Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Court (STF) has lifted the secrecy on only part of the investigations into the Master case, the scandal surrounding Banco Master and its owner, banker Daniel Vorcaro. The decision follows a request made hours earlier by the court's president, Edson Fachin, and the documents became public on Friday (11). According to BBC News Brasil, 14 case files tied to the bank were released.
The released files include probes involving Vorcaro, the target of the Compliance Zero investigation into suspected financial fraud and money laundering. Left out, according to G1, were the inquiries into the financing of Dark Horse, a film about Jair Bolsonaro's life, and into the ties between Senator Jaques Wagner and Augusto Ferreira Lima, Vorcaro's former partner.
The sealed threads cover sensitive ground. Federal Police records cited by G1 list 74 phone calls between Wagner and Lima over 18 months and say the senator defended the bank's interests in Congress in exchange for benefits, including a Salvador apartment valued at 2.5 million reais. On the film, G1 reports that Vorcaro sent 61 million reais to the producers through a fund in the United States, and, according to The Intercept Brasil, presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro reportedly negotiated a 24 million dollar transfer for the project.
What Fachin asked for
On Thursday (10), Fachin asked Mendonça, the justice who reports on the Master investigations at the court, to send the offices of the president and the other justices a hard drive with information from case filing 15.556, the original core of Compliance Zero. That filing includes accusations against members of Congress and against Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Fachin allowed one exception: data deemed "essential" to the investigations could stay protected.
Solicitor General Jorge Messias praised the decision and noted that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had already called for the secrecy to be lifted.
"Publicity is the rule of the Republic. Transparency protects institutions, guarantees equal treatment for those involved, clarifies citizens' choices and lets society learn the facts without cuts, versions or selectivity," Messias wrote on social media.
The September 15 session
The release comes at the height of a standoff between Mendonça and Moraes. On September 1, Mendonça unsealed a Federal Police report suggesting that Vorcaro had sought advice from and exchanged information with Moraes. Two days later, Moraes released police intelligence reports on alleged irregular conduct by Mendonça. On Wednesday (9), Fachin removed Moraes as the reporting justice of the so-called Fake News inquiry and scheduled the plenary session on the Master case.
The next step is set. On Tuesday (15), the full court is due to examine case filing 16.662, which grew out of 15.556. The session could open an investigation into Moraes, a decision that belongs to the court's eleven justices.