Brazil's Workers' Party (PT) filed a complaint on Wednesday (Sept. 2, 2026) with the Senate Ethics Council against Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator for Rio de Janeiro and the presidential candidate of the right-wing PL party. The party asks the council, which can remove senators for misconduct, to strip him of his mandate for breach of parliamentary decorum. The case rests on "Dark Horse", a film honoring his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro. The party says the film's financing exposes contradictions in the senator's public statements.
The complaint was signed by the PT's Senate leader, Camilo Santana. According to Poder360, the magazine Piauí reported this week that Daniel Vorcaro, the former banker who founded Banco Master, transferred more money to the project than the senator had admitted.
The numbers
Per Congresso em Foco, Bolsonaro negotiated with Vorcaro a financing package of US$ 24 million, about R$ 134 million. Records made public earlier showed at least US$ 10.6 million, about R$ 61 million, paid between February and May 2025. A report by Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence unit, then recorded a transfer of US$ 1.6 million on Sept. 16, 2025 to the US fund Havengate Development, which financed the film. The money moved eight days after the senator pressed Vorcaro over late payments. Known transfers now total US$ 12.3 million, about R$ 65 million, per Poder360.
After audio recordings surfaced in which he asks Vorcaro for money, Bolsonaro said in an interview that the last payment had come in May 2025. The Coaf record shows a payment four months later. Asked this week about the September transfer, the senator referred questions to the film's producer. He denies any personal gain or favors in exchange, and says the film about his father was financed with private sponsorship, with no public funds and no money from Rouanet, Brazil's federal culture incentive program. His office did not respond to Poder360 by publication time.
"The Federal Senate cannot ignore facts of this gravity. Whoever holds a mandate granted by the people has a duty to act with truth, responsibility and respect for institutions. Parliamentary immunity protects freedom of expression and the exercise of the mandate, but it cannot serve as a shield to deceive society," Camilo Santana said in a statement.
A stalled council
The complaint lands in a body that has not deliberated since July 2024. According to Poder360, the Ethics Council has met only five times in the past seven years and has no meeting scheduled for this year, even though Senate records list it as active. The PT's own website says the filing also bears the signature of party president Edinho Silva and recalls past Senate expulsions such as those of Luiz Estevão and Demóstenes Torres.
The move is part of the party's offensive over the "Dark Horse" case, one month before the first round of the presidential election on Oct. 4. Allies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva want the investigations declassified and an inquiry into the impartiality of Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça, though the PT rules out supporting impeachment requests against him. What happens next depends on the council itself: to move forward, it must be convened, accept the complaint and install an investigative committee.