A payment receipt is a discreet document: a value, a date, two ends. Among the papers that Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) released from secrecy on Friday (11), there is a row of them with the same two ends repeating. On one side, Go Up Entertainment, the production company behind "Dark Horse", the film biography of former president Jair Bolsonaro whose English title describes a long shot in a race. On the other, federal congressman Mário Frias, from São Paulo for the PL party, the film's screenwriter and executive producer. In between, according to news site g1, at least four of the lawmaker's credit card bills paid by the company between August and November 2025, with values ranging from 32,600 to 36,800 reais.
The company's financial records, released with the lifting of secrecy over the "Dark Horse" investigations, detail the payments:
- bill settled on August 22, 2025: R$ 32,604.39;
- bill settled on September 25, 2025: R$ 34,164.08;
- bill settled on October 21, 2025: R$ 33,242.21;
- bill settled on November 19, 2025: R$ 36,857.35.
Added together, the four bills come to R$ 136,868.03, paid by Go Up while the Bolsonaro film was in production. The g1 report does not detail what the card was used for. The revelation arrived two days after Operation Make Up: on Thursday (10), the Federal Police served 49 search and seizure warrants in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceará and the Federal District. The targets included Frias and Karina Ferreira da Gama, owner of Go Up and of two social project organizations, the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB) and the Academia Nacional de Cultura (ANC). According to the police, the case examines a suspected scheme to divert public money from emendas parlamentares, budget earmarks that let Brazilian lawmakers direct federal funds to projects of their choice, with hundreds of millions of reais moving among companies tied to the group. The crimes under investigation include embezzlement, document fraud, money laundering, criminal organization and bid rigging.
"A sophisticated structure", in the STF's words
"The elements already produced reveal the existence of a sophisticated financial and operational structure designed to circulate resources among entities, companies and individuals linked to the group under investigation."
The sentence comes from Justice Flávio Dino of the STF, in the ruling that authorized the operation. The document also cites companies based abroad, such as Go Up Entertainment LLC, and audits by the federal Comptroller General's Office (CGU) that found problems from the choice of ICB to receive the money through the final execution of the projects. According to BBC News Brasil, Frias is accused of transferring 2 million reais to Gama. Dino also ordered precautionary measures against the congressman and the other suspects: they may not travel abroad or contact one another, and their passports were collected.
The film now sits between two inquiries at the STF, Brazil's highest court. One, under Dino, focuses on the possible misuse of earmarks and public money that reached organizations and companies tied to the producer. The other, under Mendonça, follows the transfers of banker Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of the defunct Banco Master who is jailed in Brasília, among them 61 million reais sent to the film which, according to state outlet Agência Brasil, would have been requested by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a presidential candidate. It was the outlet The Intercept that, in May, published the audio of the request, recorded in November 2025. The senator denies any improper arrangement and said after the police operation that the film was "all perfect, private investment in a private film".
"A smoke screen"
Frias answered in a video posted on social media. He called the operation a "smoke screen" in an election season, said the earmark under investigation was destined to a sports and digital literacy project for children and said he holds documents and receipts to prove it was lawful. "They took my phone, documents, computer. Nobody was arrested. Of course, because there is no arrest warrant against me or anyone else," he said. Back in May he had already called the claim that he steered earmarks to the film "absolutely false"; his office did not respond to g1's questions before this report was last updated. "Dark Horse" was shot in English, with actor Jim Caviezel playing Bolsonaro, according to BBC News Brasil. And in the case files that Mendonça opened to the public, the receipts that opened this story remain: four bills, one card and, on every one of them, the same production company paying the account.