Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) justice André Mendonça announced on Thursday (3) that he is leaving the partnership of the Instituto Iter, a private educational institute he founded. He will transfer all of his shares and those of his wife "without any financial consideration", and said he has never derived profit from the organization.
The decision was made on Wednesday (2) in a conversation with the institute's president, Victor Godoy, according to the justice's office. Iter will be converted into a non-profit organization. Mendonça will remain linked to it only as a professor, providing "exclusively academic services".
"Justice André Mendonça decided to leave the partnership of Instituto Iter, transferring the entirety of his shares and those of his wife, without any financial consideration. Created in 2024, Instituto Iter will be transformed into a non-profit entity, reinforcing its exclusively educational and social vocation. The justice has never derived profit from the institute," the statement says.
Public contracts under scrutiny
In its own statement, Instituto Iter confirmed the departure and said that over two years of activity "there was no distribution of profits or dividends". The institute is led by Victor Godoy Veiga, a former education minister under Jair Bolsonaro and a career auditor on leave from the federal comptroller's office, the CGU.
The institute has featured in recent news reports questioning its activities and contracts with public bodies, according to news site G1. Broadcaster Jovem Pan reported that the city government of São Paulo hired the institute without a bidding process, for 380,000 reais, to run two training courses for civil servants, under a contract signed in September 2025; the city's management secretariat said the hiring followed procurement law "strictly". According to UOL, the institute received 8.2 million reais in public funds over two years. Jovem Pan dates the institute's registration to November 2023, while the justice's statement says it was created in 2024.
On the public contracts, the institute argued that training courses are "specialized technical services of a predominantly intellectual nature" and that Brazil's 2021 procurement law, which allows direct hiring without bidding in such cases, therefore applies. The choice of hiring method, it said, always belongs to the contracting agency.
Mendonça, who is also a Presbyterian pastor, had already explained in a sermon in February how he would use any earnings from the institute: "I will set aside 10% as a tithe and the remaining 90% will be invested in social work and education." The transfer of the shares and the formal conversion of Iter into a non-profit organization remain to be completed. The institute said its educational activities "will continue normally".