Brazil's Federal Police has identified at least five international trips taken together by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate and eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, and lawyer Willer Tomaz, who is under investigation for suspected involvement in the INSS pension fraud scheme, in the first half of 2025. The evidence comes from photos, bookings and emails seized in August during searches of the lawyer's office in Brasília, according to a report by the newspaper O Globo published on Friday. The friendship also included the campaign-season use of a São Paulo apartment linked to banker Daniel Vorcaro, and has become a source of friction for the candidate with the first round of the election sixteen days away.
The most striking trip came in March 2025, nine months before Flávio launched his run. On a week-long itinerary in South Africa that included a safari, he traveled with family members, Willer and Senator Weverton Rocha of the PDT, also under investigation in the INSS case. In one photo located by police, Flávio, Weverton and Willer appear with children in a savanna area, all wearing matching t-shirts printed with African animals and the words "Big Five", safari-industry slang for elephant, lion, leopard, rhino and buffalo. O Globo reports further joint trips to Portugal, France and the United States, and says that in January 2025 the two flew from the United States to Brasília on a jet of Prime You, a company that counted Vorcaro among its partners.
The apartment in Vila Nova Conceição
In early August, Flávio stayed in a 158-square-meter apartment in the l'Adresse building in Vila Nova Conceição, one of São Paulo's most expensive neighborhoods. From the apartment, lent to him by Willer, the candidate recorded videos for Brazil's free TV campaign slot and met the team that set the final campaign strategy. Until February, the property belonged to Fabiano Zettel, Vorcaro's brother-in-law, described by police as the banker's main operator. Vorcaro, former controller of Banco Master, is jailed on suspicion of running the largest fraud ever against Brazil's financial system. The apartment revelation came from the magazine piauí on September 16 and was confirmed by O Globo. According to piauí, which credits the discovery of the sale to Folha de S.Paulo, Zettel bought the apartment for 5.5 million reais in April 2025 and sold it to the lawyer's company for 3.5 million reais in February, a nominal loss of 2 million reais.
The transfer was registered at the notary's office on March 4, two months after the Supreme Federal Court ordered Zettel's assets frozen and on the same day he was arrested in the third phase of Operation Compliance Zero, the investigation into crimes involving Banco Master. Flávio's use of the apartment drew challenges from opponents at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral tribunal, who argue the arrangement should have been declared as a campaign donation, according to O Globo. Congresswoman Erika Hilton of the PSOL asked the Prosecutor-General's office (PGR) to open an investigation, the site PSOL 50 reported, and Congresswoman Fernanda Melchionna, also of the PSOL, asked the TSE to examine possible abuse of economic power, according to Sul 21.
The INSS inquiry and the responses
Willer was targeted by a Federal Police operation in August on suspicion of running a network of companies and financial operators to launder or hide money obtained through illegal diversions of pension payments. In the police report that grounded the searches, he is described as the "financial, patrimonial and logistics hub" of the group under investigation, supported by "companies, real estate, aircraft, pilots, staff, financial operators and political intermediaries". The document cites a transfer of 11 million reais from companies linked to Willer to Weverton's wife. The senator from Maranhão, targeted in a December operation, is described by police as the "leadership and mainstay of the business and financial activities" of the group that defrauded the INSS, Brazil's social security institute. Willer denies being investigated for fraud against the pension system; Weverton denies any wrongdoing. Flávio's connection to the lawyer has entered the police's sights within that inquiry.
Asked about the trips, Flávio said he has a "legitimate" "friendship" with Willer and that "any attempt to insinuate irregularity from this personal affinity is a mere inference with no factual basis". He did not say whether the lawyer paid any of his expenses. Willer said in a statement that the trips "are strictly private in nature", were "paid with his own resources" and "have nothing to do with public office, contracts or any third-party interests", and that he "never had" any personal, commercial or corporate relationship with Zettel or Vorcaro. According to piauí, in an initial phone call the lawyer denied that Flávio had used the apartment. Weverton called Willer his "compadre and friend of many years" and said the family trips are "private relationships that involve no money or public interests". O Globo also reports that Willer lent a house in Angra dos Reis for a birthday party for one of the senator's daughters in February, and that the two act together as lawyers on a case before the Superior Court of Justice (STJ).
The next steps sit with the courts. The TSE has not yet decided whether to open an investigation into the apartment, and the PGR has not ruled on Hilton's request. Federal Police investigators continue to analyze the material seized from Willer within the INSS fraud inquiry. The first round of the presidential election is set for October 4.