Digital records obtained in investigations show that Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, worked on the editing of a legal services contract worth roughly R$130 million between the law firm of his wife, attorney Viviane Barci de Moraes, and businessman Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master. The daily O Estado de S. Paulo published the findings on Tuesday (Sept. 1), and TV Globo confirmed them.
Metadata from the file, which was sent over a messaging app and extracted from Vorcaro's phone, lists the justice's name and username as the author of the document's last modification, according to the report. The contract hired the firm Barci de Moraes Sociedade de Advogados for legal work and strategic consulting, with total fees of about R$130 million.
What the law firm says
In a statement, the firm confirmed that the justice took part in reviewing the draft contract. It said its compliance department had asked him, as "the husband of the managing partner", whether any legal bar to the deal existed, such as STF cases under his rapporteurship.
Given the absence of any planned action at the STF or of any legal impediment, since Justice Alexandre de Moraes has never judged any case involving Banco Master, the contract was signed and the legal services were duly provided.
The investigation
Federal Police arrested Vorcaro in November last year in the Compliance Zero operation as he tried to board a private jet to Malta and then Dubai. According to the magazine VEJA, records from his phone also show messages exchanged with Moraes before the arrest, on Nov. 17. The banker asked whether "Galípolo knows", whether "we can do something" and whether "you think I should already be out by Monday?", a reference to Central Bank President Gabriel Galípolo.
VEJA also reports that investigators found Vorcaro had authorized credit cards for the justice's two children, each with a limit of R$300,000. The seized material was sent to the office of Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the Master investigation at the STF.
On Monday (Aug. 31), Mendonça sent a formal request to the Attorney General's Office (PGR) seeking clarification on a message from Vorcaro's phone in which he said he needed protection from Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues. The PGR has five days to respond and, according to G1, did not return requests for comment. The case remains under Mendonça's review.