that the president will not enforce redlines.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Anthropic tosses agents into the API billing pool
AI + ML
Limits Claude subscriptions to interactive use
Anthropic has further restricted access to its Claude model family while framing the limitation as responsive customer service.
“We’ve heard your questions about SDK and claude -p usage sharing your subscription rate limits with Claude Code and chat,” the company said in a social media post. “Starting June 15, programmatic usage gets its own dedicated budget instead. Your subscription limits don’t change, they’re now reserved for interactive use.”
Subscription usage only applies to interactive use of Claude Code, Claude Cowork, and Claude.ai. Interactive mode involves a user typing a prompt and receiving a response. There’s a human in the loop.
Programmatic interaction, whether via Anthropic’s own Agent SDK, headless mode, or a third-party tool, will be counted against a separate usage pool funded by a credit equal to the customer’s subscription fee.
So a Pro subscriber paying $20 per month will have two token supply chains – one for interactive usage and one for programmatic usage, which the subscriber must claim to obtain.
But programmatic usage gets billed at costlier API rates. And if this credit is exhausted, spillover programmatic tokens get billed at (occasionally discounted) API rates through “extra usage,” a separate token allotment that, if enabled, exists mainly as a way to avoid a sudden service cutoff and to set a limit on spending.
The questions from users arose because Anthropic’s prior efforts to prevent customers from gorging on tokens at the all-you-can-eat subscription trough haven’t been comprehensive.
The AI biz, mindful that it will need to show a profit eventually, has been trying to push customers toward its metered API and to constrain consumption of flat-rate subscription tokens. Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot has embarked on a similar transition.
Anthropic initially did so by disallowing the use of Claude subscriptions with third-party harnesses – applications like OpenCode that coordinate communication with the backend model.
That policy dates back to February 2024, but Anthropic seldom enforced it until earlier this year when demand for AI inference began to outpace the company’s Claude supply.
In February this year, growing interest in OpenClaw, an open source agent platform that encourages long-running, token-burning tasks, prompted Anthropic to get serious about its ban on using third-party harnesses with Claude subscriptions.
But customers wondered about third-party applications built with Anthropic’s own Agent SDK, which hadn’t been explicitly disallowed, and about the use of headless mode (claude -p), a way to have Claude work on a task without interaction. They now have their answer.
It’s worth noting that, if the programmatic credit is not exhausted, it doesn’t roll over. It gets lost, or you might say, Anthropic reclaims it. The company refers to the credit using a dollar sign, but it’s not redeemable currency. It has already been spent.
So customers seeking to get the full value from the new arrangement need to calibrate their programmatic usage to consume the full credit every month, no more and no less.
Anthropic’s recently announced deal with SpaceX to obtain the compute capacity of its Colossus 1 datacenter, along with its removal of peak-hours usage restrictions, raised hopes among developers that more tolerant usage policies might return. This latest subscription limitation shows that’s not happening. ®
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River Thames in London gets first official bathing spot on Friday | Water
The first designated bathing water area on the River Thames in London will welcome swimmers for the official start of the bathing season on Friday as one of 13 new monitored swimming areas across England.
The Thames at Ham, in south-west London, has been designated as a new river bathing water area after campaigners gathered evidence to show thousands of people use the river for swimming throughout the year.
Marlene Lawrence, the founder of the Teddington Bluetits, which has more than 2,000 members, put in the bathing water application alongside her colleagues.
“This is amazing for the river and for the many people who enjoy it,” she said.
“We want bathing water status to be a driver of keeping the River Thames clean and it will be fantastic to have this part of the river designated.”
Other locations which have been designated as bathing water areas include a tidal inlet just off the River Yealm in the south Devon; part of the River Fowey in Lostwithiel, Cornwall; the River Dee at Sandy Lane, Chester; a sea swimming area at Little Shore, Amble, in Northumberland; Pangbourne Meadow in Berkshire, which inspired the novel The Wind in the Willows; and the River Swale in Richmond, Yorkshire.
Water minister Emma Hardy said: “The introduction of these new bathing sites means better monitoring of our waterways, a boost for local tourism and greater confidence for local swimmers.
“Following years of indifference towards bathing waters, this government has expanded the number of sites as part of our overhaul of the water sector.
“We’re committed to generational reform of our water industry and won’t stop until the job is done.”
Campaigners began fighting for bathing water status for rivers six years ago under the EU-derived bathing water directive, in an attempt to drive a cleanup.
Bathing water designations were until then limited to coastal waters and lakes. But rivers are suffering from a toxic cocktail of sewage discharge from water companies, forever chemicals and road and agricultural runoff and campaigners hope the more rigorous testing which is required for bathing waters will force water companies to reduce sewage pollution.
Tests in bathing waters by the regulator, the Environment Agency, have to monitor the water for faecal indicator organisms.
Every week throughout the summer, officers from the Environment Agency will visit sites to take samples and monitor the water quality before publishing the information online for swimmers.
The regulator said it constantly evaluates whether action is needed to cut pollution levels and works with local communities, farmers and water companies to improve water quality at these locations.
At Ilkley in West Yorkshire, where the Wharfe became the first river to be given bathing water status five years ago, Yorkshire Water is implementing infrastructure improvements costing more than £85m ito boost water quality.
The new bathing water sites that are designated from this month – until the swimming season concludes at the end of September – are:
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Canvey Island foreshore, Essex
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East Beach at West Bay, Bridport, Dorset
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Falcon Meadow, Bungay, Suffolk
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Granville Parade Beach, Sandgate, Kent
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Little Shore, Amble, Northumberland
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New Brighton Beach (east), Merseyside
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Newton and Noss Creeks, Devon
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Pangbourne Meadow, Berkshire
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Queen Elizabeth Gardens, Salisbury, Wiltshire
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River Dee at Sandy Lane, Chester, Cheshire
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River Fowey in Lostwithiel, Cornwall
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River Swale in Richmond, Yorkshire
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River Thames at Ham and Kingston, Greater London
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Charlamagne Tha God says White House ballroom is proof of Trump third term
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Progressive political commentator Larry McKelvey, better known as Charlamagne Tha God, argued the White House ballroom project is all the proof needed to show President Donald Trump intends to run for a third term.
But “The Late Show” guest host’s rhetoric is raising concerns among those who believe it could incite violence.
“Do you seriously think he’s building that for the next guy?” Charlamagne questioned during Wednesday’s episode.
“You think he likes J.D. Vance that much? You think he’s doing that level of solid for Marco Rubio?” he added, referencing the two most likely successors to the MAGA empire — the vice president and secretary of State.
BILL MAHER SAYS TRUMP’S CONSTRUCTION OF ‘GIANT BALLROOM’ MEANS ‘HE’S NOT LEAVING’ THE WHITE HOUSE
Charlamagne tha God speaks onstage at day 2 of the 2025 HOPE Global Forum at Signia by Hilton Atlanta on Dec. 2, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
Charlamagne’s comments, couched in hyperbolic jokes, raised far-left accusations that Trump has displayed a king-like disregard for limits in his second term — and even mirror the president’s own jokes about violating constitutional limits.
“I’m not asking Trump not to run for a third term,” Charlamagne conceded. “Trump is going to Trump. What I’m asking is for the Republican Party to be honest for once and tell us whether or not you want this man to be king, okay? I’m tired of edging dictatorship.”
Hogan Gidley, a former White House deputy press secretary, believes some viewers aren’t going to take the comments as a joke.
“They have no clue what their comments actually mean to those out there who want to commit acts of violence, which is ignorant and bad enough,” Gidley told Fox News Digital, noting the multiple assassination attempts against Trump and members of his administration.
“Or — they know exactly what they’re doing, creating a permission structure for violence. Either way, it’s hurtful to our country,” he added.
HOUSE REPUBLICAN CALLS FOR THIRD TRUMP TERM OVER PASSAGE OF ‘HISTORIC’ TAX BILL
Hogan Gidley speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 21, 2025. (Alex Wroblewski / AFP) (Photo by ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Under the 22nd Amendment, presidents of the United States are limited to two terms — a change made in 1951 after Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) served four.
While firmly noting that comedians have a right under the First Amendment to address issues of their choosing, Gidley says he doubts the White House renovations are proof that Trump wants to overcome that limit.
“Context matters,” Gidley said.
“For safety and security, it makes complete sense to have a facility that all presidents can use to entertain foreign heads of state, to entertain different guests on various occasions under the watchful eye of a controlled space.”
At the White House Correspondent’s Association dinner last month, Trump faced a third assassination attempt when a gunman charged a Secret Service security checkpoint at the event at the Washington Hilton.
Trump noted that a space like the future ballroom could be used for such events to provide a more secure venue.
MIKE DAVIS: SECURE THE WHITE HOUSE AND BUILD THE BALLROOM BEFORE SOMEONE GETS KILLED
President Donald Trump holds a design rendering of a proposed $400 million presidential ballroom at the White House. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg)
Charlamagne, for his part, comedically painted a vision for how Trump might use the ballroom in a third term.
“On January 20th, 2029, Trump is going to go into that ballroom, with a stack of hustlers, a crate of Big Macs and lock the door from the inside,” Charlamagne said.
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Construction of the ballroom, which spans 90,000 square feet and is designed to seat 650 attendees, is scheduled to finish before the end of Trump’s second term, according to press releases from the White House.
The Daily Show did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital. Neither did the White House when asked for reaction to the comedian and political commentator’s comments.
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Tape shows Bolsonaro son asking jailed banker for $26.8m to fund film on father | Brazil
Flávio Bolsonaro, Brazil’s leading rightwing presidential hopeful, has been caught on tape asking a banker accused of corruption for $26.8m (£20m) to fund a film about his father, the former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The leaked voice memos and text messages were published on Wednesday by the Intercept Brasil, and later acknowledged by Flávio Bolsonaro, a far-right senator who is tied in polls with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ahead of October’s election.
The incident was already being seen as the most serious blow since the senator announced his candidacy as his father’s representative, since the former president is under house arrest after being convicted over an attempted coup.
In the recordings, Flávio Bolsonaro can be heard asking for R$134m ($26.8m) towards a “heroic” biopic in which Jair Bolsonaro is played by Jim Caviezel, who portrayed Jesus in Mel Gibson’s 2004 Passion of the Christ.
The requests were made to the banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is currently in prison and at the centre of what many consider the country’s largest banking fraud and one of the biggest corruption scandals in recent history, with total losses estimated at R$60bn.
In the messages, which were sent before his arrest – but when many of the accusations against him were already widely known – Flávio refers to the banker as “brother” and presses him for payment to ensure Caviezel and director Cyrus Nowrasteh were paid.
“We’re at a very decisive moment for the film and, as there are a lot of outstanding payments, everyone is tense … Imagine us defaulting on someone like Jim Caviezel, or Cyrus … It would be very bad,” the younger Bolsonaro can be heard saying.
The revelations triggered a significant backlash, even among the far right.
Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais who is a presidential hopeful but has largely avoided criticising the Bolsonaros, called the recordings “a slap in the face to decent Brazilians”, while a conservative congressman suggested it might be better to replace Flávio on the ticket with Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle.
“The blow to Flávio’s campaign is brutal – by far the worst news for his campaign so far,” said the sociologist Celso Rocha de Barros.
“Flávio’s anti-establishment credentials, which helped him draw level with Lula, could quickly erode,” added Barros.
Vorcaro was the majority shareholder in the small private Master Bank, and is accused of defrauding many of its 800,000 clients out of hundreds of millions of pounds by offering returns far above market rates. To cover losses and keep expanding, he allegedly paid millions in bribes to public officials and politicians.
Vorcaro denies all the allegations and is awaiting trial in prison.
The scandal has rattled Brazilian society from football, religion, politics and the judiciary – and first touched the Bolsonaro family last week, when police accused senator Ciro Nogueira, a former senior member of the ex-president’s cabinet, of having received monthly bribes of up to R$500,000 to act in the banker’s interests. Nogueira denies the allegations.
When Flávio’s messages to Vorcaro were revealed on Wednesday, he initially denied the story, but later admitted it, saying it was “a son seeking private sponsorship for a private film about his father’s story”.
In the messages, he invites Vorcaro to a private dinner with Caviezel and Nowrasteh in São Paulo, and the banker responds by suggesting it be held at his home. Caviezel and Nowrasteh are not accused of wrongdoing; neither man responded to a request for comment.
Bolsonaro did not respond to requests for comment and, in his social media post, did not say whether he ultimately received the money. However, an advertising executive reportedly hired to broker the deal told the newspaper O Globo that at least ($12m) had been paid, and documents submitted to tax authorities and mentioned by the newspaper reportedly show that part of the funds was indeed transferred to an intermediary company.
The sum is far above the budgets of two internationally successful Brazilian films: I’m Still Here, which won the Oscar for best international feature in 2025 with a budget of $8.9m, and The Secret Agent, nominated for best picture in 2026 with $5.6m.
Some have drawn comparisons between the unusually high budget for Brazilian standards and the $40m plus $35m spent on marketing by Amazon for a documentary about the US first lady, Melania Trump.
In Bolsonaro’s case, the film’s production company and its executive producer and screenwriter – a former Bolsonaro minister – denied that the project received any funds from Vorcaro or his bank.
Barros said: “The budget is completely out of step with a national production, and the foreign participants are not top-tier. The way this money was raised still needs to be investigated … The producers say the money never reached them. So where did it go?”
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