Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Thursday (17) ordered evidence of possible crimes in Banco Master's dealings with cemetery concessionaires run by the city of São Paulo to be sent to the Federal Police, and told court president Edson Fachin about the mention of fellow Justice André Mendonça in the case file. Dino, who reports the case, barred the police from taking any investigative step against his colleague and asked Fachin to take the appropriate measures.

"I clarify that any investigative act that could affect Justice André Mendonça is barred, because this referral falls exclusively to the president of the STF together with the full bench," Dino wrote.

In the ruling, Dino described an "intensification of evidence of crimes" and widened the scope of the inquiry. Beyond the concessionaire Cortel, cited in a September 15 decision, the apparent ties of the Master conglomerate now reach Cemitérios e Crematórios SP, controlled by the Maya group. According to documents cited in the ruling, the bank lent R$ 78 million to companies that owned the concessionaire, and they handed over all their shares as collateral. The contracts reportedly gave the creditor power to steer how shareholders voted in certain situations, and Dino says the credits moved through Master Holding structures in the Cayman Islands.

Dino sent the material to Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues, added the Maya group to the investigation and gave the securities regulator CVM 15 days to map the group's ties to investment funds and to every private cemetery concessionaire in the city. The group also joined a priority oversight list. The ruling collects complaints about the services, including a R$ 12,000 charge to bury a newborn at the Cemitério da Saudade cemetery. According to G1, the decision does not state that Mendonça favored anyone, and any step regarding the justice belongs to the court president and the full bench.

In a statement, SP Regula, the municipal agency that regulates public services in São Paulo, said financial relations between the funeral service concessionaires and banks or private funds "do not in themselves constitute any contractual irregularity". It said the companies' finances are monitored permanently and that the city attorney's office "was notified and is analyzing the situation".

How the case got here

• March 7, 2025: in case ADPF 1196, a suit filed by the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) challenging the privatization and the prices charged by São Paulo's cemetery and funeral services, Dino grants an injunction ordering the city to publicize the criteria for free burials and improve oversight of the concessionaires.
• March 14, 2025: Master banker Daniel Vorcaro meets Mendonça. According to a Uol report reproduced in the ruling, Vorcaro held credits guaranteed by shares of a concessionaire that would be affected by a ruling at the STF.
• March 15, 2025: Mendonça asks for time to review the injunction. When the case resumed, in April 2025, he voted against Dino's decision.
• September 15, 2026: Dino writes that Mendonça would have favored the interests of Master and the city government in exchange for funds to the Iter Institute, founded by the justice, which allegedly signed a R$ 380,000 contract with the city in September 2025. Dino also cited Mendonça's brother, Alexandre de Almeida Mendonça, who works in the funeral and cemetery area of SP Regula. That day, the bench session on how the cases should proceed was interrupted after Dino took the case for review.
• September 17, 2026: Dino issues the ruling in this story. The same day, Fachin canceled an extraordinary bench session and pulled from the agenda, with no new date, the September 23 review of Mendonça's conduct.

The Federal Police investigation into Master's operations with the concessionaires is now open, and the CVM's 15-day deadline runs to early October. At the court, Dino has up to 90 days to return the case file he took for review on September 15. On the session about Mendonça, Fachin wrote that its inclusion on the agenda "will be rescheduled in due course", with no date set.