Alleged fraud at Digimais bank increases pressure on Edir Macedo's empire
Digimais, a bank owned by bishop Edir Macedo, is under investigation for alleged asset inflation. Authorities have frozen approximately R$ 670 million in assets and funds.
Investigation at Digimais puts Macedo's businesses under scrutiny
Digimais bank, controlled by bishop and televangelist Edir Macedo, founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, is the target of an investigation by Brazilian authorities for alleged asset inflation to conceal problems in its balance sheet. According to Google News BR — Crime, warrants were executed against executives of the institution and approximately R$ 670 million in assets and funds were frozen.
Digimais's press office stated that the bank would not comment on the allegations. The Universal Church, for its part, published a statement on its website in June asserting that Macedo does not hold a position in the administration of the financial institution. "The conduct of activities is the exclusive responsibility of executives and professionals legally qualified to answer to regulatory bodies," the church said.
A bank purchased to serve the Record group
Macedo, 81 years old, began targeting the bank—originally specialised in vehicle financing—in the 2000s. He completed the acquisition of 40% of the institution in 2009, but the Central Bank only authorised the operation four years later, as a presidential decree was necessary to allow an investor resident abroad to hold a stake in Brazilian banks. Macedo has lived in the United States for years.
The initial idea was to use the institution to serve more than 15,000 employees and suppliers of the Record Group at the time. In 2020, he acquired the remainder of the bank and renamed it Digimais, also appointing people linked to the Universal to leadership positions—among them bishop João Luiz Urbaneja, who presided over the institution for a period.
The bank faced financial difficulties and required a capital injection at the beginning of this year to meet regulatory requirements. Macedo came close to negotiating the sale of Digimais to BTG Pactual, but the preliminary agreement has not yet been concluded and may be reviewed.
At the beginning of this year, the bank also underwent a change in leadership: Thiago Rodrigues Urbaneja, son of Urbaneja, was replaced as president by Aldemir Bendine, former president of Banco do Brasil and Petrobras during previous governments of the PT, the party of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Parallel with the Banco Master scandal
The allegations against Digimais resonated in the Brazilian banking sector because of their similarity to another recent case. Last year, Banco Master—a much larger institution—was liquidated by the Central Bank under allegations that it had frauded its balance sheets over the years. The proximity between the two cases fuelled the attention of the market and regulatory authorities on the health of smaller banks.
Macedo's empire beyond faith
The investigations shed light on the extensive set of businesses that Macedo has built alongside his religious leadership. The pastor preaches to an estimated audience of 10 million faithful—7 million of whom were in Brazil, according to data from the church itself in 2021.
In addition to Digimais, Macedo controls the Record Group, owner of the country's second largest television network. The company, acquired by him in the late 1980s, recorded R$ 4.3 billion in revenue last year, according to a balance sheet published with the São Paulo Commercial Board. Although much of the programming is secular, the broadcaster airs telenovelas produced by the Universal and programmes with content created by the church.
Record also produced the film Nada a Perder, a biographical film about Macedo released in 2018 that broke box office records—amid accusations that ticket sales were inflated by massive purchases made by the religious institution itself.
In 2025, Macedo sold a luxury apartment for US$ 13 million in the Porsche Design Tower, near Miami Beach, Florida—a building known for its robot garage that allows residents to drive their cars up to residential floors.
Political influence and evangelical growth
The investigation comes at a time when Macedo remains a central figure in Brazilian politics. He supported Lula throughout the 2000s, but shifted his endorsement to the conservative field, including former president Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. The Republicanos party, one of the most influential in Congress, maintains ties with the Universal—its leader is a licensed pastor and was vice-president of Macedo's TV network.
The growth of evangelical influence in Brazil has accompanied the trajectory of the Universal. Approximately 27% of Brazilians today identify as evangelical, compared with only single-digit percentages in the 1970s, when the Universal Church was founded. In the same period, Catholicism declined from more than 90% to less than 60% of the population, according to IBGE.
As a symbol of the reach of the Universal, Macedo had a replica of the Temple of Solomon built in São Paulo, the church's principal place of worship, where he conducts sermons broadcast online to millions of the faithful.
Source: Google News BR — Crime