The Brazilian Supreme Court closed its session on Tuesday (Sep. 15) without deciding whether Justice Alexandre de Moraes can be investigated for his alleged ties to former banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, who was arrested for financial fraud.

Justice Flávio Dino requested a review of the case and has been given 90 days to resume deliberations.

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The impasse among the justices arose from a disagreement over the procedure to be followed in the ruling. Initially, only Moraes’ case was placed on the docket by the chief justice, Edson Fachin. The review of the allegations against André Mendonça was scheduled for the September 23 session.

During the session, justices allied with Moraes argued that the relationship with Vorcaro should be examined in conjunction with the alleged irregularities attributed to Justice André Mendonça – the case’s former rapporteur – when he requested that the full court investigate the matter.

It fell to Justice Gilmar Mendes to raise a point of order and request that the charges against Moraes and those against Mendonça be tried together.

The matter was put to a vote, but the decision was not finalized because Justice Dino requested time to review the case file following the heated exchange between Gilmar Mendes and Mendonça. The preliminary vote stood at 4 to 3 in favor of separate trials.

Justice Mendonça

Justice André Mendonça, former rapporteur for the Banco Master case, is accused by Alexandre de Moraes of acting in a biased manner while conducting the investigations in order to incriminate him.

In addition, Brazil’s prosecutor-general claims that Mendonça illegally investigated Moraes by ordering a more in-depth inquiry into the Banco Master case to scrutinize conversations involving the justice and the former banker.

According to the prosecutor-general, such an inquiry could only have taken place after authorization by the full bench of the Supreme Court.

Justice Moraes

The Moraes case came to light on September 1, when André Mendonça lifted the confidentiality order on a Federal Police report and forwarded the conversations to Fachin.

The probe indicates that Vorcaro exchanged about 50 messages with a phone number attributed to Alexandre de Moraes before being arrested on November 17 of last year.

Moraes claims his colleague took this action for political and electoral reasons. “Because he is in the service of a political group that tried to stage a coup in this country,” he declared, referring to the connection between Mendonça and former President Jair Bolsonaro, who appointed him to the position.

In a defense filed early Tuesday morning, hours before the special session, the justice denied having committed any kind of irregularity and classified the report containing alleged messages sent to him by the former banker as unconstitutional and illegal.

The full bench of the Federal Supreme Court will begin considering this Tuesday morning (Sep. 15) whether Justice Alexandre de Moraes can be investigated for alleged ties with former banker Daniel Vorcaro.

The court’s plenary session was convened by Justice André Mendonça, the former rapporteur for the Banco Master case, after a Federal Police probe revealed that Vorcaro had contacted a cell phone number attributed to Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

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The messages were intercepted by the Federal Police after the secrecy of the former banker’s cell phone records was lifted. He is currently in custody as part of the Operation Compliance Zero investigations into financial fraud at Banco Master.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued a statement early this morning regarding the ruling that will determine whether he can be investigated for his alleged relationship with former banker Daniel Vorcaro.

In a statement sent to the court’s chief justice, Edson Fachin, Moraes denies having committed any kind of irregularity and described the report containing alleged messages sent to him by the former banker as unconstitutional and illegal.

In a 44-page document, Moraes refers to Mendonça’s report as “false and worthless.” The conversations are fabricated, he claims.

“As previously stated, there is an attempt to impose strict liability for third-party messages found in a cell phone’s ‘notepad,’ which was seized during a successful police operation in which the suspect was arrested.”

Furthermore, Moraes argues, of the 52 notes found on the former banker’s cell phone, 47 were not found in the WhatsApp conversations intercepted during the investigation. Thus, in the justice’s view, there is no “actual correspondence” whatsoever.

To Moraes’s judgment, the fact that the report was drafted in secret – without a request from the prosecutor-general or authorization from the Supreme Court’s full bench – demonstrates “illegal steering of the investigation” on Justice André Mendonça’s part.

Regarding the contract signed between Banco Master and Barci de Moraes Law Firm – which counts Moraes’s wife among its partners – the justice stated he had never represented Banco Master or Daniel Vorcaro in any case.

He goes on to defend his wife and children. “They are lawyers and have the right, like all other lawyers, to practice their profession, always in accordance with the law and professional ethics.”

At the end of his statement, Moraes cites attempts at revenge and political-electoral motives related to the trial for attempted coup d’état – in which he served as the reporting judge and which convicted leaders of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration.

“The coup attempt did not end on January 8, 2023; it simply changed its modus operandi. But, just as it did the first time, the Supreme Court will stand firm and emerge stronger.”

*With contributions from reporter Priscilla Mazenotti of Rádio Nacional

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Wednesday (Sep. 9) called for a “complete lifting of the confidentiality in the investigations of all those involved in the [Banco] Master case.” Lula described the matter as “the biggest financial crime in Brazil’s history.” His remarks come amid a serious crisis among Supreme Court justices involving decisions related to the probes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro.

In a social media post, Lula called for the measure to be taken “urgently.”

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“The Brazilian people need explanations and immediate measures to address the institutional crisis that has taken hold of the judiciary,” he said.

The president called for transparency and criticized selective leaks that are impacting the election. He argued that the confidentiality of investigations must be fully lifted, “no matter who it is, no matter who it hurts.”

“Brazil needs to know the truth,” the post concludes saying.

Million-dollar fraud

The crisis at the Supreme Court came to light when Justice André Mendonça lifted the confidentiality of partial reports from Operation Compliance Zero – in which he serves as rapporteur – which targets corruption by public officials and billion-dollar financial fraud allegedly committed by Vorcaro.

The released material contains 52 messages that investigators say were sent by Vorcaro to Justice Alexandre de Moraes. In them, the former banker demonstrates close ties to the justice and appears to have forwarded to him a BRL 131 million contract between Master and the law firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice’s wife.

To date, Justice Moraes has denied any contact with the former banker. Following the release of the material, the justice made public an “intelligence report” from the Federal Police in which Mendonça suggests targeting political opponents in the handling of the Master case.