Brazil's former prosecutor general Claudio Fonteles, who led the federal prosecution service from 2003 to 2005 during President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's first term, told BBC News Brasil that the current prosecutor general (PGR), Paulo Gonet, should step aside from the Banco Master investigation and hand the case to his deputy, Hindenburgo Chateaubriand Filho. In the interview, published Thursday, he also called for an investigation into Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes and described the standoff between the justice and the inquiries' rapporteur, Andre Mendonca, as the biggest crisis in the court's history.
The recusal request rests on messages pulled from the phone of banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the now defunct Banco Master, that mention Gonet. According to a Federal Police report unsealed on Tuesday by Mendonça, lawyer Ciro Soares, a former counsel for the bank, acted as a go-between for Vorcaro and the prosecutor general. In March 2025, Soares allegedly worked to have Vorcaro include Pedro Gonet, the prosecutor's son, on a Master-funded trip to London. Days earlier, the lawyer had sent Vorcaro a photo of himself beside Gonet, saying he was with the PGR, and the two then traded calls. As of publication, Gonet had not addressed the revelations. "The prosecutor general of the republic has to explain this," Fonteles said. In his view, the trip episode is "the most delicate" one, though it does not necessarily amount to a criminal offense, and stepping aside would be "a guarantee for himself".
A short timeline for newcomers
Banco Master is the target of STF inquiries into billions of reais in alleged fraud. Among the messages the Federal Police attributes to Vorcaro and Moraes is a supposed request, dated October 30, 2025, for the justice to intervene on the banker's behalf with Gonet and Federal Police director general Andrei Rodrigues. On November 15, Vorcaro asked the justice whether he should leave Brazil; he was arrested two days later as he tried to fly to Dubai, and the central bank liquidated Master the next day. Investigators also found that the law office of Moraes's wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, held a 131 million reais contract with Master, a document Moraes at one point edited. Once the report was unsealed, the case produced a wave of stories and leaks also touching Mendonça, the prosecutor general's office and figures such as Flavio Bolsonaro and lawmaker Nikolas Ferreira, as the Folha daily's morning podcast noted. None of those named has been charged or convicted; the allegations remain under investigation.
The fight over the report
On Monday, Mendonça ordered the prosecutor general's office to review the report and state its position on opening an investigation of Moraes. Gonet asked instead for the case to be voided, arguing Mendonça could not commission a Federal Police report on a fellow justice directly and should have taken the question to the full court before ordering that initial inquiry. "It is not for a judge to accuse, still less for a judge to carry out pre-trial investigations," Gonet argued in a filing quoted by the BBC.
Fonteles disagrees. He says there was no illegality, because Law 13,964 of 2019, the anticrime package that created the judge of guarantees, widened what judges may do in criminal investigations, including requesting documents, reports and information from police. He also argues the full court already has enough to open an inquiry into Moraes's conduct.
"Faced with these facts involving Justice Alexandre de Moraes, I believe, without any doubt, that he must be investigated. First, by the fact that he even took part in hiring his wife's law firm. That alone is a fact that needs to be investigated."
Fonteles also cited the message in which the banker asked the justice "should I leave Brazil, should I stay in Brazil": "These facts are objectively on the table. There is no doubt whatsoever, they must be investigated," he said.
The next move belongs to STF President Edson Fachin, who ordered Moraes, Mendonça, the prosecutor general's office and the Federal Police to explain the crisis within five days. The full court will then decide whether to open an investigation of Moraes and whether to accept Gonet's request to void the report.