The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, ruled on Friday (25) that the Attorney General's Office (PGR, the federal prosecution service) must state its position on pending requests in the investigations into the Master bank case and the INSS, the institute that pays Brazil's state pensions. The requests include bids by defense lawyers to end pretrial detentions and a petition by the Federal Police to extend ongoing inquiries. Prosecutors have five days to file their opinion, after which the case files return to Fachin's chambers.
In the order, Fachin asked the PGR to assess whether the requested measures are pertinent, necessary and adequate, and their possible impact on investigations still under way. Prosecutors must also say who should rule on the requests: the court's presidency or the justice assigned to the cases, André Mendonça. What happens after the opinion, and who will be responsible for the files, remains undefined.
The cases are now before the presidency, which chose to send the requests to the PGR before any ruling. Defense teams asked for the release of seven people under investigation in the Master case: Henrique Vorcaro, Felipe Vorcaro, Rodrigo Franco, Marilson Roseno da Silva, Fabiano Zettel, Daniel Monteiro and Sebastião Monteiro Junior. In the INSS inquiry, lawyers for former institute president Alessandro Stefanutto took his appeal against pretrial detention, in force for more than 300 days, to the court's presidency, according to the Painel column of Folha de S.Paulo.
How the cases reached the presidency
The fight over the inquiries ran through September. G1 and CNN Brasil reported that Justice Alexandre de Moraes called for an examination of Mendonça's conduct in the Master case, and BBC News Brasil reported that Fachin postponed a ruling on the matter on September 17. Before Friday's decision, it was unclear whether Fachin would rule on the requests himself or send the files back to the reporting justice. The order took the middle path: hear the prosecution first. The PGR is led by Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet.
On the same day, the superior council of the federal prosecution service was debating Gonet himself. The body weighed complaints over mentions of the prosecutor general in messages taken from the phone of banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master and jailed as part of the financial scandal, amid the strain caused by the release of a photo of the two at a gathering in London. The interim tally was 3 to 0 to keep Gonet on the case and 2 to 1 against opening an investigation of him, with votes still under way; deputy prosecutor Janice Ascari argued for gathering preliminary information. The reporting member, deputy prosecutor general Francisco Sanseverino, said messages "cannot be examined in isolation or out of context". Gonet, who did not chair the session because he is its target, denies any closeness to Vorcaro and called their contact "extremely brief and banal".
What comes next
The next step is the PGR opinion, due within five days. Once the files return to the STF, Fachin will rule on the release requests and on extending the inquiries, or will send the cases to the reporting justice, depending on the prosecutors' position. Every detention cited is precautionary, ordered within ongoing inquiries, and everyone named is an investigated party, with no conviction on record so far.