Brazil's Central Bank approved the board of Banco Master on August 4, 2021, including as a director Angelo Antonio Ribeiro da Silva, an executive who was under investigation by the CVM, the country's securities regulator, for suspected price manipulation and whose case had already been formally reported to the monetary authority. The finding comes from ICL Notícias, based on a CVM report cited in a decision by Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino released on Thursday (24). The approval came under Roberto Campos Neto, then Central Bank president, and also covered Daniel Vorcaro and Luiz Antonio Bull.Angelo was responsible for issuing trading orders for shares of CARE11, a real estate fund tied to the funeral industry, on behalf of what was then Banco Máxima. CVM staff identified 455 purchase operations between September 2018 and December 2019 and concluded that the bank acted in a coordinated and systematic way, especially in the last trading sessions of each month; in key periods it accounted for between 48.9% and 87% of all purchases. In a recording reproduced in the case file, the executive says the trades were meant to keep the price "from falling" and asks a broker for protection on the paper.The probe became administrative sanctioning case 19957.006441/2021-87, in which the regulator's technical area proposed holding the bank and the executive liable. The merits were never judged: in November 2022 the CVM accepted a settlement under which Máxima agreed to pay R$ 2.208 million and Angelo R$ 736,000, a combined R$ 2.944 million, with no recognition of wrongdoing. The bank's defense said it believed funeral sector assets would appreciate, that the purchases were part of its investment strategy and that the fund's low liquidity explained the price impact. Angelo has not been convicted and remains an investigated party in the broader Master case.TimelineIn February 2019 the Central Bank rejected the transfer of control of Máxima to Vorcaro, citing insufficient information on the origin of the funds. Eight months later, under Campos Neto, the board reversed course and authorized the deal. In 2020 the bank's own supervision flagged liquidity problems and warned Vorcaro that failing to comply with its demands could lead to extrajudicial liquidation. In 2021 Máxima was renamed Master, Angelo was approved as a director and the Central Bank authorized the acquisition of Banco Vipal. Between 2022 and 2024 supervisors sent 31 formal letters to the conglomerate demanding adjustments. In November 2025, under Gabriel Galípolo, Master was liquidated after the Central Bank diagnosed a severe liquidity crisis.Supreme Court inquiryOn Thursday, Dino ordered the Federal Police to investigate the CVM's handling of the Master case for alleged omission. According to G1, one focus is the 2022 archiving of a complaint forwarded by the FGC, Brazil's deposit guarantee fund, which said more than R$ 3 billion of roughly R$ 5 billion raised with fund coverage sat in illiquid assets. The CVM task force report recorded that no investigative action followed the complaint. ICL Notícias counted four CVM communications to the Central Bank about the Master universe between 2020 and 2022, all under Campos Neto, plus two more in 2025 and January 2026. Contacted for comment, the Central Bank did not say what it did with them.Campos Neto has said decisions such as intervention or liquidation were not his alone and that no such proposal reached the board during his tenure. According to Estadão reporting cited by ICL Notícias, he avoided harsher measures on at least two occasions in 2024, when Master pledged to raise R$ 15 billion in long-term funding and obtained about R$ 2 billion. The next steps have dates: the Federal Police must deliver a first report within 60 days of September 24, the CVM was given 72 hours to hand over the full archived case file, and Galípolo confirmed to Estadão and O Globo that he will testify to the Federal Police as a witness in October.

The president of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, is preparing a response to a ruling by Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Flávio Dino that struck down an electoral court order concerning posts about Our Lady of Aparecida. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Kassio will meet on Monday (28) with STF President Edson Fachin to warn him about what he sees as improper interference by Supreme Court justices in the electoral court, and to demand institutional measures against manipulation of the system that assigns case rapporteurs, the justices who write the first opinion on each case.TimelineOn Friday (25), TSE Justice André Mendonça granted a request from the presidential campaign of Flávio Bolsonaro, of the right-wing PL party, and ordered five platforms to remove posts he called "manifestly untrue" that linked the candidate to an alleged plan to strip Our Lady Aparecida, Brazil's Catholic patroness, of her title. On Sunday (27), Dino annulled the injunction and ordered the posts restored. The justice wrote that the posts showed no "degree of certainty of illicitness to draw the harshest consequences against freedom of expression and, ultimately, against religious freedom itself".The case file that gave Dino jurisdiction has no connection to the presidential race. He ruled on a request by actor Antônio Tabet, one of the profiles hit by Mendonça's order, filed inside a case that had sat in his chambers since May, about the censorship of posts on the ineligibility of former congressman Deltan Dallagnol. According to Folha, Kassio told an associate he saw the move as a violation of the principle of the natural judge: in the TSE president's view, it is as if Tabet's lawyers had bypassed the STF's random assignment lottery and picked the justice who would hear the request, in search of a favorable outcome.What each side saysDino struck the injunction down for lack of grounds and proportionality, without ruling on the content of the posts, as Folha's newsletter column reported. Kassio, in turn, considers such maneuvers frequent and plans to ask Fachin for rules to block the practice. The dispute traces back to a rumor in the final stretch of the campaign: BBC News Brasil found that the only bill ever introduced to remove the patroness title was filed in 2007 by then congressman Victório Galli and shelved in 2008, with no record of involvement by Flávio Bolsonaro. The candidate denies the claim and took the matter to the electoral court.The meeting between Fachin and Kassio had been scheduled since last week, according to Folha, and the TSE president intends to use it to address what he sees as a risk of escalating tensions between the two courts. The next step in the case is the meeting itself, set for Monday (28), one week before the first round of Brazil's elections.

A joint task force led by Brazil's Ministry of Justice and Public Security and the Ministry of Finance has taken down 506 websites suspected of operating unauthorized online betting services. The administrative enforcement follows a provisional measure (MP) signed on Friday (25) by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which enacted a nationwide ban on fixed-odds betting operations and advertising. Cyber monitoring and masked ads According to an assessment by the Cyber Operations Laboratory (Ciberlab), a unit under the National Secretariat of Public Security, active advertising campaigns continued across major digital platforms and social networks after the executive order was published. Investigators noted that several advertisements were created and distributed after the ban officially took effect. In a joint statement, both ministries reported evidence of evasion techniques, including page names that differed from displayed betting brands and masked domain links. Authorities indicated that these methods point to suspected efforts to conceal the true identities of advertisers and the ultimate destination of online traffic. "The objective is to cut off access to platforms operating without authorization and prevent new domains from being used to offer betting services to the Brazilian public," the ministries stated. Regulatory timeline and big tech summons The presidential measure established a phased timeline. New monetary deposits into betting accounts were barred immediately upon the rule's publication on September 25. Operators have until 11:59 p.m. on October 5 to keep systems accessible solely for users to withdraw their deposited funds and to take down pre-existing promotional campaigns. Because most commercial ad networks do not disclose the exact initial launch date of online ads to external monitors, the federal government plans to hold a technical meeting with major tech companies. The agenda will demand automated blocking of new gambling promotions, strict compliance with the takedown deadline, monitoring of affiliate and influencer sponsorships, and the preservation of ad purchaser records for potential legal action. The next procedural phase begins on October 6, when federal authorities, alongside the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) and the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br), will launch a coordinated technical sweep to block all remaining unauthorized betting platforms nationwide.

Gilmar Mendes, the longest-serving justice on Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), said on Saturday, September 26, that Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet suffered "consummated reputational damage" in the way the Master case was handled. In a post on X, Mendes said the ruling issued on Friday, September 25, by the Higher Council of the Federal Prosecution Service (CSMPF), an oversight body within the prosecutors' office, confirmed that there was nothing preventing Gonet from continuing to act in cases related to Banco Master, and he called for the STF to adopt a "judge of guarantees" for its own investigations.On Friday the CSMPF rejected a request to investigate Gonet over an alleged relationship with Daniel Vorcaro and kept the prosecutor-general in charge of the Banco Master investigations, according to news site R7. Veja magazine reports that the criticism is aimed at Justice André Mendonça, the former rapporteur of the Master case at the STF. According to the court's senior justice, the rapporteur had already acknowledged in plenary how weak the insinuations were, but only after the secrecy covering the messages had been lifted and the headlines had circulated."The secrecy had already been lifted and the headlines had already circulated. The reputational damage was already done. What remains is an unfiltered picture of selective leaks, in an investigation that, curiously, gained traction as the electoral cycle advanced."To Mendes, the council's ruling amounted to a "timid and convenient repair for those who caused the damage, but useless to those who carry its consequences". "Too late, and with a disconcerting calm before which I did not stay silent," he added, as reported by Veja. He also questioned the timing of the end of the secrecy order, in the middle of Brazil's election campaign, saying the exposure subjected "the reputation of an honest man to low blows on social media" before it was recognized that nothing serious was in those conversations. None of the outlets consulted reported a public response from Mendonça.In the same post, Mendes recalled the precautionary suspension of Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues, which according to Veja was ordered by Mendonça in an individual ruling and quickly reversed. The justice called the measure "disproportionate and of unpredictable effects", R7 reported, and tied the two episodes together: "They are different episodes, but they shed light on the same problem. Individual decisions of enormous reach, taken in haste at the investigation stage, whose effects on reputations and on institutions are irreparable."A judge of guarantees for the Supreme CourtCreated in 2019 by the anti-crime package, the "judge of guarantees" splits the roles of investigating and judging: one magistrate controls the legality of the investigation and authorizes searches, arrests and seizures of records, while another runs the trial and delivers the verdict. In 2023 the STF declared the mechanism constitutional and made its adoption mandatory for all Brazilian courts, a rule that does not reach the court itself. After the recent episodes, Mendes argued for extending the model to the STF to limit the concentration of power in a single rapporteur during investigations.According to CNN Brasil, Mendes belongs to the group of justices aligned with Alexandre de Moraes that has most sharply criticized Mendonça's conduct; the two clashed during the plenary session that examined the possible opening of an investigation against Moraes over messages exchanged with Vorcaro. For now, the Banco Master investigations remain under Gonet's command, and no date has been set for the full court to revisit the debate on a judge of guarantees at the STF.

Brazil's federal prosecution service, the MPF, and the prosecutors' offices of seven states were still breaking until Thursday (24) a rule from the CNMP, the National Council of the Public Prosecutor's Office, which oversees the country's prosecutors, that requires open disclosure of their earnings. The finding comes from a survey by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo published on Saturday (26), and the gaps affect the name-by-name, itemized publication of indemnity payments and payroll perks, known in Brazil as penduricalhos, which the paper says makes public scrutiny of inflated salaries harder.The rule traces to CNMP Resolution 338/2026, dated Aug 26 according to Folha and published in the council's electronic gazette on Sept 15. It revoked a provision inserted in 2023 into the regulation of Brazil's freedom of information law within the prosecution service (Resolution 89/2012) that let prosecutors' offices demand personal identification, through a CPF tax ID or a GovBR account, from anyone trying to look up individual, named pay data of members and staff. The council itself concluded the requirement violated the constitutional principles of publicity and administrative transparency and created obstacles to social oversight and press freedom in checking public spending.Detailed disclosure is not demanded by the CNMP alone. Normative Instruction 84/2020 of the TCU, the federal accounts court, requires itemized publication of salaries, subsidies, allowances, travel stipends, board fees and other payments to active and retired public servants and pensioners. This year the council also issued Resolution 334/2026, which makes standardized payroll categories and a single pay slip mandatory across all branches of the prosecution service.How the case got here2023: the CNMP issues Resolution 281/2023, creating a personal data protection policy for the prosecution service and conditioning access to pay data on prior identification of the requester.Aug 14, 2026: the Supreme Federal Court's virtual plenary begins hearing ADI 7.892, filed by Abraji against the requirement.Aug 17, 2026: the court suspends its analysis of the requirement, according to Consultor Jurídico.Aug 26, 2026: the CNMP's plenary approves Resolution 338/2026, proposed by the national inspector of the prosecution service, counselor Fernando Comin; the norm was published on Sept 15.Sept 24, 2026: Folha finds the MPF and prosecutors' offices in seven states still failing to comply.What each side saysThe identification requirement reached the Supreme Federal Court (STF) through ADI 7.892, a suit filed by Abraji, the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism, challenging provisions of Resolution 281/2023, among them article 172, under which individual and named pay information would only be released after the requester identified themselves. The group argues the rule creates obstacles to public oversight, has a chilling effect on investigative journalism and allows harassment and abusive lawsuits against reporters. The reporting justice, Gilmar Mendes, voted to uphold the suit and declare the provision unconstitutional: conditioning access on identification, he wrote, turns active transparency into passive transparency and makes each search "visible and traceable" by the very institution under scrutiny.In his opinion, as reported by Migalhas, Mendes said the freedom of information law and Brazil's data protection law, the LGPD, do not clash. "The two regimes do not exclude each other: they harmonize systematically, each delimiting the field of application of the other," he wrote. He cited the court's Topic 483 ruling, which held that publishing civil servants' names, wages and benefits is legitimate, with safeguards such as omitting CPF numbers and home addresses. According to Consultor Jurídico, the justice also flagged other measures on prosecutors' websites, beyond identification, that restrict access to information.The STF case remains open. Its analysis was suspended on Aug 17, according to Consultor Jurídico, and no date to resume had been announced as of Saturday. Meanwhile, Resolution 338/2026 has been in force since Sept 15, and the CNMP's official announcement sets no deadline for offices to comply, leaving open when the MPF and the seven state offices will publish complete pay data.

Messages extracted from the phones of suspects show that decisions on the purchase of fuel distributor Terrana went through Mohamad Hussein Mourad, known as "Primo", a fugitive under investigation for ties to the PCC, Brazil's largest criminal faction. The exchanges were detailed by g1 on Saturday (26), two days after the launch of the third phase of Operação Carbono Oculto, named Crédito Oculto, run by Gaeco, the organized crime task force of the São Paulo state prosecutor's office, together with Brazil's Federal Revenue Service. The phase executed search and seizure warrants at addresses tied to Banco Genial executives and to a cooperating witness in the Banco Master case.In the exchanges, businessman Paulo Narcélio Simões do Amaral, who formally appeared as the buyer of Terrana, says a decision on the deal's terms "depende do Primo" (depends on Primo). Humberto Tupinambá, at the time a partner and director of Banco Genial, replies: "Sim, vou falar com ele" (Yes, I will talk to him). The court order that authorized the searches states that, according to the conversations, the decision maker was "Primo". Gaeco says a WhatsApp group called "Novo direção Terrana", created in late 2024 after the purchase, gathered those in charge of the distributor's financial, accounting and administrative management: Narcélio, Mohamad and three other operators, who shared documents on the corporate transaction that transferred control of the company.The messages also record the group's discomfort when news reports began linking the acquisition to Copape, to Mohamad and to the PCC. Forwarding one of the articles to Tupinambá, Narcélio wrote "Cagada!", a crude word for blunder, and said "o primo está mais nervoso que eu" (the cousin is more nervous than I am), a reference investigators attribute to Mohamad. According to the investigation, Narcélio reported that group members were placing people under false names inside the company. The court order notes that Ioná Patrícia de Lima Andrade began using the name "Camila Junqueira" after a report linked her to the distributor.The alleged front manProsecutors argue Narcélio was recruited as the formal buyer because he was a known name in the fuel sector and could pass the compliance checks required in the sale. He would receive a 0.75% commission on the transaction plus monthly pay for three months during the initial management. In one message quoted in the ruling, he speaks of "manter a imagem de que a empresa foi comprada por mim" (keeping up the image that the company was bought by me), a passage the judge highlighted when authorizing the measures. The acquisition was formalized through the holdings Berna and Branson, created in September 2024 with share capital of just 1,000 reais each, with Narcélio as the formal owner. Investigators say 100 million reais from the group moved within minutes through pass-through accounts to the Itajobi sugar mill in Marapoama, São Paulo state, were placed in the Radford fund and converted into a bank deposit certificate at Banco Genial, which then lent the same amount to the two holdings. The full deal is estimated at up to 153 million reais.Timeline and next stepsSeptember 2024: Berna and Branson are created; Terrana, once among Brazil's ten largest fuel distributors, is bought.August 2025: first phase of Carbono Oculto; Roberto Augusto Leme da Silva, "Beto Louco", and Mohamad become fugitives, according to reporting by Estadão cited by Brasil de Fato.September 24, 2026: third phase, Crédito Oculto, serves warrants against 13 people and 19 companies in seven states, 26 of them in São Paulo.September 26, 2026: g1 details the messages behind Gaeco's suspicions.The phase's targets include Tupinambá and his brothers, André and Bruno, and businessman Antonio Carlos Freixo Junior, known as "Mineiro", owner of Entre Investimentos and a cooperating witness of the federal prosecutor general's office in the Banco Master investigations. Entre appears in the scheme's money flow and, according to reporting by Estadão cited by Brasil de Fato, the mill used in the structure received 20 million reais from Freixo's company. Entre is the same firm banker Daniel Vorcaro allegedly used to send at least US$ 12.3 million to the US fund that financed "Dark Horse", a biopic of Jair Bolsonaro. None of those named in this phase has been indicted or convicted; Beto Louco and Mohamad, both fugitives, have presented material pointing to 400 million reais in bribes paid to politicians and officials.In a statement, Banco Genial said Humberto Tupinambá has not been on its board or been a shareholder since May 2026, when he was removed. The investigation covers events before that date. The warrants were authorized by the 2nd Criminal Court of Catanduva, in São Paulo state, where the case runs under judicial secrecy. No date has been set for charges or for further phases of the operation.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, ruled on Friday (25) that the Attorney General's Office (PGR, the federal prosecution service) must state its position on pending requests in the investigations into the Master bank case and the INSS, the institute that pays Brazil's state pensions. The requests include bids by defense lawyers to end pretrial detentions and a petition by the Federal Police to extend ongoing inquiries. Prosecutors have five days to file their opinion, after which the case files return to Fachin's chambers.In the order, Fachin asked the PGR to assess whether the requested measures are pertinent, necessary and adequate, and their possible impact on investigations still under way. Prosecutors must also say who should rule on the requests: the court's presidency or the justice assigned to the cases, André Mendonça. What happens after the opinion, and who will be responsible for the files, remains undefined.The cases are now before the presidency, which chose to send the requests to the PGR before any ruling. Defense teams asked for the release of seven people under investigation in the Master case: Henrique Vorcaro, Felipe Vorcaro, Rodrigo Franco, Marilson Roseno da Silva, Fabiano Zettel, Daniel Monteiro and Sebastião Monteiro Junior. In the INSS inquiry, lawyers for former institute president Alessandro Stefanutto took his appeal against pretrial detention, in force for more than 300 days, to the court's presidency, according to the Painel column of Folha de S.Paulo.How the cases reached the presidencyThe fight over the inquiries ran through September. G1 and CNN Brasil reported that Justice Alexandre de Moraes called for an examination of Mendonça's conduct in the Master case, and BBC News Brasil reported that Fachin postponed a ruling on the matter on September 17. Before Friday's decision, it was unclear whether Fachin would rule on the requests himself or send the files back to the reporting justice. The order took the middle path: hear the prosecution first. The PGR is led by Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet.On the same day, the superior council of the federal prosecution service was debating Gonet himself. The body weighed complaints over mentions of the prosecutor general in messages taken from the phone of banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master and jailed as part of the financial scandal, amid the strain caused by the release of a photo of the two at a gathering in London. The interim tally was 3 to 0 to keep Gonet on the case and 2 to 1 against opening an investigation of him, with votes still under way; deputy prosecutor Janice Ascari argued for gathering preliminary information. The reporting member, deputy prosecutor general Francisco Sanseverino, said messages "cannot be examined in isolation or out of context". Gonet, who did not chair the session because he is its target, denies any closeness to Vorcaro and called their contact "extremely brief and banal".What comes nextThe next step is the PGR opinion, due within five days. Once the files return to the STF, Fachin will rule on the release requests and on extending the inquiries, or will send the cases to the reporting justice, depending on the prosecutors' position. Every detention cited is precautionary, ordered within ongoing inquiries, and everyone named is an investigated party, with no conviction on record so far.

The oversight council of Brazil's federal prosecution service, the Conselho Superior do Ministério Público Federal (CSMPF), moved on Friday (25) toward keeping Attorney General Paulo Gonet in charge of the Master case investigations. All three council members who have voted so far rejected his removal; on the merits, the count is 2 to 1 for dismissing the criminal complaint against the attorney general, with subprosecutor Janice Ascari arguing for preliminary evidence gathering. The session continues with the remaining council members.The council is weighing an internal proceeding opened after the Federal Police found references to Gonet in messages taken from the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, who is jailed in the financial scandal. Gonet did not attend the session because he is the subject of the proceeding. Vice president of the council, subprosecutor general Nicolao Dino, presided. According to g1, the attorney general says he had no close relationship with the banker and described their contact as "brevíssimo e banal", extremely brief and ordinary.The votesRapporteur Francisco Sanseverino, a subprosecutor general, split his ruling. He first voted against removing Gonet on procedural grounds, then denied the request to appoint a subprosecutor general to review the filings, which rejects the opening of an investigation. According to Poder360, he said that across the more than 200 pages of the Federal Police report there is no record of direct communication between Vorcaro and the attorney general: the mentions appear in conversations between third parties, among them the banker's former lawyer, Ciro Soares, "without any direct or indirect participation of the attorney general". Council member Celso de Albuquerque fully followed the rapporteur's vote."One cannot examine phrases or message exchanges in an isolated or decontextualized way, so as not to create an artificial situation that does not correspond to the reality of the facts," Sanseverino said.Janice Ascari partly diverged. She voted against removing Gonet but partially granted the complaint so that a subprosecutor general is designated to review the criminal complaint and its attached documents, a position equivalent to collecting preliminary information before any ruling on the merits.The case and what comes nextBackground for new readers: Vorcaro was arrested in Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates financial crimes tied to Banco Master. On his phone, the Federal Police found messages in which Ciro Soares presented himself as a go-between with the attorney general and relayed messages from him. On June 19, 2025, according to Poder360, the lawyer sent the banker a photo showing Gonet and Vorcaro seated together at an event in London with two other men, captioned "PG me mandou", a reference to the attorney general. The police report, which also contained references to Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Federal Police director general Andrei Rodrigues, stirred debate at the Supreme Court and led to the internal proceeding.Sanseverino also said any crime of responsibility by the attorney general would be for the Senate to judge, and that the council can only look for indications of a common crime. On the extension the prosecutor general's office requested in March 2026, before taking a position on Vorcaro's arrest, the rapporteur said there was no favoritism: prosecutors faced a flood of documents and a 72-hour deadline to respond to the third phase of the operation. What comes next depends on the remaining votes, still on Friday (25), with no set end time for the session: if dismissal prevails, the proceeding ends; if the council finds indications of a common crime, a subprosecutor general will be appointed to examine the material.

Brazil's Federal Police arrested Daniel Trindade, a congressional candidate of the Partido Liberal (PL) in the state of Roraima, on Friday morning (Sept. 25) in Boa Vista, on suspicion of vote buying. The arrest came during Operation Cunhambebe, which investigates his suspected role in creating and training a private militia to operate in the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Territory, one of Brazil's largest indigenous reserves, in northern Roraima. Trindade is an investigated suspect and is presumed innocent.The operation served three search and seizure warrants issued by the Federal Court at addresses linked to the candidate in Boa Vista and the town of Cantá. The warrants were authorized by Judge Victor Oliveira de Queiroz of Roraima's 4th Federal Criminal Court. According to reporting by Rede Amazônica, a regional TV station, officers found evidence of electoral crimes during the searches, and the candidate was taken to the Federal Police headquarters in the state. G1 said it had been trying to reach Trindade's lawyers, who had not commented by publication time.How the case beganThe investigation started in May, after agents of the Federal Highway Police and the environmental agency Ibama were attacked during an operation against illegal gold mining in the Napoleão community, one of the areas most affected by cyanide-based gold extraction inside the reserve. Members of a group tried to block their vehicles, and videos recorded in the region show officers being chased by motorcycles amid sounds similar to gunfire. The Federal Police then found that Trindade ran a clandestine private security course, without the required authorization, that taught operational tactics. At the police's request, a court suspended the course for 180 days. According to G1, the candidate is described as responsible for encouraging crimes and trying to block environmental inspections, and the militia would be made up of indigenous people.What police allege and what the court orderedIn an official statement, which does not name the candidate, the Federal Police says the operation aims to clarify the extent of the facts, identify possible participants and halt ongoing illegal activity. The agency lists the suspected crimes:"According to the evidence gathered so far, there are indications of the practice, in theory, of the crimes of formation of a private militia, incitement to crime, qualified receiving of stolen goods, endangering the life or health of third parties, illegal exercise of economic activity and obstruction of environmental inspection."In his ruling, Judge Victor Oliveira de Queiroz barred Trindade from entering any indigenous land in Roraima and from contacting members of the Napoleão community or the president of the Roraima Archers Association. He ordered the seizure of documents and electronic devices for forensic examination and authorized searching the candidate on public roads, since he travels constantly through the interior while campaigning. Any violation of the restrictions can lead to pretrial detention.The next steps are the forensic analysis of the material seized in Friday's searches and Trindade's presentation to the Federal Court, for which no date had been announced by publication time. Vote-buying allegations in Brazil are judged by electoral courts, which can revoke a candidacy upon conviction. Trindade is running for a federal deputy seat in Roraima in the October elections.

Robson Calixto da Fonseca, known as Peixe, a former aide to Domingos Brazão, once a member of Rio de Janeiro's state audit court, has been identified by Brazil's Federal Police as the broker of a 200,000-real congressional earmark from Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) to an NGO under investigation for suspected embezzlement. Peixe is serving a nine-year sentence for belonging to the criminal organization behind the murder of Rio councilwoman Marielle Franco. The newspaper O Globo detailed his record on Friday. Earmarks, called emendas in Brazil, let lawmakers steer federal money to projects of their choice; Flávio, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro and a presidential candidate, sent his in November 2023 to the Instituto de Formação Profissional José Carlos Procópio (Ifop), for a children's sports project in Taquara, in western Rio.The deal surfaced in WhatsApp messages seized from Peixe's phone during the investigation into the 2018 killings of Marielle and her driver, Anderson Gomes; the chats were first reported by the daily Estado de S. Paulo and the magazine piauí. On October 24, 2023, Peixe wrote to Maria de Fátima Bezerra Castro, known as Fafá, a Senate staffer in Flávio's office whom the police describes as the militiaman's "direct interlocutor": "Amiga, vê com o nosso senador se consegue nos ajudar" (Friend, check with our senator if he can help us). Fafá asked for a formal request and, two days later, invited Peixe to an event the senator would attend, told him to bring then congressman Chiquinho Brazão and added, "You will go too and press the request with the senator." On November 6 Peixe wrote again: "Don't forget the Ifop, see if the senator can favor us." On November 29, 2023, an earmark of 199,999.79 reais went to the Sports Ministry, which passed the money to the Ifop under an agreement for the project Jogadores do Futuro, meant to buy soccer cleats for children. In January 2024, after the transfer, Fafá asked Peixe for four tickets to the carnival champions' parade in a VIP box, according to the police.From the state legislature to the Marielle casePeixe is a retired military police officer. He worked for Domingos Brazão in the Rio state legislature, the Alerj, and followed him to the state audit court, the TCE-RJ. Federal prosecutors describe him as an operator for the group: he managed irregular real estate deals and acted as a front man, or "laranja", for the Brazão brothers. In the plea bargain of Ronnie Lessa, the former officer who confessed to firing the shots that killed Marielle, Peixe is described as Domingos Brazão's "trusted man" and "do-it-all" aide, and is said to have obtained the HK MP5 submachine gun used in the crime, a version he denies. Tips to the Disque-Denúncia hotline in 2018, cited in a Federal Police report, named him as the man who collected extortion money for militias in the Taquara area. Rio's militias are paramilitary gangs, often led by police officers, that control territory and services in poor neighborhoods.The Brazão brothers, convicted as the masterminds of the assassination, were arrested in March 2024. Peixe was arrested that May and tried in February by the First Panel of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), which sentenced him to nine years in prison and stripped him of his police rank for armed criminal organization. Unlike the brothers, he was not convicted of the killings. In his vote, Justice Alexandre de Moraes wrote that Peixe handled clandestine housing projects, extortion, land fraud and "gatonet", the illegal resale of cable TV hookups.Operation Emendatio and the defensesThe transfer is part of Operation Emendatio, launched by the Federal Police in July on Moraes's authorization to investigate, with the federal controller's office (CGU), suspected embezzlement, money laundering and criminal organization in earmarks routed to entities tied to the Brazão group. According to O Globo, which first revealed the inquiry into Flávio's earmark in May, entities flagged by Peixe to lawmakers received 268 million reais between 2020 and 2024. The Ifop has received 2 million reais in public money over its entire history: 200,000 from Flávio, 300,000 from congresswoman Chris Tonietto (PL) and 1.5 million from Chiquinho Brazão, released only in 2025, after his arrest. A 2025 audit by the federal accounts court (TCU) found that the company hired to run the sports project was a one-lawyer firm whose owner is the institute's own president, and parents of the children said the promised cleats never arrived. Neither Flávio nor Tonietto was targeted by search warrants in the operation.Reached for comment, Flávio said in a statement published by Estado de S. Paulo that the earmark followed the law and that oversight belongs to the control bodies:"The earmark was allocated within current legislation and the Sports Ministry's technical criteria. The executing entity presented invoices for the materials purchased and returned the unused funds. Responsibility for executing the funds lies with the beneficiary entity, not with the lawmaker. Any irregularities must be investigated by the control bodies, as the law determines."The senator did not comment on his aide's chats with Peixe; Fafá and the militiaman's lawyers did not respond to reporters. The Ifop denies any relationship with Peixe or the Brazão brothers and says the money paid for soccer classes for children. Domingos Brazão's defense said it does not act in this case, and Chiquinho Brazão's said it had no knowledge of the inquiry. The investigation remains open at the STF, with no date set for completion. It is the second recent Federal Police inquiry to mention Flávio, after the case of banker Daniel Vorcaro and the film Dark Horse, and it carries political weight: he is running for president in October's election.

Brazil's Superior Court of Justice (STJ), the country's second-highest court, has ruled that banks may close customers' checking accounts on their own initiative without violating the Consumer Defense Code (CDC). In a judgment held on September 3, with the ruling published on Wednesday (September 23), the court's Second Section set aside article 39, item IX, of the 1990 consumer statute, which makes it an abusive practice to refuse goods or services to someone willing to pay on the spot. Because the case was decided under the repetitive appeals procedure, a mechanism that binds courts across Brazil, the thesis now guides similar disputes nationwide.Reporting justice Humberto Martins wrote that the CDC itself carves out services regulated by special laws, which covers banking. Rules of the National Monetary Council (CMN) already allow either party to end a checking account contract, he noted. He gave two further reasons. The CDC provision covers spot-payment relationships, while a checking account is a long-term contract bundling many services. And the article deals with a refusal to contract before a relationship starts, a different situation from closing an account that already exists.Martins also observed that banking rules oblige banks to close accounts in fraud and money laundering cases, which would clash with the CDC ban. Even so, he set duties for the bank.The right to information, prior notification and non-retention of the balance must nonetheless be respected, as well as the procedures for the account holder to settle commitments with the financial institution or imposed by law.Timeline of the caseThe case chosen to settle the controversy was filed by four companies against a bank that notified them their accounts would be closed for "commercial disinterest". They went to court asking to keep the accounts or to be given time to move their operations to another bank.February 2019: the four companies are notified of the closure of their checking accounts;First instance: claims denied;Sao Paulo Court of Justice (TJ-SP): defeat on appeal;September 3, 2026: the STJ's Second Section judges the repetitive appeal;September 23, 2026: the ruling is published, making the thesis mandatory for all courts.According to the decision, the court's precedent review unit had identified about 17 prior judgments and 1,224 individual decisions by justices on the same question. For roughly two decades the STJ had already held that the CDC provision did not apply to account closures. In the concrete case, the four companies' appeal was not admitted.ReactionsThe Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban) said the decision strengthens legal certainty in the financial system. "The decision brings greater clarity to the conditions under which a banking contractual relationship can be ended, preserving the autonomy of the parties", the group said. Febraban also argued that closing accounts matters for fighting fraud and money laundering, and noted that the industry already has self-regulation rules, including requirements to inform clients.Consumer law specialist Beatriz Quintas de Melo Teixeira, interviewed by Folha de S.Paulo, said the ruling did not create a new power for banks. "The repetitive case only consolidated this understanding and made it mandatory for all courts. It is not an innovation, it is a unification", she said. In her reading, "commercial disinterest" works as an umbrella term that can cover varied reasons, from suspected illicit use of the account to reputational risk, a client under investigation, a money-losing account, credit risk reassessment or simple loss of interest in the relationship.With the ruling published, individual lawsuits on the subject will now be decided by lower courts under the new thesis. For the four companies in the lead case, the outcome is already set: the STJ declined to hear their appeal.

Justice Maurício Godinho Delgado, of Brazil's Superior Labor Court (TST), the country's top labor tribunal, has ordered that at least 60% of the employees of Caixa Econômica Federal stay on the job during the bank's national strike. The measure applies to each branch, in person or remotely, and was granted as a preliminary injunction late on Thursday (24), in a collective dispute the bank filed with the labor courts.Unions that fail to comply face a daily fine of R$ 100,000. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the order takes effect once the decision is published or the parties are formally notified, and the justice asked that this be done urgently by Friday (25). Caixa had asked to keep 80% of its workforce active; the court granted the request only in part and set a lower threshold.TimelineEmployees have been on strike since September 10, when they rejected Caixa's proposal to renew their collective bargaining agreement, which expired on August 31. On Monday (21), the unions rejected a second offer. Caixa says talks for the 2026-2028 cycle have not produced a deal, mainly because of a new funding model for the bank's health plan, Saúde Caixa. On Thursday morning (24), the bank took the case to the TST.What each side arguesCaixa says the strike affects essential services such as interbank settlement and the payment of social benefits, including Bolsa Família, the federal cash-transfer program the bank distributes. It also asked that employees be barred from any activity blocking free access to branches. Godinho Delgado denied that part: he wrote that the law already requires strikes to be peaceful and that there is no sign the movement has been conducted with abuses or excesses.For the two confederations representing the workers in the case, Contraf (financial sector workers) and Contec (credit company workers), the injunction provisionally keeps the clauses of the 2024-2026 collective agreement in force until a final ruling, a protection for employees. According to the TST, the justice weighed the need to preserve service for urgent demands from clients and society in general without making the constitutional right to strike impossible. He also lifted the secrecy order on the case file.The full collective dispute will be judged by the TST's Specialized Section for Collective Disputes (SDC) on Tuesday (29), at 2:30 p.m. Until then, the injunction stands.

Swedenberger Barbosa, known as Berger, the deputy chief of staff at the Planalto, the seat of Brazil's presidency, has been advised by people close to President Lula to resign, Metrópoles reported on Thursday (24). The pressure came a day after the outlet's column revealed that the aide received gifts worth tens of thousands of reais from lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger, a business partner of Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the president's eldest son. Whether Berger will leave his post, and when, remains unclear. The decision comes ten days before the first round of Brazil's presidential election.According to Metrópoles, which based its report on messages obtained from the lobbyist, the gifts included a gold Cartier Tank watch bought for 66,000 reais on April 29, 2024; a painting by Antonio Veronese purchased for 13,000 euros, about 83,000 reais at the time; a ring for the aide's wife; and a birthday party in a VIP box at the Mane Garrincha stadium in Brasilia on November 9, 2024, during a Caetano Veloso and Maria Bethania show. At the time, Berger was the number two at the Health Ministry under then minister Nisia Trindade and, according to the report, worked with Luchsinger on the release of federal funds to states and municipalities. The box belongs to 3Structure, a company Luchsinger lobbied for and which won 86 million reais in public contracts under Lula's government, the outlet reported.In the messages, the aide thanks her for his 67th birthday party:"Good morning, my friend. I am deeply grateful for all the consideration and friendship. The party that you and other friends dedicated to me was beautiful, flawless."How the case reached the PlanaltoThe crisis grew out of Federal Police investigations involving Lulinha. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the force is examining messages and financial movements in three inquiries into suspected corruption and influence peddling, and suspects that Luchsinger advanced private interests before federal agencies in partnership with two hidden partners: Lulinha and businessman Fernando Bittar. At least four current or former government members are named in the case files: Rannier Costa Ciríaco, deputy executive secretary at the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance; Jose Martinho Ferreira de Araujo; Marco Aurelio Santana Ribeiro, known as Marcola, Lula's former chief of staff; and Swedenberger. Marcola's departure from government in early August brought the crisis to the Planalto's doorstep, Gazeta do Povo reported. In an interview on TV Globo on August 27, Lula denied knowing the lobbyist. "I don't know this woman. I have never seen this woman in my life. I have never spoken with this woman," the president said, calling her a "pilantra", Portuguese slang for a swindler.Metrópoles also reported that Luchsinger arranged clothes, concert tickets and a piece of jewelry for Claudia Troiano, known as Claudinha, the president's personal secretary, who allegedly stayed at the lobbyist's Sao Paulo apartment in March 2025. When Berger's relationship with the lobbyist first became public, the Planalto chose to keep him in the job to avoid "jumping the gun", the outlet reported.In a statement, the Planalto said Berger and Claudinha "categorically" deny having received any gifts or improper advantages from Luchsinger. Berger has stayed silent on the accusations; in the messages, however, he thanks her for the party and sends a photo of the Veronese painting hanging in his home, with a heart emoji. No one named in the inquiries has been formally charged so far. The next step is political rather than judicial: according to Metrópoles, the president's circle is waiting for Berger's decision on his post. Folha gave no timeline for the conclusion of the Federal Police inquiries.

Brazil's Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday (23) that biological and adoptive mothers are entitled to the same maternity leave, regardless of their employment status. In case ADI 7495, a form of lawsuit used to test the validity of laws, the full bench granted 120 days of paid leave, extendable by another 60 days, to private-sector workers under the CLT, the country's labor code, as well as to federal civil servants, members of the Armed Forces and federal prosecutors. Justice Alexandre de Moraes wrote the opinion.The court struck down provisions that treated pregnant women and adoptive mothers differently in the federal civil servant statute (Law 8.112/1990), in the CLT, in the organic law of the federal prosecution service, in the Empresa Cidadã program and in the Armed Forces parental leave rules. Leave now starts from the ninth month of pregnancy, childbirth, hospital discharge of the newborn or the mother (whichever comes last), the adoption or the granting of custody for adoption.The case and the argumentsThe lawsuit was filed by the Attorney General's Office (PGR), which pointed to unequal leave periods depending on the worker's status. Before the ruling, the CLT granted 120 days, extendable by 60 if the employer joined the Empresa Cidadã program; federal civil servants who adopted received 90 days for children up to one year old and 30 days in other cases; the Armed Forces had no adoptive leave; and the law covering federal prosecutors allowed only 30 days for adopters of children up to one year. Attorney General Paulo Gonet asked the court to secure 180 days of leave for all mothers, whatever their employment regime. The trial began on September 16 and ended on September 23, with the bench following the rapporteur; legal news site Legalcloud reported the vote as unanimous.In their votes, the justices argued that maternity leave serves above all the child's interests. Justice André Mendonça noted that between September 2024 and October 2025 the court examined more than a dozen cases on the issue, with precedents against discrimination between biological and adoptive mothers. For Justice Nunes Marques, a child's care needs do not change with the mother's professional status."The Constitution protects human realities, not the legal nature of the professional bond of mothers and fathers," Nunes Marques said, according to the court's release.For formal private-sector workers the practical change is small, since the CLT already granted 120 days to biological mothers and also covered adoption, as reported by Folha de S.Paulo. Labor and social security lawyer Adriana Faria, quoted by the newspaper, said the ruling consolidates the view that the protection applies regardless of how motherhood is formed and of the employment bond.Immediate effects and next stepsOn a suggestion from Justice Cristiano Zanin, the court set the effects of the decision from the close of the trial on September 23, rather than from publication of the official record, to protect mothers and children already on leave who might struggle to secure the extension. Leave periods already finished are unaffected. The bench also noted that it is up to Congress to define whether and how the leave may be shared among family members. Procedurally, the next step is publication of the judgment record, but the ruling already applies to all ongoing and future leave.

The senior council of Brazil's Federal Public Ministry, the CSMPF, decides on Friday (25) whether to open a formal review into possible crimes by Paulo Gonet, the prosecutor general of the Republic and head of the country's federal prosecution service. The extraordinary session starts at 10 a.m. in Brasilia. It follows mentions of Gonet in messages sent by banker Daniel Vorcaro, an investigated figure in the Master case, the probe into Banco Master now before the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF). According to news site g1, the matter is unprecedented at the council.According to the g1, the nine councilors will weigh Gonet's conduct in the investigations of the bank, in the arrest of Vorcaro and in the handling of the Master case, and decide whether the references to him are archived or whether there are enough elements to go deeper. News site Metrópoles reports that the procedure is a notícia de fato, a formal notice, about Gonet's role in cases before the STF, especially petitions 15.556/DF and 16.662/DF, which hold Federal Police reports with Vorcaro messages citing Gonet. The council will also discuss whether Gonet should have recused himself from Master-related cases.BackgroundThe mentions of Gonet became public in July. Since then, the prosecutor general had been gathering support among subprosecutors and the prosecution rank and file, the g1 reports. The picture changed with the release of a photo showing Gonet next to Vorcaro at a gathering in London: the prosecutor general holds a cigar, with whisky glasses on the table. The g1 says the image was reportedly taken in 2024 after an event and was sent by lawyer Ciro Soares in June 2025. Its publication drew harsh internal criticism of Gonet.Gonet denies any closeness with the banker. He has said the only connection between the two was "extremely brief and banal". In an official letter to subprosecutor general Francisco de Assis Sanseverino, the rapporteur of the procedure, Gonet said their only in-person meeting took place in April 2024, at a public legal event in London attended by other authorities. As quoted by Metrópoles, he wrote:"I have no friendship whatsoever with Mr. Daniel Vorcaro, and even less any personal interest in the cases in which he appears as a party or as an investigated person."His defense argues that attending an event sponsored by a businessman who later became an investigated person does not, by itself, show bias. Allies of Gonet expect a majority of the council to vote for shelving the matter, while councilors critical of the current leadership expect at least tough questions, according to the g1. People close to the prosecutor general who spoke with CNN Brasil political analyst Teo Cury said they are optimistic; councilors he spoke with described "surprise, discomfort and unease" at the messages.How the session worksThe session will be chaired by the council's vice president, subprosecutor general Nicolao Dino, brother of STF Justice Flávio Dino, as reported by CNN Brasil. Gonet is not expected to attend, although he presides over the council. After the opening, rapporteur Sanseverino presents the case, and the councilors vote from the most junior to the most senior. Vice prosecutor general Hindenburgo Chateaubriand takes part in the vote.If a majority finds grounds to investigate, a subprosecutor general will be designated to examine the material and check for the possible existence of a crime, then report back to the council. If the report finds indications of crime, the facts go to the STF, which decides whether to open a formal investigation; the referral happens because the prosecutor general answers criminally to that court. The next step is Friday's vote (25): either the mentions of Gonet are archived or the review goes deeper.

Brazil's Federal Police found messages on the phone of lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger recording cash payments to two officials at the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight Against Hunger, the cabinet that runs the Bolsa Família welfare program. According to a report by TV Globo's Jornal Nacional aired on Thursday night (24), the transfers took place in June 2023, in deposits of 20,000 reais each. Six months later, the ministry awarded a contract worth more than 31 million reais to a technology company represented by the lobbyist.Investigators extracted the exchanges as part of a probe into suspected influence peddling involving Luchsinger and Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, a son of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Both are targets of inquiries at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court. In March 2023, Ulisses Barbosa, the lobbyist's driver and personal aide, wrote: "I brought the suitcase. One side has the 500k, 500 thousand. The other side has what was left in the suitcase, about 90 thousand".The June 2023 paymentsAccording to the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, cited by G1, part of that money was delivered to businessman Fernando Bittar, a former business partner of Lulinha. The messages also record an order from Luchsinger for the driver to hand Bittar 193,000 reais. On June 2, 2023, the lobbyist asked:"Go to my room, in my wardrobe, on the top shelf there is a bag with money. Take 60 thousand, please, to make some payments for me."She then guided deposits of 20,000 reais into at least three accounts. Nearly three hours later the driver wrote: "I'm at the bank already. Above 50 thousand a day, per taxpayer ID, the clerk said the Central Bank starts watching. It triggers a kind of alert. Just letting you know...". Luchsinger replied: "Ok. Go ahead". The Federal Police identified photos of two deposit slips for 20,000 reais each: one to Rannier Costa Ciriaco, deputy executive secretary of the ministry, and one to José Martinho Ferreira, head of the ministry's ceremonial office.Later contracts and the responsesIn December 2023, the ministry hired 3Structure, a company owned by technology businessman Cleber Ribas and then represented by Luchsinger, for more than 31 million reais. A 2 million reais amendment followed in November 2025, and a new contract of 19 million reais in April 2026. The ministry denied any favoritism in the procurement, which used an electronic auction, and said the two named officials have no connection to the technology area and took no part in the bidding.According to the website Brasil em Folhas, the inquiry overseen by Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça examines whether Lulinha acted in dealings of the state technology firm Dataprev to benefit Ribas. The site also reports that the ceremonial office chief had been arrested in 2014 carrying 180,000 reais while working as a driver for Wellington Dias, the current minister. Lulinha's lawyer, Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, told the site his client does not know the nature of the payments and has no ties to any irregularity, while Luchsinger's defense said it would not comment on "illegal leaks on the eve of an election". G1 reported no response from the defenses of Ciriaco, Ferreira, Ribas, Barbosa and Bittar.None of those named has been charged. The inquiries remain open at the STF, and the decision on any indictment belongs to Brazil's prosecutor general. The disclosures come ten days before the first round of the presidential election, in which President Lula is running for reelection.

Brazil's Superior Labor Court, the TST, ruled on Thursday (24) that the strike by workers of Correios, the state-owned postal company, is not abusive. The ruling by the court's collective disputes section closed the case two weeks after the walkout began on September 10. The rapporteur, Justice Maria de Nazaré Medeiros Rocha, had her opinion adopted in full, according to Folha de S.Paulo.The decision was reached by majority vote. G1 reports that Justices Maria Cristina Peduzzi, Ives Gandra da Silva Martins Filho and Caputo Bastos were outvoted after arguing the strike should be declared abusive. Correios had also asked for a 100,000 reais fine against the unions representing the workers, Folha reports. The court authorized the compensation of the days not worked, a point that drew no disagreement among the justices. "I declare that the strike movement is not abusive, and on this basis I declare the compensation of the days stopped," said TST President Luiz Philippe Vieira de Mello Filho at the close of the session.How the case reached the courtThe strike began on September 10, after the company and the unions failed to reach a deal in collective bargaining. The main sticking point is the health plan covering employees, retirees and dependents. According to G1, Correios went to court the day after the walkout started. Folha reports that the TST had granted an injunction requiring 80% of operations to keep running, and the company says it was not honored. In the assessment of Vieira de Mello Filho, the isolated incidents recorded during the strike did not show an effective blockade of activities or disregard of court orders. "It is natural in a strike to have some kind of work to raise workers' awareness about the movement. That does not mean they violated the decision I issued," the justice said. The trial had opened on Monday (21) and was suspended that day so the unions would have 48 hours to review new documents filed by Correios.What each side saysFindect, the federation representing postal workers, says negotiations advanced on all other points and the health plan is the only obstacle to signing the agreement. Workers want to keep the current model, in which Correios acts as the sponsor of the benefit. The federation says a change in the model could raise costs for families, and that more than 170,000 workers, retirees and dependents are affected. It also says it has formally asked the company to resume talks. Correios says its branches remain open and operating normally, and that it adopted a plan to contain the strike's impact, with administrative staff supporting operations and special delivery pushes.On the practical effect of the ruling, the two outlets diverge. Folha reported that the court ordered an immediate return to work on Friday (25) as part of the collective dispute ruling. G1 instead highlighted that the rejection of the abuse claim removes, for now, the risk of the strike being ended by court order. In her report, the rapporteur denied worker demands that had no counterpart in the company's proposal, including a culture voucher and a complexity bonus, and confirmed the category's bargaining date as August 1, 2026.The next milestone is Friday (25), the return date set by the decision, according to Folha. On the bargaining front, the unions await a response to their formal request to reopen talks on the health plan. The issue also connects to an earlier dispute: four clauses of the previous collective agreement, including the health plan clause, were suspended by an injunction of January 26 (Extra Ticket, Health Plan, Work on Rest Days and the 70% Vacation Bonus).

Marco Aurélio Santana Ribeiro, known as Marcola, who was then chief of staff to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, discussed the situation of Banco Master with Walfrido Warde, a lawyer for the banker under investigation Daniel Vorcaro, in a WhatsApp group called "Amigos" (Friends). The messages, exchanged in July 2025, are part of the material the Federal Police extracted from Vorcaro's phone for the inquiry into the Master case, a sprawling scandal surrounding the fall of the bank. The disclosure was made by the newspaper O Globo on Thursday (24) and was also reported by radio CBN.In the exchange, Warde asked Marcola to pass on to the president a complaint against the Central Bank. In the lawyer's view, the bank's president, Gabriel Galípolo, was dragging his feet on talks to sell Master to BRB, the public bank of Brasília. "@Marco Aurélio Marcola teremos de ir pra cima do Bacen. Peço pra avisar o presidente" (we will have to go after the Central Bank; please tell the president), Warde wrote, adding that Galípolo "does not have the stuff for the job". Four minutes later came the reply from the then chief of staff: "Vixe. Blz" (roughly, oh boy, all right).The exchanges came after Vorcaro reported learning of a meeting in which Galípolo had allegedly pointed to accounting errors at Master. "Não dá mais (...) Temos que ir pro embate" (this is not working anymore, we have to fight), Vorcaro wrote to his lawyer. "Avise presidente amanhã e vamos pra guerra" (tell the president tomorrow and let's go to war), he asked. "Ja fiz isso" (I already did), Warde answered. When the lawyer complained again that Galípolo "asked for the BRB deal and is stalling", Marcola wrote: "Avisarei aqui. Dou notícias" (I will tell them here. I will give you news). According to O Globo, the Central Bank had by then already found, in audits, signs of fraudulent management in Master operations involving BRB and had referred the material to federal prosecutors.Timeline of the caseApril 2024: according to O Globo, Warde starts working with Marcola to arrange contact between Vorcaro and Lula; in an audio message, the lawyer says the chief of staff was asking for an email listing the banker's topics of interest to schedule a meeting.December 4, 2024: the only meeting between Lula and Vorcaro, according to the government.July 2025: the messages in the "Amigos" group, which also included Rafael Valim, Warde's law partner.September 2025: the Central Bank formally rejects the BRB purchase of Master after five months of review.September 24, 2026: O Globo publishes the conversations seized by the Federal Police.Responses from the partiesContacted by reporters, Marcola, who has since left government, said through advisers that he "never brokered negotiations, forwarded documents related to public purchases and tenders or acted in favor of any private interest". In a statement, he said the matter "concerned the threat of liquidation of a bank" and that, when approached by the institution's interlocutors, he "merely said he would make the institutional referrals and take the information to the proper channels". The version reported by CBN adds that he only asked for a formal audience request to be filed. Warde did not comment, and Vorcaro's defense also declined to comment.The presidential communications office, Secom, said Lula met Vorcaro only once, on December 4, 2024. "There was no other contact between the president and Daniel Vorcaro. The president has no knowledge of the supposed articulation" by Warde and "did not send any message", the note says. At that meeting, Vorcaro said he felt persecuted, and Lula replied that any complaints should be technically examined by the Central Bank, according to Secom. The Central Bank said it would not comment.The Federal Police inquiry into Master remains open. Galípolo confirmed on Thursday (24) that he was summoned to testify as a witness, with a deposition expected in early October. The former Central Bank president Roberto Campos Neto, BTG Pactual owner André Esteves and the bank's supervision director Ailton de Aquino were also called, according to Estado de Minas (Folhapress). The Master investigations also involve two former Central Bank officials, Paulo Sérgio Neves de Souza and Belline Santana, who are under investigation on suspicion of acting in Vorcaro's interest inside the regulator; their defense denies any favoritism. None of those cited in this episode has been convicted.

Antônio Carlos Freixo Júnior, the businessman who signed a cooperation deal in the Banco Master investigation in Brazil, appears as a "winner" in 570 financial intelligence reports on bets and prizes filed between January 2020 and June 2025, in operations totaling R$ 176.4 million, according to the Sao Paulo state prosecutors. The finding supported search warrants executed on Thursday (Sept. 24) in the third phase of Operation Carbono Oculto, called Crédito Oculto, run by Gaeco, the organized crime unit of the state prosecutors, with Brazil's federal tax authority, the Receita Federal. Freixo is under investigation for money laundering and has not been indicted in this phase.According to g1, the reports on prizes and bets reached Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence council, because they showed signs deemed atypical, and Freixo appears in all 570 records as the "winner". Prosecutors describe a triangulation pattern: third parties would place the bets, but the prizes would be transferred directly to accounts of companies linked to the businessman, such as Cactus Assessoria e Serviços Ltda. For the prosecutors, the unusual frequency of the prizes, the volume moved and the use of lottery outlets suggest the records could serve to disguise the origin of funds rather than represent luck-based winnings. The lotteries themselves are not under investigation and are not part of the suspected scheme."Beyond acts characteristic of money laundering, a network of fraudulent financial structuring involving prizes and bets has been uncovered, apparently with the aim of laundering clients' money", Gaeco prosecutors wrote in the filing sent to the court, as quoted by InfoMoney.A short timeline of the caseFreixo became known in the investigations of Banco Master, the bank formerly controlled by banker Daniel Vorcaro, which was shut down amid fraud inquiries. In August, he signed a colaboração premiada, the Brazilian version of a plea deal, with the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR); Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça ratified it in September. In his testimony, he detailed financial operations with Vorcaro, including transfers to the fund that financed Dark Horse, a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro, according to InfoMoney. His holding company, Entre Investimentos, had already been liquidated by Brazil's Central Bank in March, after Operation Compliance Zero examined frauds at Master. Freixo started work at 14 as an office boy, moved up through the financial market and founded the Entre group in 2016.The link to the fuel sectorIn the current phase, investigators describe him as the leader of Grupo Entre Investimentos and one of the main providers of financial shielding and money laundering services to the criminal organization attributed to Roberto Augusto Leme da Silva, known as "Beto Louco", and to Mohamad Hussein Mourad, known as "Primo". Both are fugitives and are linked to fuel distribution. The connection to that market runs through his companies: EntrePay received R$ 166,500 from Ceopag, a fintech allegedly used by companies tied to the two fugitives, and Entre Investimentos transferred R$ 620,000 to Quimicolor, identified as part of a payment structure involving methanol diverted to adulterate fuel. g1 notes that these transactions alone do not mean Freixo has been identified as a member of the organization.According to the Receita Federal, the warrants covered 13 individuals and 19 companies in seven states: 26 executions in Sao Paulo and one each in Espirito Santo, Goias, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina. Judge Sandro Nogueira de Barros Leite, of the 2nd Criminal Court of Catanduva, in Sao Paulo state, authorized them, according to InfoMoney. At the press conference, the superintendent of the Receita Federal said "there is an industry supplying financial structures to launder money", as recorded by O Globo and UOL. The stated goal of the phase is to unravel laundering structures used to buy one of the country's largest fuel distributors; according to the agency, a sugar and ethanol mill received R$ 100 million that passed through pass-through accounts in fintechs within minutes.g1 reported that it was trying to reach Freixo's lawyers for comment, without success by publication time. As an investigated person, he is presumed innocent. The next step is the analysis of the seized documents and equipment, and prosecutors say they are seeking to clarify the context and purpose of the transactions. His cooperation deal with the PGR, ratified in September, remains in force at the Supreme Court.

The president of Brazil's Central Bank, Gabriel Galípolo, confirmed on Thursday (24) in Brasília that he has been summoned by the Federal Police to testify as a witness in the inquiry into the Banco Master case, the bank owned by former banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is under investigation. The testimony is expected in early October. Asked about the exact date, Galípolo said he did not remember it, according to CNN Brasil.Besides the head of the monetary authority, which regulates and supervises Brazil's banking system, the Federal Police also summoned former Central Bank president Roberto Campos Neto, BTG Pactual owner André Esteves and the regulator's oversight director, Ailton de Aquino, to give statements. The summons order was reported by G1 on September 9.The inquiry investigates two former Central Bank officials: Paulo Sérgio Neves de Souza, a former oversight director, and Belline Santana, a former head of Banking Supervision. According to the inquiry, as reported by Folha de S.Paulo, the two allegedly worked in favor of Vorcaro's interests inside the regulator and passed on information about its oversight work. Their lawyers deny that they took any steps to favor the former banker. Since March, the CGU, the federal government's internal control office, has also been examining their conduct in a disciplinary proceeding that could lead to their dismissal. None of the people named has been convicted.How the case got hereFebruary 2022: the CVM, Brazil's securities regulator, opened a case based on a report from the FGC, the private deposit insurance fund, with red flags about Master; the case was later shelved without investigation, according to a decision by Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino.March: the CGU opened a disciplinary proceeding against the two former Central Bank officials.September 9: G1 reported that the Federal Police ordered the summonses of Galípolo, Campos Neto and Esteves.September 24: Galípolo confirmed his summons; on the same day, Dino ordered the Federal Police to open an inquiry into the CVM's alleged omission.Reports by Folha based on messages extracted from Vorcaro's phone point to Master payments in 2025 to companies tied to a relative of a Central Bank official and to a former official: 120,000 reais to LR Consultoria, owned by Leonardo Eyer Harris, brother of Ricardo Eyer Harris, chief of staff to director Gilneu Vivan, and 3 million reais to JGM Solutions, owned by João André Calviño Marques Pereira, a former head of the financial regulation department. Ricardo Eyer Harris said he had informed senior management about his brother's contract and denied any direct or indirect role in decisions related to Master; João André said the payments began in August 2025, after he left the bank in June of that year. Galípolo defended the official's presumption of innocence and said the staffer had told his direct superiors about the consulting work his brother did for Vorcaro in the mining sector.The next step is Galípolo's testimony to the Federal Police as a witness, expected in early October. No dates have been announced for the statements of Campos Neto, Esteves and Aquino.

Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) ordered the Federal Police on Thursday, September 24, to open an inquiry into whether the securities regulator CVM failed to act on warnings about Banco Master, the bank controlled by businessman Daniel Vorcaro that is already under an investigation Dino oversees. The ruling came in a case that examines the enforcement capacity of the agency, which answers to the Finance Ministry and regulates Brazil's capital markets, a role comparable to that of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.The inquiry will focus on a case the CVM opened in February 2022 after a formal notice from the FGC (Fundo Garantidor de Créditos), a private fund that insures bank deposits in Brazil, much as the FDIC does in the United States. According to G1, a CVM report cited in Dino's ruling shows the notice contained detailed indications that the Master group might be financially insolvent, that its financial statements had inconsistencies and that quotations of open-end funds were being manipulated. CVM technical staff at the time classified the notice as an anonymous complaint "lacking sufficient elements" and archived the case without investigating it, Folha de S.Paulo reported.G1 reports that the alert also described the use of deposit-insured money to buy illiquid assets, estimated at more than 3 billion reais out of a total of 5 billion, and a mechanism in which new deposits paid for earlier withdrawals, foreshadowing risks that only became public years later.What the ruling ordersDino wrote that the suspicions go "beyond the sphere of possible exclusively administrative or regulatory irregularities". In a passage quoted by Folha, the justice said:"There are indications that establish the legal duty to investigate possible unlawful acts related to the functional conduct of public officials linked to the Securities Commission, as well as high-level authorities who would have influenced decision-making processes at the agency."In the justice's view, the archived case "describes circumstances that, in theory, go beyond the domain of simple operational failures or regulatory deficiencies". Dino kept the new inquiry under his rapporteurship, arguing that it is connected to the investigation he already leads into financial operations between Master and cemetery concessions in the city of São Paulo. The CVM must hand over a full copy of the archived case within 72 hours and identify which units and officials had access to the file, the grounds for the secrecy applied and any steps taken after the archiving. The Federal Police must deliver a first report within 60 days.Timeline of the caseFebruary 2022: the FGC sends the CVM a formal notice with detailed indications about the Master group.Soon after: CVM technical staff classify the notice as an anonymous complaint lacking sufficient elements and archive the case without further investigation.September 24, 2026: Dino orders the Federal Police to investigate the CVM's conduct; the regulator has 72 hours to produce the archived file.The ruling names no one. Any officials identified will answer solely as persons under investigation until prosecutors file charges and a court rules. In the broader Master inquiry, Central Bank president Gabriel Galípolo confirmed on Thursday that he had been summoned by the Federal Police to testify as a witness in October, according to Folha.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's highest constitutional court, ruled unanimously on Wednesday (23) that adoptive mothers and biological mothers must receive the same maternity leave: 120 days of paid leave, extendable by 60 days. The decision covers private-sector workers under the CLT, Brazil's consolidated labor code, and civil servants under statutory regimes. The case's rapporteur, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, was followed by all ten other justices.The trial, which began on September 16, ended on Wednesday. The ruling applies to new leaves and to those already underway on September 23; completed leaves are not affected. The 120 days will be counted from the ninth month of pregnancy, the birth, the adoption, the granting of custody for adoption purposes, or the hospital discharge of the mother or the newborn, whichever comes last. The justices also barred discrimination in granting the benefit based on the mother's type of employment.The old rule and the prosecutors' caseUnder federal civil service rules, a biological mother had 120 days of paid leave, while an adoptive mother had 90 days if the child was up to one year old and only 30 days if the child was older. The CLT, which governs private employment, had already equalized both cases. The case reached the court through an action filed by the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR), which asked the justices to declare those rules incompatible with the Constitution and to bind both the judiciary and the public administration.According to the PGR, a 2023 Supreme Court ruling had already held that adoptive and biological mothers cannot receive different leave periods, citing principles such as human dignity, equality between biological and adopted children, and the best interest of the child. In the prosecutors' view, that precedent served only as guidance for judicial bodies, did not suspend contrary laws, and the distinction continued in practice."It is therefore fitting to bring this direct action, which seeks not only to set aside the application of norms that currently amount to discriminatory treatment in the granting of parental leave, but also to establish, on an objective legal plane, the thesis that the system of parental protection must be subject to a uniform legal regime, regardless of the labor relationship of the category that benefits from it," the PGR argued.How the trial unfoldedWhen the trial opened on September 16, Moraes was joined by Justices Cármen Lúcia, Flávio Dino and Dias Toffoli. On Wednesday, Cristiano Zanin, André Mendonça, Kassio Nunes Marques, Luiz Fux, Gilmar Mendes and Chief Justice Edson Fachin followed the rapporteur. "If all are children, the mother is the mother of all, of natural, biological, adopted children, so maternity leave must be the same for everyone," Moraes said, according to G1.Justice Kassio Nunes Marques said the legal regime "may regulate countless aspects of the employment or civil service relationship, but cannot alter the intensity of the constitutional protection owed to motherhood and childhood". "The child does not need more or less care depending on whether her mother is an employee, a civil servant or a member of the military," he added. Cármen Lúcia said that "there is only one mother, and every child is unique to us". The court rejected only one of the PGR's requests, the sharing of parental leave among members of the family unit; according to CNN Brasil, the justices held that Congress should regulate that division. With the trial closed, the case now goes to the drafting of the formal ruling, to be published in the court's electronic gazette, with no date set yet.

A Federal Police investigation states that lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger ordered her personal driver and assistant, Ulisses Barbosa, to make cash payments to two senior officials at Brazil's Ministry of Social Development (MDS), the portfolio that runs the Bolsa Familia welfare program, and to a person connected to one of them. The deposits, totaling 60,000 reais in cash, were made on June 2, 2023.The messages were found on Roberta's phone and published on Wednesday (Sept. 23) by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, which said it had access to the conversations and to the deposit receipts. Folha de S.Paulo confirmed the findings after reviewing the same material and reported that the lobbyist kept stacks of cash in suitcases at her home.According to the police, one account belongs to Ranniêr Costa Ciríaco, the ministry's deputy executive secretary and currently its third-ranking official. Another belongs to José Martinho Ferreira de Araújo, who now runs the ministry's ceremonial office and once worked as a driver in Minister Wellington Dias's Senate office. The third account, investigators say, belongs to the mother of José Martinho's daughter.How the payments were madeIn the exchanges, Roberta told Ulisses to take the 60,000 reais in cash from her home and deposit it into the three accounts that same day. The assistant voiced concern about the amount and about banking controls, and carried out the order anyway."This 60k amount has to be diluted to be deposited... because the bank asks a series of questions," Ulisses wrote. At the bank, he warned: "I'm at the bank now. Anything above 50 thousand a day per CPF, the clerk said the Central Bank is already watching... it triggers a kind of alert. Just letting you know."Roberta is under investigation, alongside Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the eldest son of President Lula of the Workers' Party, in three inquiries into suspected corruption and influence peddling, a crime under Brazilian law. Everyone named is a suspect; none has been charged or convicted over these facts. Earlier stages of the inquiry had already revealed 217,000 reais in payments from the lobbyist to Marco Aurélio Santana Ribeiro, known as Marcola, a former chief of staff at the presidential palace.Folha reported that the ministry signed a contract with a technology businessman represented by Roberta about six months after the deposits. Contacted by both newspapers, the ministry did not respond, and a lawyer for Ulisses Barbosa could not be reached.Timeline2014: José Martinho is detained by the Federal Highway Police in Bahia carrying 180,000 reais in cash from Brasília to Piauí, with no proof of its origin; he worked for Wellington Dias's Senate office at the time.June 2, 2023: Ulisses Barbosa makes the 60,000-reais deposits on Roberta's orders.About six months later: the ministry signs a contract with a technology businessman represented by the lobbyist, according to Folha.Sept. 23, 2026: O Estado de S. Paulo publishes the seized messages; Folha confirms it had access to the material.What the lawyers sayRoberta's lawyer, Roberto Podval, said the defense knew nothing of the conversations. "The defense is unaware of such conversations, insists the case files are under seal and deplores these illegal leaks driven by sheer electoral political interest. We are confident the authorities will not stand idle in the face of such leaks," he said.Lulinha's lawyer, Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, said the authenticity of the messages cannot be confirmed and denied his client had any part in the deposits. "Fábio reiterates that he has no connection with any kind of irregularity, nor any diversion or suspicion related to public money. He speaks only for himself," he said.According to Estado, the next step is the Federal Police's review of court-ordered disclosures of Roberta Luchsinger's banking and phone records, to determine whether other officials of the ministry received payments. The inquiries remain sealed and no completion date has been set.

The president of Brazil's top electoral court, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, ruled on Tuesday (Sept. 22) that President Lula of the Workers' Party must remove from social media, within 24 hours, a video recorded at the Alvorada Palace, the presidential residence, in which he discusses the Master case. The injunction granted a complaint filed by Senator Flavio Bolsonaro of the PL party, Lula's rival in this year's presidential race. According to G1, the video was still online on the president's YouTube and Instagram accounts as of 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday (Sept. 23).In the one-minute-twenty-second video, recorded and posted on Sept. 3 on accounts registered with electoral authorities as official campaign channels, Lula calls for a code of ethics for the judiciary and criticizes what he describes as selective leaks in the Master case, a set of investigations centered on Banco Master. The claims about the case are the president's own; no one under investigation has been convicted."The Banco Master scandal is the biggest robbery in the history of Brazil. Millions of people in many states and municipalities were robbed. The banker who led the scheme has ties to many powerful people. It was under my government that he was arrested and his bank shut down. There are suspicions that politicians and public officials are involved. Our democracy cannot be held hostage to selective leaks," Lula said in the video.What the ruling saysIn his complaint, Flavio Bolsonaro accuses the ticket of Lula and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin (PSB) of a banned practice known as conduta vedada, under Article 73 of Brazil's election law, which forbids the use of public property to benefit a candidacy. A TSE resolution allows sitting presidents to record campaign content in one room of the official residence, as long as the setting is neutral. Nunes Marques found the condition was not met: the footage shows Lula with the national flag and the presidential standard behind him, symbols the justice described as institutional in character."Holding a statement of electoral content in a room of the official residence is not, therefore, prohibited in itself. Its legality depends, however, on the cumulative fulfillment of the conditions set by the provision, among them the use of a neutral environment, free of elements associated with public power or the office held," the justice wrote.Nunes Marques also barred the video, whole or in parts, from Brazil's free campaign airtime on radio and television, and ordered the platforms to take the material down. According to CNN Brasil, a request that the platforms preserve data on the posts was denied because a technical report already in the case file documents the content.What comes nextThe justice gave the presidency, the Communications Secretariat (Secom) and the Institutional Security Cabinet (GSI) five days to tell the TSE who entered the palace for the recording, who authorized access, which public employees and equipment were used in production, and whether costs were paid by the campaign or by the federal government. The answers will help determine whether public workers and public services were also used, which the same article prohibits.Lula and Alckmin will have five days to present a defense once they are formally notified. The ruling is a preliminary injunction in a case that is still pending and does not end the inquiry. CNN Brasil said it contacted Lula's campaign and had received no response by publication time.

Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master, held at least R$ 14.3 billion across 16 lawsuits whose payoff depended on rulings by Brazil's higher courts. The tally was published by Folha de S.Paulo on Wednesday and rests on a report by the law firm Galdino Advogados obtained by the newspaper. Known in the market as pre-precatórios, these rights to future indemnities paid by the federal government were one of Master's core businesses and, according to the paper, sit at the root of the web of contacts Vorcaro built inside the judiciary.The document was drafted in 2024, paid for by Vorcaro himself and later handed to the central bank to support its supervision of Master, which was probing inconsistencies at the bank. The opinion estimated the odds that the claims against the state would be paid, and when. It did not assess whether the price carried for the assets on the bank's books was fair, a gap pointed out by investigators in the case, according to Folha.How the bet workedThe main case concerns price controls set by the Sugar and Alcohol Institute (IAA) in the 1980s and 1990s. Mill owners argued the policy forced them to sell ethanol and sugar below production cost and sued for compensation. The federal attorney general's office (AGU) counts 178 such lawsuits. According to the Federal Justice Council, certificates already issued for the sugar and ethanol sector total about R$ 47.8 billion, and Brazil's 2025 budget guidelines law projects a R$ 79.6 billion fiscal impact.The business logic was to buy these rights for roughly 20% of each claim's estimated value. Whenever the STJ or the STF, the country's two top courts, embraced readings favorable to payment, holders pocketed billion-real gains covered by the public treasury, since winning suits later become precatórios, the court-ordered debt certificates the state must honor. A contract obtained by news site Metrópoles shows the scale: R$ 427 million in fees, equal to 5% of what the bank would collect in 12 cases that could unlock R$ 8.5 billion in precatórios.Messages and rebuttalsVorcaro's ties to judges have surfaced through messages pulled from his phone, seized in the Master investigation now before the Supreme Federal Court (STF) under Justice André Mendonça. In one exchange cited by Folha, the banker and legal director Luiz Rennó discuss paying R$ 500,000 a month to lawyer Kevin de Carvalho Marques, son of Justice Kassio Nunes Marques. The paper reports that Kevin has amassed nearly R$ 28 million in just over two years of practice.In a statement, Justice Kassio Nunes Marques said:"He never voted in favor of Daniel Vorcaro, never exchanged messages with him, and never asked the banker for anything. The Justice also never authorized anyone to speak on his behalf. Any attempt to link the Justice's work with services provided by his son or any third party is irresponsible."Master also held a R$ 129 million contract with the firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the wife of Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Contacted through the court's press office, the justice did not respond. At the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), messages show Justice Benedito Gonçalves telling Vorcaro he was "always available"; he did not answer Folha's questions when the chats surfaced. Some investigators in the case have taken to calling the banker the judiciary's "concierge".The timeline below recaps the case:1980s and 1990s: the IAA sets ethanol and sugar prices; mills sue the federal government for compensation.2024: Vorcaro pays for the Galdino Advogados opinion on the claims; the document goes to the central bank.July 2026: federal police send the STF justices the hard drive with messages from Vorcaro's phone.September 2026: Justices Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino and Gilmar Mendes demand the full file; Folha publishes the R$ 14.3 billion mapping.Vorcaro is under investigation and jailed in the Master case. The next known step is the justices' review of the full hard drive, requested last week. Mendonça denies steering the probe. No date has been disclosed for the inquiry's next moves.

Alexandre de Moraes, a justice on Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), on Tuesday ordered the shelving of an investigation into three former directors of the Federal Highway Police (PRF) accused of trying to hinder or prevent voters from reaching the polls in the 2022 presidential runoff. The ruling followed a recommendation by the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR), Brazil's federal prosecutors, which found no grounds to keep the case against the three open.The decision benefits Djairlon Henrique Moura, former director of Operations; Luis Carlos Reischak Junior, former director of Intelligence and former PRF superintendent in the state of Rio Grande do Sul; and Rodrigo Cardozo Hoppe, former deputy director of Intelligence. According to G1, Globo's news portal, Moraes said that, given the PGR's position, the case must be closed.How the case beganThe investigation grew out of roadside inspections the PRF ran on October 30, 2022, the day of the runoff between Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro. The checks concentrated in the Northeast, the region where Lula led the polls. A report obtained at the time by journalist Andréia Sadi's blog at G1 shows the force inspected 2,185 buses in the Northeast against 571 in the Southeast between October 28 and 30.On the eve of the vote, then PRF director-general Silvinei Vasques had publicly said he would vote for Bolsonaro. On election day, Moraes ordered the immediate suspension of the inspections under threat of arresting the director-general. The order was disobeyed, report G1 and the news site Imprensa 24h.In January 2025 the Federal Police formally named five people as suspects in the inquiry, including the three former directors. The police pointed to indications of the crimes of disobedience, dereliction of duty, restriction of the right to vote and participation, by omission, in an attempt to abolish Brazil's democratic rule of law. A police indictment is an investigative step and does not amount to a conviction.What the shelving meansShelving the case ends the criminal investigation without charges being filed and without any ruling on the merits. It followed the PGR's finding that the evidence against the former officials was insufficient, and it is not a verdict of guilt or innocence. Under Brazilian procedural law, the inquiry can be reopened if new evidence emerges. No further steps are scheduled in this line of the case, and G1 does not detail the status of the other two people named in the inquiry.

Federal appeals judge Newton Pereira Ramos Neto, of the TRF-1, the court that reviews federal cases across much of Brazil, voted twice, in January and June 2024, against appeals filed by the federal government and in line with the interests of Banco Master in a lawsuit brought by the Usina Cansanção de Sinimbu sugar mill in Jequiá da Praia, in the state of Alagoas. About six months after the second vote, the judge's wife, lawyer Camilla Rose Ewerton Ferro Ramos, and one of his sons signed a contract with the bank providing success fees of up to R$ 427 million. The finding was reported by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo on Tuesday (22) and also covered by Folha de S.Paulo.Both votes came in virtual sessions of the 11th Panel of the TRF-1, each decided unanimously, according to Estadão. In the first, held between January 22 and 26, 2024, the panel accepted the mill's appeal and limited the expert examination used to calculate the compensation owed by the federal government, which had asked for a broader analysis with new documents. In the second, between June 3 and 7, the panel rejected the government's appeals and in practice kept the restriction on the expert review.The mill is in judicial reorganization, a form of bankruptcy protection in Brazil, and seeks compensation from the federal government for losses it blames on the price control policy of the sugar and ethanol sector. Master joined the case alongside the company and, according to the Federal Police, bought credit rights from mills in reorganization to artificially inflate the bank's liquidity. The bank belongs to businessman Daniel Bueno Vorcaro, whom Folha reports has been jailed during the investigation. The later contract, signed by Camilla and by the judge's son, Gabriel Ribeiro Gonçalves Ramos, provided payment only if all of 12 lawsuits worth a combined R$ 8.5 billion succeeded. They involve "precatórios", court-ordered government debt payments. According to Folha, Camilla and Newton are identified as members of the "Turma do KN", an expression seen as a reference to Supreme Court Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, a friend of the judge for whom Newton once worked as an auxiliary judge.How the case unfoldedJanuary 2024: in a virtual session of the TRF-1's 11th Panel, Newton Ramos votes with the majority that accepts the mill's appeal and limits the expert examination.June 2024: the panel rejects the federal government's appeals and keeps the restriction.About six months later: the judge's wife and son sign the contract worth up to R$ 427 million with Master, later revealed in investigations into the bank.September 22, 2026: Estadão reports the link between the votes and the contract, and a lawyer files a disciplinary complaint against the judge with the CNJ.The judge's defenseContacted by Estadão, Newton Ramos said the ruling was not handled in isolation. "It was judged as a block, in a virtual session with approximately 300 cases", the judge said, adding in the same statement:"At the time, there was no indication in the case file of any interest by Banco Master, which joined the case only after the ruling, and since then the legal impediment has been duly recorded."Lawyer Camilla Ramos had not responded by the time the Estadão report was published. Folha said it contacted the TRF-1 press office and Camilla's law firm on Tuesday, with no reply by the time of this article.On Tuesday, lawyer Alex Ferreira Borralho filed a disciplinary complaint with the National Council of Justice (CNJ), the body that polices judges in Brazil, asking that the judge's conduct be investigated. "It is important to determine whether there was a functional compromise in the conduct of the respondent (Newton Ramos) for the benefit of a third party (Daniel Bueno Vorcaro) and of his wife, with contours of profound dimensions that highlight economic and financial relationships and private interests aimed at him and at Banco Master", Borralho wrote in the filing.The CNJ must now examine the complaint and decide whether to open disciplinary proceedings against the judge. No deadline has been announced, and the court and Camilla's firm may still comment on the new information. No formal accusation has been brought against Newton Ramos so far, and he currently answers only the disciplinary complaint.

Brazil's Federal Police arrested Rio de Janeiro city councilman Jorge Canella (União Brasil), a reserve colonel of the state military police, in flagrante delicto on Tuesday morning (22), after officers found two rifles and a submachine gun of restricted use at a property in the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood. The raid is the seventh phase of an investigation known as Operação Unha e Carne, launched to probe suspected illegal possession of restricted firearms by one of the people under investigation in the case.Officers served three search and seizure warrants, in Barra da Tijuca, in Recreio dos Bandeirantes and at the Rio city council. According to CNN Brasil, the orders were issued by Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees the investigation. The channel reported there was no arrest warrant against the councilman; the in flagrante arrest followed the discovery of the weapons, which police said were held in violation of legal requirements. Canella, whose registered name is Jorge Eduardo Barreto de Andrade Filho according to Veja magazine, was taken with the guns to the Federal Police regional headquarters in Rio.In a statement, the Federal Police said he will answer for illegal possession of a restricted firearm. CNN Brasil said it sought comment from Canella's lawyers and had received no reply by publication time. Police are probing his connection to Márcio Canella, a former mayor of Belford Roxo; Veja describes the councilman as tied to the former mayor.How the case got hereOperação Unha e Carne investigates an alleged money laundering scheme in Rio state that, according to a report by the financial intelligence unit Coaf cited by CNN Brasil, moved more than 7.6 billion reais over six years. Police suspect a network of gas stations in the metropolitan region served as a front for the scheme, with the participation of public officials. Earlier phases led to the arrests of politicians Rodrigo Bacellar, TH Joias and Thiago Rangel and of pastor Márcio Poncio.In the sixth phase, on July 7, Márcio Canella, then the state president of União Brasil and a pre-candidate for the Senate, was arrested in flagrante delicto after officers found a .556 caliber rifle in his car. He denied owning the weapon, and police described him as the political arm of the investigated group.Because he was arrested in flagrante delicto, Jorge Canella must be brought before a judge for a custody hearing within 24 hours, as Brazilian law requires. A custody hearing is a prompt judicial review of an arrest in which the judge may uphold the detention or order release pending trial. It is the next step in the case, and no time for it had been announced when this story was filed.

Credentials tied to a judge in the state of Rio Grande do Sul were used to tamper with the arrest warrant of businessman Alex Leandro Bispo dos Santos, 40, whom police describe as a member of the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) criminal faction and who is known as Baianão or "Escorpião do PCC" (Scorpion of the PCC). The São Paulo Court of Justice (TJ-SP) disclosed the finding, first reported by Folha de S.Paulo on Tuesday (22), which is so far the only outlet covering the fraud. The main suspicion, according to the Rio Grande do Sul judiciary, is a hacking attack.The tampering was made in the BNMP, the national database of prison measures and warrants that police forces across Brazil consult to check whether a person is wanted. With the changes, the defendant's record displayed another person's name and taxpayer ID (CPF). In practice, Alex stopped appearing as wanted in police checks around the country, according to the newspaper. The fraud reportedly took place on August 23. A TJ-SP review found that Alex's judicial record, the RJI, had been altered using the login and password of a judge from the city of Planalto, in Rio Grande do Sul.Background: the case so farAlex is a defendant charged with killing his partner, Maria Katiane Gomes da Silva, 25, in the early hours of November 29, 2025, on the 10th floor of a building in Vila Andrade, in southern São Paulo. According to the investigation, he threw her from the balcony of the apartment where they lived. Metrópoles reported that the ruling that converted his arrest into preventive detention, signed by judge Michelle Porto de Medeiros Cunha Carreiro, cited information that the defendant boasted of being the "Scorpion of the PCC" and pointed to a prior criminal conviction.On August 6, judge Antonio Carlos Pontes de Souza granted him provisional release and he left jail, according to Folha. Metrópoles reported that the release came with precautionary measures, such as keeping away from witnesses and reporting regularly to court. Prosecutors appealed, and appellate judge Hermann Herschander reinstated the arrest order on August 10, citing the defendant's "dangerousness" (periculosidade). Prosecutors say Alex is now a fugitive. The BNMP tampering came to light when the São Paulo prosecutors' office noticed, on September 16, that his arrest warrant no longer appeared in the system.Inquiry and next stepsAccording to Folha, the Rio Grande do Sul judiciary says the judge's credentials were "hacked/stolen" and were also used to modify and fraudulently sign other documents. The case was sent to the CNJ, the national council that oversees Brazil's judiciary, for investigation. The council told the newspaper it does not comment on specific cases. Prosecutors say no one has been identified as responsible for the fraud so far.The businessman's defense denies the crime, says the young woman committed suicide and denies his membership in the faction. Alex remains a defendant in the homicide case, which is still pending before the São Paulo courts. No deadline has been disclosed for the conclusion of the CNJ inquiry.

Messages sent by Daniel Vorcaro, the former controlling owner of Banco Master, indicate that he used two companies to pay for a May 2024 trip to New York by Luiz Fux, a justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), and for a lunch held in the justice's honor. The report was published by Folha de S.Paulo on Tuesday (22). The exchanges were found on Vorcaro's phone, seized by the Federal Police as part of an investigation into the bank. Vorcaro is under investigation and has not been convicted in the case.According to the newspaper, between March and May 2024 Vorcaro instructed an employee to buy airfare and hotel stays for Fux and his wife, Eliane Fux, and asked that the expenses be processed through Antonio Camarotti, CEO and publisher of Forbes magazine in Brazil. In one exchange, an employee tells Vorcaro that Camarotti had confirmed the justice's attendance at one of the magazine's New York events."We will issue the ticket and the hotel for him and his wife. Can we proceed?" the employee wrote. "Yes, but we have to do it through Camarotti. We cannot issue it ourselves," Vorcaro replied.In a statement sent by the Supreme Court's press office, Fux said he never exchanged messages with Vorcaro and "was never invited by him to events". The justice said he was "invited directly by Forbes" and "gave a lecture at a magazine event in May 2024 on legal security and the Brazil risk". He also said he had no contact with Vorcaro during the lunch.The lunch was organized by Forbes and sponsored by BeFly, a travel industry company that had Vorcaro's bank as a financial partner. The seized exchanges indicate that the banker supported the magazine's events through that agency, according to Folha. In a statement, Forbes Brasil confirmed that BeFly sponsored the lunch in Fux's honor and that Master was one of the supporters of the Forbes Party in New York, held the next day, and said both were "formal, regular and transparent commercial sponsorship relationships".TimelineMaster bought in 2023 the right to collect court-ordered federal debt payments known as precatórios, through funds managed by companies now under investigation in Operação Compliance Zero, according to G1. The Federal Police suspects the claims were issued by courts before the cases had ended, while the federal government could still appeal. Brazil's antitrust regulator, Cade, approved the sale of the bank to BRB in May 2025. Vorcaro's phone was seized by police, and one day after exchanges between him and the lawyer Rodrigo Fux, the justice's son, became public, Fux asked investigators for the device's data.The Master case has dominated news coverage of the presidential campaign 12 days before the first round, set for October 4. No date has been disclosed for the next procedural step related to this episode.

The government of São Paulo, the state run by Governor Tarcísio de Freitas of the Republicanos party, launches on Tuesday (22) a new policing model: motorcycle patrols armed with rifles riding the urban corridors of the state capital, mainly in areas with high robbery rates. The column Painel of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported the launch and stressed the calendar, with the program starting 13 days before the election.The operation will field 250 officers and 150 motorcycles in the capital, focused on the urban corridors, according to Brasil 247, which described the force as a military structure. Folha ran a photo of two officers from Bravo, the Advanced Operational Response Battalion.From campaign proposal to launchThe idea did not appear this week. On August 12, Jovem Pan listed a motorcycle battalion with rifles among the public security proposals put forward by Tarcísio, alongside an integrated police report system. On Tuesday the plan left the drawing board.The stated goal is to curb robberies on the urban corridors, the fast traffic arteries that cross the city. On the timing, the two outlets that covered the launch point to the same detail: it arrives 13 days before Brazil's national election, which this year also decides state governorships.The patrols start operating in the capital this week, 13 days before voters go to the polls.

Justice Kassio Nunes Marques of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) is weighing whether to reverse his recusal and vote again on cases tied to the Banco Master investigation after the October general elections, according to Folha de S.Paulo. Marques also presides over the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which runs the vote, and stepped aside on September 15, when the full bench began reviewing a report on messages between the banker under investigation Daniel Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes.According to sources heard by Folha, the recusal reflected concern about the electoral impact of the review, since Kassio heads electoral justice in the middle of the campaign. He has told people close to him that the decision applied to that specific moment, and that each new dispute will be weighed on its own. The news site Metrópoles reported a similar reading: his recusal in matters involving Moraes would not automatically extend to the request to investigate Justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur of the Master case, for suspected abuse of authority. Aides expect him to vote against opening an investigation, though the decision is not final.How the standoff developedThe standoff stems from a federal investigation into Banco Master's purchases of precatórios, court-ordered public debts that trade at a discount because payment can take years. After federal police seized Vorcaro's phone, extracted messages showed his contacts with officials, including Moraes and family members. Petitions asking the court to investigate Moraes and Mendonça followed. On September 15, the bench debated an order to try the two requests together: the partial score stood at 4 to 3 against, and Justice Flávio Dino requested a review, suspending the analysis. The sitting set for Wednesday (23) was postponed by the court's president, Justice Edson Fachin.Kassio and Justice Dias Toffoli did not take part in that vote. Toffoli declared himself biased after reports of business dealings with Vorcaro and stopped ruling on Master-related cases. Kassio said, when announcing his recusal, that ideally he would not join a ruling capable of affecting the course of the election. According to Folha, he argues in private that chairing the electoral court makes him the referee of the race, a more delicate position than his colleagues hold. His absence weakened Mendonça, who had counted on Kassio's votes in every case until then.Why Kassio's name appears in the filesThe justice's own name appears in the investigation files. Hours before the September 15 session, excerpts from Vorcaro's phone citing Kassio were leaked, including exchanges that mention payments to his son, lawyer Kevin Marques, Folha reported. News outlet g1 said investigators point to a group nicknamed "turma do KN" (KN's crowd), initials attributed to Nunes Marques, linked to appeals judge Newton Ramos and lawyer Camilla Ramos. In one June 2025 exchange, she celebrated with Vorcaro a win for sugar mills at the court's second chamber, by 3 to 2, praising "an excellent vote by Min Nunes Marques". In a statement, the minister said he "never authorized anyone to speak on his behalf". The references remain under investigation, and none of the people cited has been convicted.Kassio and Mendonça also share duties at the electoral court: both sit, with Justice Estela Aranha, on the TSE committee that handles electoral advertising cases, according to Folha. For now, the rulings on the requests against Moraes and Mendonça remain suspended by Dino's review request, and Wednesday's session was pulled from the agenda by Fachin. If Kassio keeps his current view, his return to the bench in the Master cases should come only after the October vote.

Brazil's Federal Police found on the phone of banker Daniel Vorcaro a draft contract, dated March 2024, that set payments of up to R$ 427 million from Banco Master to the law firm Queiroga, Vieira, Queiroz & Ramos, owned by lawyer Camilla Ramos, the wife of Newton Ramos, a federal appellate judge on the TRF-1, the court that reviews federal cases from most of northern Brazil. The investigation was first reported by Metrópoles on Monday and confirmed by g1, Globo's news portal.The contract covered the firm's work on lawsuits tied to precatórios, court-ordered federal debt payments, in the sugar and ethanol industry. Fees were set at 5% net of the amount recovered by the bank in each case. According to g1, the lawsuits totaled R$ 8.5 billion, which means a full win could have yielded R$ 427 million in fees. The document is a draft; the reports do not say whether the contract was executed.Messages with the judgeAfter the draft was drawn up, Vorcaro messaged Newton to remind him of a court ruling "on the 4th [of December]" that mattered to the bank, and the judge replied "lembrei" and "tudo certo", Portuguese for "I remembered" and "all set", the report says. On June 3, 2025, police identified a message from Camilla to the banker celebrating a win by sugar mills at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), praising a vote by Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, and trying to arrange a meeting with the judge to "talk quickly"."Grande vitória hoje para as Usinas na 2a Turma do STF! Placar 3x2 a favor das Usinas, para não aplicar o Tema 826. E um excelente voto do Min Nunes Marques fazendo a distinção dos casos em que o título judicial trouxe os critérios da indenização", wrote Camilla Ramos. In English: "Big win today for the mills in the STF's second chamber! Score 3-2 for the mills, keeping Thema 826 from applying. And an excellent vote by Justice Nunes Marques drawing the line between cases where the court order itself set the damages criteria."The investigation points to Camilla and Newton as members of the "Turma KN", the label used by Vorcaro's staff for people linked to Nunes Marques, whose initials KN supposedly stand for. On February 20, 2025, Vorcaro's travel operator told him that the "turma do KN/Newton" had sent six names to join a Rio de Janeiro Carnival box paid for by the banker. The messages also indicate that Newton's 2025 Carnival, including stays at Fasano hotels in Salvador and Rio, was organized and paid for by Vorcaro. In May 2025, days before antitrust regulator Cade approved the sale of Master to Banco Regional de Brasília (BRB), an assistant relayed a request from the judge for a "promotional rate" for Justice Nunes Marques at the Fasano hotel. "Pode pegar e colocar na minha conta", Vorcaro replied, meaning "go ahead and put it on my account". On other occasions, the judge asked the banker for tickets to a concert at a São Paulo hotel and for Formula 1.Defense and next stepsNunes Marques said in a statement that he "never authorized anyone to speak on his behalf". The g1 report carries no defense note from Judge Newton Ramos, from Camilla Ramos or from the law firm. No one named has been convicted; the messages are part of an ongoing police investigation, and everyone mentioned so far is only investigated or cited in seized conversations.For readers new to the case: Banco Master bought the right to collect precatórios in 2023, through investment funds run by companies now under investigation in Operação Compliance Zero. The suspicion is that some of the payments were issued before the lawsuits had fully run their course, while the federal government could still appeal. Vorcaro's messages have fueled a crisis at the STF: on September 15, the court began reviewing a report containing the banker's conversations with Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and Nunes Marques, who chairs the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), recused himself from that session over concerns about electoral fallout. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the recusal came after messages cited payments to his son, lawyer Kevin Marques, and the justice is considering rejoining the Master rulings after the October elections, with no date set yet.

Messages extracted by Brazil's Federal Police from the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master who is under investigation in the bank's scandal, show that Otto Lobo, president of the securities regulator CVM, allegedly nicknamed the businessman "little lion of the mountain" while seeking support to remain at the head of the agency. In other exchanges, Vorcaro described himself as "number 1" of Chamber of Deputies Speaker Hugo Motta. The conversations were reported on Monday (21) by the newspaper O Globo and detailed by Valor Econômico, which said it had access to the police material.In an audio message sent to Vorcaro on July 19, 2025, lawyer Ciro Soares said that Lobo, who was then running the CVM on an interim basis, had asked for help reaching Senator Otto Alencar because he wanted to keep the presidency of the agency. According to Soares, Lobo coined the nickname when talking about the banker."Otto Lobo from the CVM is asking me for help to speak with Senator Otto (Alencar). (...) He even told me he calls you 'little lion of the mountain'. I said: 'I liked the nickname, you know'. And he said: 'Yes, the little lion of the mountain, the kid is sharp, a hard worker'"Vorcaro replied: "Great. He has to be put in the presidency". In the messages that follow, Soares says he would take Lobo to the Senate and to Senator Jaques Wagner of the Workers' Party (PT) to "work for this guy to stay". "Let's make it happen. I'll talk to my people", Vorcaro answered. Soares added: "You push from one side, I'll push from the other".In a statement, Lobo said he "has no knowledge of, nor any involvement in, private conversations of third parties" and that he "never had relations with, nor sought support from, Daniel Vorcaro". He noted that the Senate confirmed him on May 20, 2026, two months after the CVM created a task force on Banco Master, and that the agency has already imposed fines of about 200 million reais in the case, 20 million of them on Vorcaro. Lobo also defended his tie-breaking vote in the Ambipar share offer, a ruling he said the federal audit court TCU upheld in two separate proceedings. The office of Senator Jaques Wagner denied that the reported conversation ever took place and said the senator has no ties to Vorcaro and never acted in the bank's interest. Valor said it contacted the others named and had received no reply by publication time.Vorcaro called himself Motta's "number 1"In a February 2, 2025 exchange with Master's then legal director Luiz Rennó, Vorcaro said he was in Brasília "with Davi and Hugo", a reference to Senate President Davi Alcolumbre and to Motta. Asked whether he got along with the congressman, he replied: "Do I get along with him? Hahaha. I'm 'number 1'. Friend, brother". The message came one day after Motta was elected speaker of the lower house in a first-round vote of 444, backed by 17 parties. Contacted through his office, Motta had not commented by publication time.According to the police findings cited by O Globo, Vorcaro paid for hotel suites in Lisbon in 2024 for Motta and for Senator Ciro Nogueira, whom police suspect received undue advantages for backing the bank in Congress. Motta said at the time that he saw no problem with the payment of the hotel nights because the event was "corporate and legal" in nature. The speaker was also among the authorities at a whisky and cigar tasting hosted by Vorcaro at the Carnegie Club in New York on May 14, 2024, which ran up a bill of US$ 1,023,646, about R$ 5.26 million at the conversion rate used by the police.Timeline of the caseMarch 2024: Motta's sister-in-law Bianca Medeiros takes a loan of at least R$ 22 million from Master to buy land in João Pessoa, according to Folha de S.Paulo.May 2024: Motta attends the Carnegie Club tasting in New York, with a bill of US$ 1,023,646.2024: the Federal Police finds Vorcaro paid for hotel stays of Motta and Ciro Nogueira in Lisbon.February 1, 2025: Motta is elected Chamber speaker with 444 votes; the next day Vorcaro calls himself the congressman's "number 1" in a message.July 19, 2025: in the audio to Vorcaro, Ciro Soares says Otto Lobo wants support to stay as CVM president and cites the "little lion of the mountain" nickname.March 2026: the CVM creates a task force on Banco Master; on May 20 the Senate confirms Lobo as president, and he is sworn in in June.September 21, 2026: O Globo and Valor publish the messages the Federal Police extracted from Vorcaro's phone.No date is set for the next steps. According to Lobo's statement, other complaints involving Banco Master are under review by the CVM's technical staff and will be examined by the agency's board in the future. The newly disclosed messages are part of the material the Federal Police extracted from Vorcaro's phone in the Master investigation. O Globo said it keeps space open for Motta to respond to the dialogues.

The coalition "O Brasil Pronto pra Mais", which groups the Workers' Party and allies backing the reelection of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, filed a case with Brazil's top electoral court, the TSE, on Sunday (20) asking it to revoke the registration of the presidential ticket led by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party in the October election. The filing, an electoral judicial investigation action known in Brazil as an AIJE, was assigned to minister Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva and also names the vice presidential candidate, federal deputy Alfredo Gaspar (PL), and congressman Mario Frias (PL), who is running for reelection.According to the petition, as reported by Valor Econômico and a column by Matheus Leitão in Metrópoles, the three would have benefited from a network of Instagram support pages built around collabs, joint posts that appear on every co-author's feed and reach all their followers. The coalition's argument is that pairing campaign accounts with undeclared support pages let campaign material circulate beyond legal limits and sidestep the restrictions that the platform's recommendation systems place on electoral accounts.Studies attached to the case measure the network's growth. In the snapshot dated September 7, researchers counted 508 unique publications, 492 of them collabs involving 324 accounts in 13 groups. By September 17, the total had risen to 1,826 collabs from 492 accounts, a 271.1% jump in ten days, and the nominal follower count of the accounts grew from 130.9 million to 147.4 million, a figure the researchers themselves say double-counts overlapping audiences. The study also found 74 accounts tied to candidacies or campaigns present in 207 of the first 492 collabs (42.1%), and in the update 68.6% of the posts reused exactly the same sets of co-authors.The petition also raises monetization. According to Valor, the survey identified 11 accounts posting links to election-related products sold on Shopee, nine of them within a single cluster of the network, with a combined following of more than 10 million; InfoMoney, cited by Amazônia Online, counts 12 accounts. Products mentioned include a cap bearing the number 22. Metrópoles reports that the campaign finance filings of Flávio and Michelle Bolsonaro show zero under the line for "sales of goods". The official profile of Mario Frias appears in ten collabs of the first study, nine of them with the page @flaviobolsonaroapoio and six with @flaviobolsonaros2, both different from Flávio Bolsonaro's official account. Of all the mapped profiles, only @matheus_cambui appears in the database of 61,511 web addresses reported to the electoral courts.As an urgent measure, the coalition asks the court to order Meta to preserve data from the profiles and the collabs, including registration records, access logs, metadata and the history of collab invitations and acceptances, and to suspend the sale links, under a daily fine of 50,000 reais. The action also requests documents from Meta and Shopee to identify who runs the accounts and the store and where the revenue went, plus information from the lower house and the Senate on staff, contracts and spending in the offices of Flávio, Alfredo Gaspar and Frias since February 1. On the merits, it asks the court to revoke the three candidacies and declare the respondents ineligible for eight years, on the grounds of misuse of the media and abuse of economic and political power. The coalition also wants the case sent to the prosecutor general for elections, to investigate the role of other candidates before the regional electoral courts.What the studies concedeThe accusations remain allegations at an early stage, with no conviction and no ruling on the merits. The studies attached to the case themselves acknowledge, as Valor reports, that the existence of the collabs does not by itself prove who controls the pages, whether money was paid or who commands the network: co-authorship shows only that a post was shared, while ownership, command and payment depend on further evidence. As of Monday (21), no public response from Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign had appeared in the reports consulted, and the TSE had not yet ruled on any of the requests. The case adds to a wave of reciprocal complaints between the two campaigns: on September 15, according to G1, Flávio's campaign asked the TSE to bar Lula from broadcasting live videos from the Alvorada presidential residence during the campaign.TimelineAugust 26: a collab cited in the case gathers Frias's official profile, his news account @mariofrias_noticias, the profile @jorgeseifjunior and two Flávio Bolsonaro support pages, in a post in which Frias thanks supporters of his reelection bid.September 7: first cut of the survey identifies 492 collabs and 324 profiles.September 8 to 17: a new collection records 1,334 additional collabs; the network reaches 1,826 posts.September 20: the coalition files the AIJE at the TSE; the case goes to minister Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva.Next step: the rapporteur rules on the urgent requests, including Meta's data preservation. No date is set; the ruling on the merits comes later.

Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master and an investigated party in the bank's case before Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), told an employee who, according to investigators, handled his travel bookings to give priority to a flight that would serve lawyer Viviane Barci, the wife of Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The exchange appears in Federal Police transcripts detailed by the newspaper Estadão on Sunday. One day after the messages, on August 22, 2025, the justice himself flew on the jet registered PP-NLR, a Legacy 650 owned by Prime You, a company tied to the banker, according to footage released by the newspaper O Globo.According to the transcripts, on August 21, 2025, Vorcaro asked a contact listed as "Thatiane Prime" about chartering a flight from Brasília to Roraima state. Someone in the operation replied that the aircraft was already booked: "We have the Barci flight on the PP-NLR, taking off from Catarina at 1 pm", reads the message, a likely reference to São Paulo Catarina Executive Airport, in São Roque, São Paulo state. Vorcaro replied: "Do not fail to attend to Barci." Estadão reports the flight was bound for Santos Dumont Airport, in Rio de Janeiro, where the video shows the couple disembarking on August 22, the day Moraes spoke at a forum held by Lide, a group that gathers top Brazilian executives.Contacted for comment, the Barci de Moraes law firm, where Viviane is a partner, admitted hiring air taxi services from several companies, including Prime Aviation, the flight's operator. It said Vorcaro was never on board the company's aircraft and that "on certain flights, Viviane Barci de Moraes was accompanied by her husband, Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court"."The hiring of air taxi services follows operational criteria and does not involve any personal ties with aircraft owners or specific operators. The choice of the aircraft used belongs to the civil aviation companies hired", reads the statement, which also says the firm has no contract with Prime Aviation and never bought shares in the company.The admission contrasts with a statement from Moraes's office on March 31. At the time, after Folha de S.Paulo reported that the justice had taken at least eight flights on planes linked to Vorcaro, the office called the story "fanciful" and said he had "never traveled on any plane of Daniel Vorcaro". In a written defense filed with the STF on September 15, Moraes denied the existence of a second contract, worth 50 million reais, which the Federal Police says was signed on May 12, 2025, between the firm and Viking Participações, a company represented by Vorcaro.TimelineJanuary 2024: Banco Master signs a 131 million reais services contract with the Barci de Moraes firm, in 36 monthly installments of 3.6 million reais, according to the Federal Police.May 12, 2025: the Federal Police points to the signing of a second contract, of 50 million reais, with Viking; an accord on May 19 provided for settling 40 million reais with stakes in aircraft companies.August 21 and 22, 2025: Vorcaro asks priority for the family's flight ("Do not fail to attend to Barci"); on the 22nd, Moraes and Viviane are seen on video disembarking from the PP-NLR at Santos Dumont.March 31, 2026: the justice's office denies he ever flew on aircraft linked to Vorcaro.September 15, 2026: in a written defense to the STF, Moraes denies the second contract.September 20, 2026: O Globo releases the video, Estadão publishes the transcripts and the law firm admits using Prime Aviation.At the court, the episode feeds the clash between Moraes and Justice André Mendonça, the justice assigned to write the Master inquiry's rulings. Moraes accuses his colleague of abuse of authority and of acting politically against him. Mendonça, in turn, has asked the full court to examine the messages exchanged between Vorcaro and Moraes; the petition has been stalled since Justice Flávio Dino asked to review it and, according to Valdo Cruz's blog at G1, should only return to the bench after the elections. Former justices argue the ties between the banker and the judge must be investigated.No court has found any crime related to the flights. Vorcaro remains an investigated party in the Master inquiry, and both the law firm and the justice deny wrongdoing. The next procedural step is the deadline ending on Monday (21) for Mendonça to answer in writing Moraes's accusations of abuse of authority, administrative improbity and crimes of responsibility, according to Estadão.

Brazil's Ministry of Justice and Public Security has dismissed former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, a son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, from his post as a police clerk (escrivão) in the Federal Police. The order was signed on September 18 by Minister Wellington César Lima e Silva and published on Monday (21) in the Diário Oficial da União, the federal government's gazette. According to news outlet G1, the dismissal rests on a disciplinary infraction of abandonment of post, applied to an officer who is absent from duty "unjustifiably for a period of more than thirty consecutive days".Eduardo joined the Federal Police in 2010 after passing a civil service exam and had been away from his duties to serve as a federal congressman elected by São Paulo state. Congress revoked his seat in late 2025 over excessive absences, under a constitutional rule that bars deputies and senators from missing more than one third of the year's deliberative sessions. Sources differ on the exact date: G1 reports December 18, while Metrópoles says November 18, 2025.The disciplinary caseOnce he lost his seat, Eduardo was required to return to his clerk post in Rio de Janeiro, which he did not do. According to Metrópoles, an administrative disciplinary proceeding was opened early this year and concluded by the Federal Police in July, with a final report issued on July 21; the final decision belonged to the justice minister. The Federal Police's regional inspector in Rio also ordered him to hand in his service ID and his firearm.His defense and the criminal caseEduardo has lived in the United States since February 2025. He says he left Brazil to escape what he describes as political and legal persecution, seeking refuge. On the criminal front, he was sentenced in June this year to four years and two months in prison, to be served in a semi-open regime, for attempting to interfere in his father's trial in the coup plot case, according to G1. The sentence also bars him from running for office for 12 years, until 2038.On Friday (18), the First Chamber of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court, unanimously rejected an appeal by his defense against the conviction. The ruling's author, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, was followed by Flávio Dino, Cármen Lúcia and Cristiano Zanin in a virtual session. The Federal Police dismissal takes effect from its publication in Monday's gazette. The reports list no date for the start of his prison term and no further appeals by the defense.

Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Sunday ordered the federal government to review the rules governing the capital markets and the work of the CVM, the country's securities regulator, with a focus on investment funds and anti-money laundering rules. The government has 90 days to present its conclusions, proposed measures and technical justifications, in a review to be coordinated by the Finance Ministry, which oversees the agency.The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the Novo party that questions the budget structure and inspection capacity of the CVM. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the case received new material after Transparency International sent a formal letter to the court. O Globo reports that Dino also examined documents from the so-called GT Master, a task force created inside the regulator itself. In his reading, the agency's problems go beyond scarce funding and include governance and supervision mechanisms, difficulties he said worsened after regulatory changes in 2021 and 2022.One point that drove the order was the handling of a complaint filed with the CVM in 2022. According to documents cited by Dino, the tip anticipated, "with a high degree of detail," irregularities later identified at Banco Master, including illiquid assets, manipulation of quotations and the repurchase of credits. The agency's technical staff shelved it on the grounds that the information was implausible. The decision also flags failures in whistleblower protection: sensitive complaints were reportedly processed outside the Fala.BR platform, without proper safeguards for informants' identities, exposing them to possible retaliation.Timeline of the Master case2021 and 2022: the CVM issues rules that loosen fund market regulation, including Resolution 175 of 2022.2022: a complaint detailing alleged irregularities at Banco Master is shelved by the CVM's technical staff.March 4, 2026: federal police arrest Banco Master controller Daniel Vorcaro and three others in São Paulo on preventive arrest warrants; according to Conjur, it was his second arrest in the case. Vorcaro, who is under investigation, later asked for the arrest to be revoked, Folha reported.September 20, 2026: Dino orders the government to review the CVM's rules and sets a 90-day deadline.What the review must coverAccording to O Globo, the order covers three CVM resolutions. The central one is Resolution 175, which lets funds invest in shares of similar funds in successive layers with no quantitative limit. "This circumstance makes it harder to see the final economic composition of transactions and increases the challenges inherent in regulatory supervision," the justice wrote. He also cited the market's expansion: the number of regulated funds rose from 14,400 in 2014 to 32,300 in 2026, and FIDCs, funds that buy receivables, grew 810 percent in the period. Dino further asked for a review of rules that handed fund managers the task of verifying that the credits in their portfolios exist, work once done by independent custodians, with checks by sampling or waived in some cases.On money laundering, the justice said current rules require market players to monitor and report suspicious transactions, but do not require them to refuse a deal when the ultimate beneficiary of complex corporate structures cannot be identified. In his assessment, the low-transparency scenario created, in theory, conditions for large-scale fraud and for the use of the regulated market by criminal structures. In the decision, Dino wrote:These difficulties end up expanding the reach of criminal organizations dedicated to very serious crimes (drug trafficking; arms trafficking; corruption; embezzlement of congressional earmarks; the buying and selling of judicial decisions involving judges, aides and lawyers; bid-rigging; the illegal court debt market, among others).This is Dino's second order in the same case. He had already ruled that the CVM must spend 70 percent of what it collects from its inspection fee on its own structure, instead of sending the money to the National Treasury. Folha also reports that he suggested the Finance Ministry revise the CVM's rule on sanctioning proceedings. The reports consulted contain no comment from the CVM or the ministry on the decision. The next step is the deadline: the conclusions of the review, coordinated by the Finance Ministry, are due 90 days from the September 20 ruling, which puts the deadline at about December 19.

Brazil's Federal Police found, among the files extracted from the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master who is under investigation in the case, a photograph of Paulo Gonet, the prosecutor general of the Republic, holding a cigar while seated beside the former banker at an event in London. The newspaper O Globo published the image on Saturday (19), the news portal G1 reported it, and the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR, Brazil's top federal prosecution body) confirmed that it is authentic. Within hours, opposition politicians began calling for Gonet to be removed from office.According to G1, the photo reached Vorcaro's phone on June 19, 2025. It was sent by lawyer Ciro Soares, a former Banco Master defense attorney, with the message "PG me mandou" ("PG sent it to me"), the initials of Paulo Gonet. The image shows the prosecutor seated near Vorcaro and two other men, with whisky glasses on two tables. CNN Brasil reported that the event took place in April 2024, the same meeting Gonet cited when he appeared before the Supreme Federal Court (STF) on September 15. The message log published by G1 also records arrangements for a trip to London with Gonet and his son in March and April 2025.In a statement to G1, the PGR said Gonet has already publicly acknowledged attending the event, which was organized by Vorcaro and attended by several other authorities, and noted that Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the Master case investigations at the STF, has described the references to the prosecutor general in the messages as nothing serious. Gonet, who is mentioned in the Federal Police report, argues the document is void: in the PGR's reading, it was produced at Mendonça's request without a prior requisition by the PGR or the police, and an investigation would require prior authorization by the court's full bench. In the September 15 session, he said he had no close relationship with Vorcaro and that their only connection was "brevíssima e banal" (extremely brief and banal).Timeline of the caseApril 2024: in messages to Vorcaro, Ciro Soares writes that "Gonet é firme" ("Gonet is solid"); according to the messages, Gonet would have helped secure the election of Jarbas Soares Júnior to lead the national council of prosecutors general (CNPG).March 2025: after a message saying "Ele quer falar com você" ("He wants to talk to you"), forensic records show four consecutive calls between Vorcaro and Ciro, which the PF reads as the banker speaking with Gonet on the lawyer's phone; days later Ciro passes along messages attributed to the prosecutor, such as "Oba!!! Tomara que tenha charuto e macalan!" (a reference to The Macallan whisky), and arranges the London trip for Gonet and his son, with expenses approved by Vorcaro.September 1: Mendonça makes a Federal Police report public, with messages from Vorcaro's phone that also mention Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and asks STF President Edson Fachin to take the case to the full bench.September 15: the full bench begins to review the case; Gonet denies any closeness with the banker, and Justice Flávio Dino suspends the session with a request for more time to study the records.September 19: O Globo publishes the photo of Gonet and Vorcaro in London; the opposition demands the prosecutor's removal.Opposition pressureThe release of the image opened a new front of pressure. On Saturday, congressman and presidential candidate Nikolas Ferreira of the PL party filed a petition with STF President Edson Fachin asking the court to consider the precautionary removal of Gonet. In his filing, Nikolas argues that the photo, the messages and the references to the prosecutor general and to family members in the investigation material justify examining a possible conflict of interest, and asks Fachin to refer the matter to the court's competent body and to the full bench. Candidate Romeu Zema of the Novo party called for Gonet to resign and linked the crisis to the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who appointed him. Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) posted the photo on social media and said those involved were "rindo da cara do povo sofrido" (laughing in the face of the suffering people).The next steps sit with the STF. The full-bench review that began on September 15 has been suspended since Justice Flávio Dino's pedido de vista, and no date is set for its resumption. Nikolas's petition awaits Fachin's decision on how to route it. CNN Brasil said it had contacted the PGR for comment on the photo and that the office had not yet responded.

Brazil's top electoral court has suspended the Senate candidacy of Deltan Dallagnol, a former lead prosecutor of the Lava Jato corruption investigation, in the southern state of Paraná. The injunction, issued late on Saturday, September 19, by Justice Floriano de Azevedo Marques of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), granted a request from the Paraná Para Todos coalition and the Brasil da Esperança federation, which include the Workers' Party (PT) and the PDT. Until the court's collegiate panel rules on the appeal, Dallagnol, of the Novo party, cannot receive or use public campaign money and cannot campaign.In practice, he loses access to the Party Fund and the Special Campaign Financing Fund (FEFC), is barred from airing electoral ads on radio and television and cannot hold campaign acts, according to CNN Brasil. The justice found indications that the Regional Electoral Court of Paraná (TRE-PR) went against TSE precedent when it upheld the candidacy on September 9. He wrote that the regional ruling had been issued in defiance of the superior court, with no legal support whatsoever and with disturbing effects on the electoral process (quotes translated from Portuguese)."An ineligible candidate can change, with the votes devoted to him, the outcome of the election irreversibly, because his voters will have been prevented from making another combination of votes at their discretion"wrote Floriano in the decision, which was issued on an urgent basis at the request of six lawyers acting for the rival coalition and federation, according to CNN Brasil. The newspaper Estadão reports that the ruling will now be reviewed by a collegiate panel of the TSE.Timeline2022: Dallagnol resigned as a federal prosecutor 11 months before the election, while facing internal disciplinary proceedings at the Federal Prosecutor's Office, and ran for the Chamber of Deputies. The regional court approved his registration; an appeal went to the TSE, but with no final ruling he ran, was elected and took office.2023: the TSE revoked his candidacy registration. The case's rapporteur, Justice Benedito Gonçalves, held that he had committed fraud against the Clean Record law (Lei da Ficha Limpa), because the resignation was filed early to dodge disciplinary proceedings that could have led to his dismissal and, as a consequence, to ineligibility. The Chamber of Deputies confirmed the loss of his seat months later.September 9, 2026: the TRE-PR accepted an appeal filed by Dallagnol's defense by a 4-3 vote and allowed him to register his Senate candidacy.September 19, 2026: TSE Justice Floriano de Azevedo Marques suspended the candidacy in a preliminary injunction, at the rival coalition's request, until the collegiate judgment of the appeal.Both sides and next stepsIn Paraná, the candidate's defense had prevailed 4-3 at the regional court. Facing the risk of losing the slot for good, Dallagnol has already discussed an alternative publicly: in a June interview on the podcast A Tia Pod, he said he could field his wife, Fernanda Dallagnol, or Curitiba's vice-mayor, Paulo Martins, to run for the Senate in his place if the registration is denied, according to the news site O Antagonista.The suspension hits one of the front-runners in the Paraná Senate race, according to a Paraná Pesquisas poll cited by CNN Brasil, two weeks before the first round of Brazil's general elections, scheduled for October 4. The next step is the TSE collegiate panel's judgment of the appeal, which will decide whether Dallagnol can run; no date has been announced. The injunction is provisional and does not settle the merits of the candidacy.

Messages extracted from Daniel Vorcaro's phone by Brazil's Federal Police show that the Banco Master owner treated Senator Otto Alencar (PSD), who chairs the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ), as his "advisor" and "commander". According to a report by the newspaper O Globo published on Friday (19), a Federal Police report says lawyer Ciro Soares acted as a go-between: he would tell Vorcaro when he was with the senator, send photos of himself beside him and call the banker to pass on messages attributed to the lawmaker. Alencar denies any closeness to Vorcaro and, according to the paper, is not under investigation.The case so farVorcaro was arrested in November 2025 at Guarulhos airport, outside São Paulo, as he prepared to board a private jet bound for Malta. The operation, code-named Compliance Zero, investigates the alleged issuance of fake credit instruments, and the Central Bank later put Master into extrajudicial liquidation. Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues told a Senate inquiry on organized crime that the suspected scheme may have moved around 12 billion reais. The contents of Vorcaro's phone, about 500 gigabytes, were sent to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) under restricted access, and excerpts have fed police reports such as the one citing Alencar.The messagesIn messages translated from Portuguese, the first exchange cited by investigators is dated May 30, 2024, when Alencar sat on both the CCJ and the Economic Affairs Committee, which reviews bills of interest to the financial industry. "Otto wanted to talk to you", Soares wrote. After a phone call, Vorcaro replied: "Send a hug to our commander there. He is our advisor and our commander". On December 5 of that year, the lawyer wrote: "Dani, very important that we talk. Otto made a big move for you. He was waiting for you yesterday and today". Vorcaro answered that he was in "a very complicated moment".The exchanges continued through 2025, the year Alencar took over as CCJ chairman. On November 12, days before Vorcaro's arrest, Soares wrote: "I'm with Otto now. He's asking about you". Vorcaro replied: "Send him a hug. We are building a turnaround. But I will need you all". In the same chat, in crude language, Soares wrote that the senator had been tough that day in the Senate hearing on the reappointment of Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, approved the same day. On June 19, after a missed call, Soares messaged: "Big Otto says he misses you". "And I miss him", Vorcaro answered, then urged the senator to attend a London event sponsored by Master: "He has to go. We'll drink the top Macallan", a reference to the whisky. The reports also describe attempts to arrange face-to-face meetings between the two in Salvador and Brasília.The responsesReached by the paper, Alencar first said he is a friend of Soares, the PSD's lawyer in Bahia, and denied any contact with Vorcaro. "I never saw him or exchanged messages. I never went to a party, to London, or brokered a conversation with Vorcaro or absolutely anyone", said the senator, who also denied phone contact. After the story was published, he acknowledged speaking with Vorcaro "two or three times by phone" on Soares's device, and said Vorcaro had asked for his backing on the so-called Master amendment, which would raise the deposit insurance limit of the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC) from 250,000 to 1 million reais. Investigators say the proposal was introduced by Senator Ciro Nogueira (PP-PI) in an arrangement with the bank, and was rejected by the rapporteur of the Central Bank autonomy amendment, Senator Plínio Valério (PSDB-AM). Alencar said he opposed the measure and had been warned of its risks by then Finance Minister Fernando Haddad.Soares, who according to O Globo is also not a target of Master-related inquiries, said a meeting between "a political leader and a business leader" would be natural, but denied arranging lunches or encounters between the two. Vorcaro's defense did not comment on the messages and says the banker is available to the authorities to give clarifications. On Friday, Supreme Court justices André Mendonça and Luiz Fux told the Federal Police they could not open the copies of the phone data they received and asked for technical help, news site G1 reported. As of now, no investigation targets Alencar or Soares in the Master case.

Two justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), André Mendonça and Luiz Fux, told the Federal Police in formal letters sent on Saturday (September 19) that they have been unable to access the copy of the full data extracted from the cellphone of Daniel Vorcaro, former controller of Banco Master and a person under investigation in the inquiry known as Operation Compliance Zero. In the letters, both justices asked for technical support to examine the material, roughly 500 gigabytes, which the Federal Police delivered to their offices on Thursday (17).According to InfoMoney, each justice sent a separate letter to the force's director general, Andrei Rodrigues. The letters state that, as of Saturday afternoon, the offices had not achieved "effective access to the material contained therein". They list the same two possible causes, "technical operational difficulties" or "some type of defect contained in the delivered media", and say the data therefore remains unavailable for examination and analysis. The justices requested "the necessary technical operational assistance" and a check of "the soundness of the material specifically delivered" to confirm the integrity of the drive.How the case got hereNovember 18, 2025: the Federal Police seize Vorcaro's phone in the first phase of Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates alleged fraud at Banco Master. The device is identified in the letters by its serial number and two IMEI codes.Revelations: messages extracted from the phone have fueled a crisis at the STF, Brazil's highest court. The material includes conversations between the former controller and lawyer Rodrigo Fux, son of Justice Luiz Fux, and references to Justice Kassio Nunes Marques.Distribution: justices request access to the material, and the Federal Police deliver copies of the full data to court offices. The latest delivery, on Thursday (17), went to Fux and Mendonça, who had requested it.Tuesday (15): in a court session, Mendonça said he had only then learned of references to other members of the court in the material, and that an earlier backup copy remained sealed and unopened in his office.On who has received copies, the reports differ. According to g1, the Federal Police made the material available to the offices of Mendonça, Fux, Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino, Alexandre de Moraes and Kassio Nunes Marques. InfoMoney, citing the newspaper O Globo, reports that Thursday's delivery raised to five the number of justices holding the content: besides Fux and Mendonça, Cristiano Zanin, Gilmar Mendes and Alexandre de Moraes had already received it directly from the Federal Police.What the material containsAccording to accounts given to g1, the data is organized in folders with chats, audio files and logs, the records of activity on the device. The Federal Police used the forensic software IPED (Digital Evidence Indexer and Processor), which indexes the evidence and allows keyword searches across chats and documents. Forensic experts also used tools to recover deleted or password-protected data and to trace records of message and file transfers. To convey the scale, g1 estimates the 500 GB would hold about 140,000 high-resolution images, more than 120,000 MP3 audio files and around 40 hours of high-definition film.The Federal Police had not publicly responded to the letters by the time of writing. The next step is the force's reply, with the technical support requested by the justices and the verification of the drive's integrity. Neither source mentions a deadline.

Executives at Banco Master described lawyer Dalide Corrêa, who received R$ 33 million from the bank, as a "partner" of Justice Gilmar Mendes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF). The reference appears in December 2024 messages exchanged with former banker Daniel Vorcaro, whose cell phone was seized by the Federal Police. The exchanges were obtained by columnist Malu Gaspar of the newspaper O Globo, and the case was reported on Saturday (19) by Folha de S.Paulo. The justice's office says the claim is false.In the exchange, the bank's then legal director, Luiz Rennó, pressed Vorcaro to release a R$ 15 million invoice owed to the lawyer, who was demanding overdue payments. The initials "GM" in the message refer to Gilmar, the court's longest-serving justice."Hey, friend! That payment is for Dalide! Those precatórios! She is a partner of GM from the STF! Her partner Leandro is very tricky and they work with BTG. Approve that one," Rennó wrote, according to exchanges obtained by the Federal Police.According to the column, the supposed closeness to the justice was not the only factor. The message also cites the lawyer's work with BTG Pactual, the investment bank that Vorcaro saw as his main rival.Timeline of the caseAccording to O Globo, Dalide worked in favor of Vorcaro's interests in the market for precatórios, court-ordered debt payments that Brazilian governments owe after losing lawsuits. The sugar and ethanol industry disputes before the STF stem from mill owners' claims for compensation over price controls imposed by the federal government in the 1980s and 1990s, litigation worth billions that has dragged on for more than three decades. Key dates:Until November 2016: Dalide served as director general of IDP, a private law school in Brasília founded by Gilmar and now run by one of his sons, a post she held for about nine years by her own account.April 2024: Gilmar received Vorcaro and Master lawyers in his STF office to discuss a case involving a precatório from the Alcídia mill, according to information provided by the justice's own office. He voted against the bank's interests.August 27, 2024: Rennó pressed Vorcaro for urgent approval of Dalide's R$ 15 million invoice, citing "an important victory in the Catende case", a mill in Pernambuco state.December 2024: in a new round of demands, Rennó called the lawyer a "partner of GM from the STF".September 2026: O Globo's column publishes the exchanges; Gilmar and Dalide deny any partnership.What each side saysIn a statement, Gilmar's office called the association made by the Master executives false and said the justice never had any partnership with Dalide, at IDP or any other company. The office said she held a "technical post" as director general of the institute and left in November 2016. It also said Gilmar "has no knowledge" of her work on cases involving sugar and ethanol precatórios, and that he voted against payment in every such case he judged, in line with the federal government's position: "In none of them was the vote favorable to the interests of Banco Master".Dalide denied any partnership with Gilmar and any ownership stake in IDP, and said she has no ties to BTG. Her office said she worked on cases first filed by companies that sold credits to Master and were later succeeded in the lawsuits by the bank. Gilmar told Folha he has no personal or professional relationship with her and considers her a former employee. The O Globo column, however, found that the two remain close to this day.The R$ 33 million paid to Dalide's firm was detected by an internal audit at BRB, the state-controlled bank of Brasília that tried to buy Master, according to the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. The Federal Police also found messages in which executive Alberto Félix calls the lawyer a "direct channel to the STF". No one has been convicted, and the exchanges are part of the material from Vorcaro's seized phone under review in the Master investigation. According to G1, Justices André Mendonça and Fux told the Federal Police, in official letters, that they cannot access the full copy of the phone and asked for technical help. No date is set for the next steps.

Brazil's top electoral court, the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), admitted on Friday (Sept. 18) a judicial electoral investigation action against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin of the PSB, who are running for reelection, over alleged abuse of political and economic power and misuse of media in a samba school parade last February at Rio's Carnival. The ruling came from the court's electoral inspector general (corregedor), Justice Antonio Carlos Ferreira, and only allows the case to move forward. There is no ruling on the merits and no finding of wrongdoing.The action was filed by presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro of the right-wing PL, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, and his running mate, Alfredo Gaspar, who face Lula and Alckmin in the 2026 race. Also listed as under investigation are first lady Rosângela da Silva, known as Janja, Workers' Party congressional candidate Marcelo Freixo and Niterói mayor Rodrigo Neves. According to G1, the justice ordered that all of them be formally notified and set a five-day deadline for their defense. If the action ultimately succeeds, it can annul the beneficiary's candidacy or diploma and bar those responsible from running for office for eight years, under Article 22 of Complementary Law 64 of 1990.How the case reached the TSEJuly 2025: according to the petition, Acadêmicos de Niterói announces a parade theme devoted to Lula's personal and political life.Feb. 15, 2026: the school parades at Rio's Carnival with the theme about the president, according to Brasil 247.Friday, Sept. 18: the electoral inspector general admits the case, notifies those under investigation and opens a five-day window for defenses.What the petition claimsFlávio Bolsonaro and Alfredo Gaspar argue that the city governments of Rio de Janeiro and Niterói, the state of Rio de Janeiro and the federal tourism agency Embratur channeled a combined 9.65 million reais to the school after the theme was announced in July 2025. They claim there were also unexplained private revenues, possibly from companies with government contracts and no history of sponsoring samba schools. They further allege misuse of media: the parade was carried on national broadcast television for about 79 minutes, they say, and the recording remained available on digital platforms, exposure that in their reading escaped the legal rules for campaign advertising.The petition asks for evidence from public and private bodies and for testimony from Janja, Freixo and Rodrigo Neves. If the abuse is proven, the plaintiffs ask that Lula and Alckmin have their candidacies annulled and be declared ineligible for the following eight years.Reviewing the filing, Antonio Carlos Ferreira concluded that the reported facts could, at least in theory, amount to abuse of political and economic power and misuse of media. According to Brasil 247, the petition came with payment receipts, official publications, audit court documents, the school's "Livro Abre-Alas" disclosure book and a list of witnesses. "In a first analysis, I find that the initial petition meets the admissibility requirements," the justice wrote. For Márcio Nogueira, president of the Rondônia bar association and an electoral law specialist quoted by G1, this type of action is one of the "most severe accountability instruments in electoral justice" and differs from electoral complaints, which target specific infractions such as irregular advertising.The tool has carried weight before in Brazilian politics. Both TSE convictions of former president Jair Bolsonaro, which made him ineligible until 2030, came in judicial electoral investigation actions, one over his 2022 meeting with foreign ambassadors and one over the Independence bicentennial celebrations of Sept. 7, 2022. On the current case, G1 said it contacted the Workers' Party campaign and received no response. Lula, Alckmin and the others notified are under investigation and enjoy the presumption of innocence. The next step is their defense, due within five days of notification, after which the case moves to evidence gathering. The outlets consulted gave no date for that stage.

Messages exchanged on December 12, 2024 indicate that Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of the Brazilian investment bank Banco Master, ordered two international yellow fever vaccination certificates with a backdated application date. According to a report by Folha de S.Paulo published on Saturday, the conversations, obtained by the newspaper, took place with Luiz Phillipi Machado de Moraes Mourão, known as Sicário (a nickname meaning "hitman"), whom federal police identified as the head of the banker's private militia. In the exchange, Vorcaro sent personal data of actress Monique Alfradique and received two certificates logging an injection on April 9, 2024.The exchange ran from 8:57 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Folha reports. At 8:57, Vorcaro sent Sicário a vaccination certificate and wrote that he needed two certificates like that one. Around noon, Sicário relayed a message from an unidentified contact saying the job was ready and asking whether to insert it into the government system. He then asked for the woman's taxpayer ID number, promising to send everything "ready and solved". Vorcaro replied with the actress's full name, CPF number and date of birth.At 1:25 p.m., the contact, in messages passed on by Sicário, said he had logged a dose as applied on April 9, 2024, and that the RNDS, the National Health Data Network that generates certificate PDFs in Brazil's public health system (SUS), was processing the record. Sicário sent a link to Meu SUS Digital, the federal government's health app, said the entry should already appear in the digital vaccination wallet, offered further help and delivered two certificates to Vorcaro.In a statement, Alfradique's press office said her two yellow fever doses were administered "in an absolutely regular manner, at duly accredited health posts, in accordance with official protocols", the latest on April 22, 2024, at Fiocruz. Folha notes that it is unclear whether the actress knew of the request. The Health Ministry said SUS records rely on "security mechanisms, access controls and traceability" and that "there is no record of these mechanisms being compromised". Vorcaro's lawyers did not respond to the newspaper.Timeline of the caseDecember 2024: the messages about the certificates are exchanged on December 12.November 2025: Vorcaro is arrested for the first time in the Master scandal.March 4, 2026: Sicário is arrested on the order of Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça in the third phase of Operação Compliance Zero, the federal police probe into Banco Master. He later killed himself in a federal police lockup in Minas Gerais state.June 2026: Folha reported that messages on Vorcaro's phone showed he told Sicário to "moer" (Brazilian slang for beating) an employee of the actress; her office said she knew of no threat.September 2026: a federal police report on Vorcaro's phone is made public by Mendonça on September 1; the full court begins reviewing it on September 15, when Justice Flávio Dino suspended the debate with a request for more time.Investigators described Sicário as the head of the "Turma", a group that, according to federal police, obtained confidential information for Vorcaro and threatened his opponents. Documents from the banker's phone were sent to the congressional inquiry into INSS, Brazil's federal pension agency, in which a contact of the actress was registered under the name "Alan TI", Folha reported. The case echoes the investigation into former president Jair Bolsonaro over an allegedly fake Covid-19 vaccination certificate: federal police indicted him in 2024 for inserting false data, but the attorney general's office asked for the case to be shelved in 2025, saying there were no grounds to hold him responsible.The Master investigation sits before the Supreme Federal Court (STF) under Justice Mendonça. Attorney General Paulo Gonet, cited in the police report, argues the document is void because it was produced without a prior request from his office or the police and without authorization from the full court. The plenary debate, which began on Tuesday (15), was interrupted by Dino's request and has no date set to resume. Vorcaro is under investigation and remains presumed innocent.

Justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) have begun reviewing, under restricted access in their chambers, copies of data extracted from the phone of former banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is under investigation in the Banco Master case. The compressed file, sent by the Federal Police at the request of justices, holds 500 gigabytes. According to accounts given to G1 on Saturday (19), the justices have not yet decided the next steps and there is no deadline for the review to end, in the middle of a crisis that has stalled major items on the court's agenda during the presidential campaign.To show the scale, G1 compares the size to about 140,000 photos in high resolution, more than 120,000 MP3 audio files or roughly 40 hours of high definition film. The data are organized in folders of chats, audio files and logs, records of activity on the device. The Federal Police processed the material with IPED, a forensic software that allows keyword searches and generates a code that guarantees the integrity of the evidence and flags attempts to alter it. Experts also used tools to recover deleted or password protected data. According to G1, the sweep combines a broad search of points flagged by the justices themselves with a check of the selection the Federal Police made for its reports, with care to protect personal matters found in the extraction. In a statement, the force said:"The copies delivered are identical to the extraction performed on the device. The original material remains entirely within the institution's facilities, inside a formally documented chain of custody, with the respective seals intact and digital integrity verification mechanisms."The copy went to Justices Cristiano Zanin, Gilmar Mendes, Alexandre de Moraes, Luiz Fux, André Mendonça and Nunes Marques, according to G1. As of Thursday (17), five of them had received the material, Poder360 reported. The delivery follows an internal dispute over unrestricted access to Vorcaro's digital archive: Zanin and Mendes asked court president Edson Fachin for the full mirror of the device, and Fachin chose to hear Mendonça, the justice in charge of the Master case, who argued that disclosure would disrupt the trial. Even without a decision from the president, Zanin, Mendes and Moraes ordered the Federal Police to send copies, and Mendonça and Fux later requested the material too. Mendonça said the copy he received was a sealed, encrypted backup, to be used only in case the original was ever lost, and that he had not handled the media.How the case got hereThe phone was seized by the Federal Police on November 17, 2025, the day the courts first ordered Vorcaro into preventive detention. The extraction found contacts with officials from all three branches of government, including Supreme Court justices and their relatives, members of Congress and Central Bank directors. The material has already supported searches against Senators Ciro Nogueira (PP-PI) and Jaques Wagner (PT-BA). On September 12, Fachin provisionally suspended Mendonça's reporting duties in both the Master case and the investigation into fraud in INSS benefit deductions, Brazil's social security system, Poder360 reported. On September 15, the court opened a session to decide whether to open an investigation of Moraes, after Mendonça lifted the seal on a Federal Police report that identifies him as a party to 52 messages from Vorcaro. Justice Flávio Dino's request for time to review the case interrupted the session before a vote.According to the Federal Police report, prepared at Mendonça's order, Moraes worked directly on the review and editing of a R$130 million contract signed between Banco Master and the Barci de Moraes law firm of Viviane Barci, the justice's wife. The police also say that two days before his arrest, Vorcaro asked Moraes whether he had to leave Brazil, and that he sought the justice's help to contain Federal Police and federal prosecutors' actions against the bank. The report records eight meetings between the two. Moraes called the messages in which the police identify him as an interlocutor fanciful and said he never favored Vorcaro or Master. He also asked the court to open an investigation of Mendonça for abuse of authority and administrative misconduct, and Fachin ruled that the request will only be scheduled after the preliminary question on the Vorcaro-Moraes case is settled.What comes nextWith Mendonça temporarily removed from the two cases and the vote suspended by Dino's review request, the Master and INSS investigations are in practice frozen, according to Poder360, and the review of the Vorcaro-Moraes question may only resume in mid-December. Behind the scenes, the justices say they have not decided what to do after reading the material, and no deadline has been set.

Messages extracted from the cell phone of Daniel Vorcaro by Brazil's Federal Police show that the lawyer Ciro Soares, a former attorney for Banco Master, sent the ex-banker a photo on June 19, 2025 of Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet smoking a cigar beside him at a private club in London. Right after sending it, the lawyer wrote "PG me mandou", Portuguese for "PG sent it to me", the initials of the prosecutor-general's name. The Attorney General's Office (PGR) confirmed the photo is authentic and said it would not comment, according to a report by O Globo on Friday.In the image, Vorcaro sits close to Gonet, who holds a cigar in front of a table with whisky glasses; Ciro Soares himself appears in the picture beside the ex-banker. According to Folha de S.Paulo, people familiar with the investigations say the photo was taken on April 25, 2024, during a whisky tasting at the private George Club in London's Mayfair district, an event reportedly paid for by Vorcaro. Columnist Malu Gaspar, of O Globo, reported that Master's then owner spent R$ 3.2 million to host the private Macallan tasting.Each side gave its version. In a statement to Folha, the PGR press office said the photo is from the 2024 event, which Gonet himself said he attended with several other authorities, and noted that Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice André Mendonça had acknowledged there was nothing improper in the mentions of the prosecutor-general. The press office of Ciro Soares said the image "is from a 2024 event, when there was no investigation into the businessman Daniel Vorcaro" and that "there is nothing irregular about the photo".At an STF session last Tuesday, Gonet said he had a single meeting with Vorcaro, in April 2024, with several authorities present."I had no close relationship with Mr. Vorcaro. The only meeting I had with Mr. Vorcaro took place with several authorities in April 2024. The only call mediated by a lawyer was very brief and banal. The work of the Federal Prosecutor's Office, in the lower courts and at the Supreme Federal Court, has always aimed at the full clarification of the facts and the success of the criminal prosecution", the prosecutor-general said.How the messages became publicThe exchanges between Gonet and Vorcaro, mediated by Ciro Soares, began surfacing about two weeks ago, when Justice Mendonça released a Federal Police report with the contents extracted from the phone of the ex-banker, who is held in preventive detention in the investigations into Banco Master. The document also mentions Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Mendonça asked Chief Justice Edson Fachin to take the matter to the full court. The session began on Tuesday (the 15th) and was suspended after Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to review the case, with no date set to resume.Cited in the report, Gonet argues the Federal Police document is null because, in his view, it was produced at Mendonça's request, without a prior request from the prosecution or from the police itself, and because the law requires authorization by the court's plenary before a Supreme Court justice can be investigated. During the session, Mendonça distinguished the messages mentioning Gonet from the other seized dialogues: "I am not making a value judgment about the prosecutor-general here, also because the information that came out is, in my assessment, information of a different density".The exchanges between Soares and Vorcaro recorded by the Federal Police go beyond the London photo. In April 2024, the lawyer wrote to the then banker "Friendship is everything, you know, brother" and then "Gonet is firme", a Portuguese word suggesting loyalty. In March 2025, he sent a photo of himself beside the prosecutor with the message "Call here. He wants to talk to you". He also forwarded messages he presented as sent by Gonet, including "Great! I'm rooting for you!" and "I already miss you! I'm boarding to Rome". About a second edition of a legal forum sponsored by Master in London, later canceled, he relayed the message "Yay! I hope there are cigars and Macallan". The next day, the lawyer asked whether Gonet's son could join the group on the trip; Vorcaro replied: "Of course".Next stepsOn Friday (the 18th), Vorcaro's defense asked Fachin to revoke his preventive detention. The PGR, headed by Gonet, is expected to respond in the coming days. At the STF, the review of the Master case remains suspended until Dino returns the case file to the full court.

Messages pulled from Daniel Vorcaro's phone by Brazil's Federal Police include a photo of Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, the head of the country's federal prosecution service, holding a cigar at a table set with glasses of whisky, seated beside the owner of Banco Master at a private club in London. The image was obtained by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, and the prosecutor's office confirmed it is authentic while declining to comment further. According to Valor Econômico, lawyer Ciro Soares, a former defense counsel for Master, sent the picture to the ex-banker on June 19, 2025 with the message "PG me mandou", Portuguese for "PG sent me", the initials standing for Paulo Gonet.People with knowledge of the investigations told Folha the photo was taken on April 25, 2024, during a whisky tasting at the private George Club in the Mayfair district, an event reportedly paid for by Vorcaro. Valor reports the banker spent 3.2 million reais (roughly 600,000 US dollars at the time) on the private Macallan tasting, which was also attended by Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues. The STF is Brazil's highest court.What each side saysIn a filing sent on Thursday (17) to the CSMPF, the oversight council of the federal prosecution service, Gonet denied any friendship with Vorcaro and acknowledged a single in-person meeting with the ex-banker, in April 2024, at what he described as a public legal event in London attended by several other authorities. The reports that revealed the photo describe the occasion as a private tasting paid for by the banker."I have no friendship whatsoever with Mr. Daniel Vorcaro, much less any personal interest in the cases in which he appears as a party or as a suspect."On a March 15, 2025 phone call cited in Federal Police reports, the prosecutor-general said it was a "brief greeting" at Soares's request, with no relevant subject and before he had any knowledge of criminal activity. He added that Soares had been introduced to him "as a successful lawyer and businessman". Soares's office said the image "is from a 2024 event, when there was no investigation into businessman Daniel Vorcaro" and that "there is nothing irregular in the photo". The prosecutor's office told Folha that STF Justice André Mendonça had himself recognized that "there is nothing wrong" in the mentions of the prosecutor-general.How the case reached this pointThe messages between Soares and Vorcaro are part of material seized by the Federal Police in its investigation of Banco Master, in which Vorcaro, now held in preventive detention, is a suspect. According to the PF, Gonet's contact with the banker began through Soares in April 2024, when the lawyer wrote "friendship is everything, brother" and then "Gonet is solid", in conversations that initially dealt with Jarbas Soares Júnior, a former attorney general of justice in Minas Gerais state. In 2025 the two were organizing the second edition of a legal forum in London sponsored by Master, later cancelled. In the exchanges, Soares relayed to Vorcaro a message attributed to Gonet about the gathering: "Great! I hope there's cigars and Macallan". Vorcaro replied by thanking him for the warmth and added, "let's set a time to get together".April 25, 2024: Macallan tasting at the George Club in Mayfair, paid for by Vorcaro; the photo shows Gonet beside the banker.March 15, 2025: brief call between Gonet and Vorcaro, acknowledged by the prosecutor in his CSMPF filing.June 19, 2025: Soares sends the photo to Vorcaro with the message "PG me mandou".September 15, 2026: the STF postpones debate on the PF report citing Gonet and Moraes, after Justice Flávio Dino asks to review the case before voting.September 17, 2026: Gonet denies friendship with Vorcaro in a filing to the CSMPF; the next day, Folha and Valor publish the photo and details of the conversations.The messages became public when STF Justice André Mendonça sent the court a Federal Police report that also mentions Moraes, asking that the case go to the full bench, which is to decide whether to authorize an investigation of the justice. Named in the document, Gonet argues the report is null because it was produced at Mendonça's request without a prior request from the prosecution service or the police, and notes that Brazilian law requires authorization by the full court before one of its members can be investigated.The next step is the return of the matter to the STF's full bench, with no date set. Separately, Gonet's filing about his relationship with Vorcaro remains under review at the CSMPF.

Milton Leite, a former speaker of São Paulo's City Council, turned himself in to civil police on Friday afternoon (Sept. 18) and was jailed under a court order for 30 days of temporary arrest. He surrendered at the Dise, the drug investigation precinct in Mogi das Cruzes, a city in Greater São Paulo, where the inquiry of Operation Vectura Corrupta is based, Folha de S.Paulo reports. Leite is an investigated suspect in a case examining whether bus companies in São Paulo state were taken over by the PCC, Brazil's largest criminal organization. No charges have been filed against him, and he denies any wrongdoing.The former councilman had been considered a fugitive since Thursday (17), when officers went to his home address as the operation began and did not find him. He said at the time that he would turn himself in within 24 hours and denied the suspicions. On Friday morning, civil police and the São Paulo state prosecutor's office (MP-SP) searched a property owned by one of his aides in Sorocaba, inland São Paulo state. Leite was not there, but the authorities seized about 740,000 reais in cash, part of it in US dollars, from a suitcase, and found a secret passage connecting the aide's property to a house of Leite, according to InfoMoney. The origin of the money has not been disclosed.What the investigation saysLaunched on Thursday by civil police and state prosecutors, Vectura Corrupta examines suspicions that bus companies providing public transport in São Paulo state municipalities came to be run by PCC members after winning public tenders. Of the 16 temporary arrest warrants authorized by the courts, ten had been served before Leite's surrender, and five people remain at large, among them Paulo Sirqueira Korek Farias, president of the Água Santa football club. Investigators also suspect bribery of public officials and PCC financing of campaigns in the 2024 municipal elections and in this year's race. The operation branches from Operation Dercúrio, launched in August 2024 against a drug trafficking money laundering scheme attributed to the faction.The arrest was authorized by appellate judge Sergio Ribas. In the decision quoted by InfoMoney, he wrote that Leite is "named repeatedly as directly responsible for the operation of some of the companies controlled by the PCC", and noted statements by military police officers, in a case before the Military Court, describing him as the de facto owner of Transwolff. The bus company ran routes in São Paulo for years; the city terminated its contract in 2024 after the prosecutor's Operation Fim da Linha targeted it on suspicion of PCC ties, which the company denies.What the defenses sayLeite rejected the suspicions. "I deny it vehemently. I do not know anyone from the PCC in my life. My relationship with the transport sector was institutional, at the request of then mayor Bruno Covas. There is no possibility that I am the owner [of Transwolff]", he said, in remarks reported by Folha. Lawyers for Transwolff said Leite never held a stake in the company, never took part in management or gave orders to employees, and that any claim to the contrary is mistaken. Leite served seven consecutive terms as councilman, presided over the City Council for six years and left office at the end of 2024 after 28 years in the legislature, but remained influential in São Paulo politics.The temporary arrest runs for 30 days, a window that closes around October 18. By then, police and prosecutors must conclude the inquiry or ask the courts to convert the detention into preventive arrest, while the defense may seek its revocation at any time. Detective Fabrício Intelizano, of the Mogi das Cruzes precinct, told reporters that a possible leak of the operation will be investigated, though there is no confirmation that one occurred.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced on Friday (18) a joint task force of the federal, state and municipal governments to step up the fight against cargo theft on the main highway corridors of Rio de Janeiro state. He made the announcement at 10 a.m. during a visit to the headquarters of the Federal Highway Police (PRF) in Irajá, a district in northern Rio, at an event on integrated action against organized crime held alongside the state's acting governor, Ricardo Couto.According to news site G1, the plan puts PRF officers on the roads and pairs them with camera images and intelligence data from Civitas, the monitoring platform run by Rio city hall, plus support from the state Military and Civil Police. It will initially cover four corridors: the Dutra highway (BR-116 South), the Washington Luís (BR-040), the Niterói-Manilha (BR-101 North) and the Arco Metropolitano, the ring road around the Rio metropolitan region.A broader strategyThe website Poder360 reports that the task force expands an agreement reached on Thursday (17) between the federal government and the state administration. The strategy brings together the National Public Security Department (Senasp), the Federal Police, the PRF and Rio state forces to integrate policing, inspections, intelligence and investigations. The areas involved include Avenida Brasil and the Vermelha and Amarela expressways, as well as the approaches to the Port of Rio de Janeiro and Galeão international airport, targeting cargo and vehicle theft, fencing of stolen goods, and organizations that move weapons, drugs and criminal proceeds.TimelineThe federal reinforcement comes after a month of cargo attacks on the same highways. On August 29, Military Police soldier Paulo Roberto dos Santos Ferreira Júnior, 36, was shot during an approach to a vehicle suspected of cargo theft and died of his wounds, according to newspaper O Globo. On Monday (14), a joint operation by the Civil Police and the PRF on the BR-040 and the Dutra, part of a task force grouping seven specialized police units, left one suspect dead and three under arrest. According to the investigation, they belong to a gang specialized in stealing cargo and robbing distribution centers, working in groups of up to 30 people, which is also under investigation for the officer's death.Detective Vinícius Domingos, head of the Cargo Theft Police Division, told the paper where the stolen goods end up."The stolen goods go to Parque União and from there are spread to other states, like São Paulo. It is the biggest cargo theft gang. Not in the number of thefts, but in apparatus, weapons, violence."The announcement comes less than 20 days before the first round of Brazil's presidential election on October 4. According to Poder360, after the Rio event Lula flew to Guarulhos, in São Paulo state, for a campaign rally at 7 p.m. The task force starts work on the four highway corridors; no date has been announced for extending it to the city's urban expressways.

Milton Leite, a former São Paulo city councilman and past president of the city council for the União Brasil party, remained a fugitive on Friday (18), more than 24 hours after announcing that he would turn himself in to the authorities to prove his innocence. Sources from the Civil Police and the state prosecutors' office confirmed to g1 that operations to find and arrest him continue. Leite is under investigation on suspicion of taking part in a scheme linking São Paulo bus operators to the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital), Brazil's largest criminal organization. He denies all the accusations.Leite is the target of a temporary arrest warrant in Operation Vectura Corrupta, launched on Thursday (17) by the prosecutors' office and the Civil Police. When officers went to his home and did not find him, he told Folha de S.Paulo by phone that he was outside São Paulo and was getting organized with his lawyers to surrender within 24 hours. His press office also released a statement that morning:"I am traveling, I am not a fugitive, and I will present myself to the authorities within 24 hours. I will prove my innocence against all accusations."Police raid in SorocabaOn Friday morning, police and prosecutors searched a property in Sorocaba, a city in the interior of São Paulo state, where they suspected Leite might be hiding. He was not there. According to g1, officers found money and documents with another person at the property, who could not explain their origin: 280,000 reais and 89,000 US dollars (roughly 457,000 reais) were seized. Folha reported that Leite had passed through the property on Wednesday, the day before the operation, but was no longer there on Friday.In all, the court ordered 16 temporary arrests and issued 18 search warrants, served in the city of São Paulo and in Santana de Parnaíba, São Bernardo do Campo, Diadema, Santos, Praia Grande and Cubatão. According to g1, ten suspects were arrested and six, including Leite, remained at large; the report said his lawyers could not be reached for comment. Among those detained are Levi dos Santos Oliveira, former head of SPTrans, the city's transit authority, and Danilo Marco Morgado Silva, a former mayoral candidate in Praia Grande now running for a seat in the state legislature.What the investigation alleges and how the sides respondVectura Corrupta grows out of Operation Decúrio, launched in 2024, and investigates money laundering, corruption and the use of bus companies to move funds tied to the faction. Prosecutors say at least 12 of the 22 bus operators serving the capital are directly or indirectly controlled by the PCC, an allegation from the investigation still subject to judicial review. The ruling that authorized the operation identifies Leite as the "de facto owner" of Transwolff, a bus company investigated in 2024 in Operation Fim da Linha and accused of laundering money for the faction. According to Folha, the warrant against Leite rests mainly on mentions by third parties: a July 2024 conversation between businessman José Daniel Satilite, of Translider, and a lawyer, and a message from a military police sergeant who called Leite his "boss".Leite denies any stake in Transwolff and any ties to the PCC. The company also denies the accusations and said the former councilman never held a shareholding, never took part in management and never gave orders at the firm. As an investigation target, he is presumed innocent unless a court rules otherwise. The manhunt for the six fugitives continues. If Leite is arrested or turns himself in, he must be brought before a judge in a custody hearing, a mandatory step in Brazil within 24 hours of an arrest, when the court reviews the legality and the necessity of the detention.

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 ConceiçãoIn 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 responsesWiller 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.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) began judging a case on Wednesday (Sept. 16) that could guarantee adoptive mothers the same maternity leave as biological mothers. The rapporteur, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, voted to give every mother the same paid leave of 120 days, extendable by another 60, and was joined by Justices Dias Toffoli, Cármen Lúcia and Flávio Dino. The session was suspended because of the hour and the judgment will resume next week, according to the news site g1.The lawsuit, case ADI 7.495, was filed by the Attorney General's Office (PGR) against rules that treat mothers differently according to how motherhood came about and the type of employment, covering private-sector workers, civil and military public servants and members of the public prosecution service. Today, a biological mother with a federal statutory employment contract has 120 days of paid leave, while an adoptive mother has 90 days if the child is up to one year old and 30 days if the child is older, g1 reports. The CLT, the labor code that governs private-sector employment in Brazil, already treats both cases alike, but some statutes for public employees keep formal differences.Under the rapporteur's vote, every mother would have a leave of identical content, whether governed by the CLT or by a public-sector statute. The period would run from the ninth month of pregnancy, childbirth, adoption or the granting of custody for adoption purposes and, in hospitalization cases, from the hospital discharge of the mother or the newborn. Moraes said maternity leave is a right of the children as much as of the woman. "The Constitution protects these two people," he said."If all are children, the mother is the mother of all, of natural, biological, adoptive children, so maternity leave must be the same for all."Moraes denied only one of the PGR's requests, the sharing of parental leave among the members of the family unit. On that point he followed the court's precedents and said the division of leave periods belongs to Congress, according to the legal news service Migalhas. He also held unconstitutional the reduction of leave according to the adopted child's age, a criterion he called unreasonable and one that can make it even harder to adopt older children. Justice Cármen Lúcia said the rapporteur's reading fits the Constitution better: "There is only one mother, and every child is unique to us. A child is a child, period."Case timelineIn 2023 the STF ruled that the length of maternity leave cannot differ between a biological mother and an adoptive mother, citing human dignity, equality between biological and adopted children and the best interest of the child. The PGR argues, however, that the ruling guided only judicial bodies and never reached the public administration, so the discrimination continued. ADI 7.495 asks the court to declare the contrary rules incompatible with the Constitution, binding both the judiciary and the administration. The case started in the court's virtual plenary, where Moraes and Dino had already voted to end the distinction, and moved to the in-person plenary after the rapporteur himself asked to pull it from the virtual docket. In oral arguments, public defender Gustavo Zortea, for the Federal Public Defender's Office (DPU), argued for 120 days extendable by 60 for all beneficiaries and for extending the protection to a father who raises a child alone.First vote since the court's crisisThe vote came one day after an extraordinary session in which the court weighed the case that involves Moraes himself, a session marked by clashes between justices and described by members of the court as "shameful", according to g1. It ended without a decision on whether to join or keep separate the cases of Moraes and Justice André Mendonça, after Dino asked for time to review the files. Moraes was absent when Wednesday's session opened, arrived later, asked for a review period in another case on the docket and then delivered his vote in ADI 7.495, according to g1's live coverage. It was his first vote on the bench since Tuesday's session (Sept. 15).Moraes, Toffoli, Cármen Lúcia and Dino now stand at four votes for equalization, with no votes against recorded before the suspension. Six justices have yet to vote: Edson Fachin, the court's president, Gilmar Mendes, Fux, Kassio Nunes Marques, André Mendonça and Zanin, all present at the session. The judgment resumes next week, with no exact date set in the coverage consulted.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, a former federal congressman and son of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, met on Wednesday (16) with members of President Donald Trump's administration at the State Department in Washington and asked the United States to sanction three justices of Brazil's Supreme Court (STF), the country's top tribunal: Alexandre de Moraes, Gilmar Mendes and Flávio Dino. The request widens a campaign that until now had singled out Moraes. According to CNN Brasil, the meeting came one day after an STF session that was to review a Federal Police report on the justice in the so-called Caso Master and ended with no ruling at all.Businessman Paulo Figueiredo, who joined Bolsonaro in the meeting, told CNN Brasil the two argued that Moraes should be put back on the sanctions list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the US Treasury office that had announced the removal of the justice's designation in December 2025."Our position is that Moraes remains designated under the Global Magnitsky Act and there is no reason for him not to be reinstated on OFAC's SDN list [the list of designated and blocked persons]," Figueiredo said.On the two other justices, he claimed there was a basis to include them: "There are enough elements to show that Flávio Dino and Gilmar Mendes are providing material support to a designated individual. Therefore, they should be designated too." The Global Magnitsky Act is a US law that allows sanctions over corruption and human rights abuses. Figueiredo said the meeting dealt mainly with Brazil's institutional crisis and the fight against organized crime, and he cited a document the Trump administration sent to Congress on Tuesday (15) in which the president said Brazil had failed to confront the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) and the Comando Vermelho, two of the country's largest criminal gangs. The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva denies any failure or omission in confronting the groups, Gazeta do Povo reported.The session behind the requestThe Washington meeting followed Tuesday's session at the STF, convened by Chief Justice Edson Fachin to examine petition 16.662, on a Federal Police report linking Moraes to banker Daniel Vorcaro within the Caso Master. The full bench never reached the merits. The justices spent the day on a procedural motion filed by Mendes, at Dino's suggestion, to merge that case with the one set for September 23, petition 16.704, based on a Federal Police intelligence report suggesting irregularities in the handling of the case by its rapporteur, Justice André Mendonça. Dino then requested "vista", a time-out to study the case that suspends the vote, and the judgment stopped with no date to resume. According to BBC News Brasil, the session ended with no decision, and none of the justices named in the reports has been convicted: the documents still await review by the court.During the session, Dino read aloud headlines about new sanctions and called the move an "environment of illegitimate pressure" by the US government to steer court decisions in Brazil. He suggested the court formally address President Lula and Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira on the matter. Eduardo Bolsonaro, described by VEJA as the operator of the White House measures against STF justices, replied on X: "The international punishment of criminals does not offend national sovereignty, much less our Constitution." He had announced the step on Tuesday: "Everything is registered and ready to present in DC where, God willing, a new round of sanctions will begin."What comes nextIn the United States, the final word on new sanctions rests with the Treasury through OFAC, and no announcement had been made by the time of this report. Figueiredo said he expects measures soon: "I am optimistic that good Brazilians will like the news coming from the US in the coming weeks. And the criminals will not."In Brazil, the STF is scheduled to meet on September 23 on petition 16.704, the report suggesting irregularities by rapporteur André Mendonça. The review of the report involving Moraes remains suspended by Dino's request, with no date to return to the docket.

In a formal memo, Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) stated that his colleague Alexandre de Moraes was "impedido", barred under conflict-of-interest rules, from acting in the case that follows a Federal Police report with alleged conversations between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master. Moraes is a party to the proceeding and the court's vice president, yet he voted normally on a procedural motion in Tuesday's session (Sept. 15). Legal scholars consulted by Folha de S.Paulo and BBC News Brasil criticized the vote and the lack of any challenge from the other justices.Dino's memoAccording to Folha, Dino sent the document to the court's most senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, and justices sympathetic to Moraes used it during the session to support the motion, even though the memo itself said Moraes was barred from the case. In it, Dino contests decisions by Chief Justice Edson Fachin, who suspended injunctions issued by colleagues and took over the case as its reporting justice. Dino argues that Fachin used an irregular maneuver and should therefore be barred from the case and from ruling on the request. Because he also considered Moraes barred, Dino cited the court's internal rules to justify addressing the memo to the senior justice.The preliminary dispute consumed the session, which was marked by heated arguments among the justices and was described by members of the court itself as "shameful", according to news site g1. The core question was whether Moraes's case would be tried together with that of Justice Mendonça, whom Moraes himself has accused, and whether Fachin would keep the case or it would be reassigned. The motion, filed by Gilmar Mendes, called for a joint trial. According to BBC News Brasil, the vote was tied when Dino asked for "vista", a review period justices use to study the case files. Fachin granted it and announced a partial tally of 4 to 3 for trying the two cases separately, setting aside Dino's vote, who did not object. The court ended the session without deciding whether to join or keep the cases separate, g1 reported.Why the vote is criticizedExperts consulted by Folha criticized both Moraes's vote and the silence of the other justices. Some said the court appears to have adopted the view that Moraes could vote on this preliminary question even if he later declares himself barred. Scholars heard by the BBC said Moraes and Mendonça could vote because the motion was preliminary and not the substance of the trial, but Ivar Hartmann, who holds a PhD in public law from Rio de Janeiro State University (Uerj), argues that both should be barred from voting for the rest of the case. Justices Kássio Nunes Marques and Dias Toffoli have already declared themselves unable to sit and will not vote in the trial, the BBC reported.The trial that set off the crisis does not decide whether Moraes committed any wrongdoing. It examines whether the Federal Police report, which records messages in which Vorcaro asks a contact attributed to the justice for consulting work, is valid and whether an investigation should be opened. Attorney General Paulo Gonet challenged the document and said Mendonça could not have requested a police report targeting another justice without prior authorization from the full court. Mendonça says he only asked the Federal Police to identify who received Vorcaro's messages and referred the case to the court once Moraes was identified. Moraes responded with accusations that Mendonça acted illegally and with political bias in running the Master and INSS inquiries.A trial on those accusations against Mendonça is scheduled for September 23, though the BBC found that Fachin is still weighing whether to postpone it. In Moraes's case, Dino has until December 15, the 90-day review deadline, to clear the trial to resume. Because the STF recess runs from December 20 to February 1, the case may not return to the bench until 2027, after Brazil's presidential election and the inauguration of the next president.

Police in São Paulo are treating Milton Leite, a former president of the São Paulo City Council, as a fugitive after officers went to his home on Thursday (17) to arrest him in Operation Vectura Corrupta, a joint action by the state prosecution service and the civil police into the suspected infiltration of the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital), Brazil's largest criminal faction, into public office and the city's bus system. Leite holds a 30-day temporary arrest warrant. A household employee told officers he left on Wednesday night (16), saying he had a campaign commitment.The operation is executing 16 arrest warrants and 18 search and seizure warrants in seven cities: São Paulo, Santana de Parnaíba, São Bernardo do Campo, Diadema, Santos, Praia Grande and Cubatão. The warrants were issued by the 8th Criminal Chamber of the São Paulo State Court of Justice and by the state court that guarantees due process in organized crime and money laundering cases. Investigators suspect the targets are members of faction nuclei holding leadership roles. The case is run by the drug investigations police station of Mogi das Cruzes, with support from Gaeco, the organized crime task force of the state prosecution service.What the investigation allegesProsecutors say "at least 12 passenger bus companies operating in the city of São Paulo would be controlled directly or indirectly by the PCC", some of them already covered by earlier inquiries, "including indictments already filed". Reporting by GloboNews found that strategic decisions at these companies would depend on Leite's knowledge or political approval, a conclusion drawn from wiretaps of intermediaries and from other proceedings into his decision-making role. The court filing that supported the warrants cites Leite as directly responsible for running some of the companies and quotes testimony by military police officers, given in a case before the Military Court of Justice, describing him as the de facto owner of Transwolff. The companies named are Viação Transcap, Alfa Rodobus, Transwolff, A2 Transportes, Imperial Transportes, Move Bus, Pêssego Transportes, Allianz Transportes, Transunião, Qualibus Transportes, Norte Bus and Spencer Transportes.How the case got hereVectura Corrupta is an offshoot of Operation Decúrio, launched in August 2024, which mapped a communications network the PCC kept among its members, including prisoners, and alleged leadership of the Sintonia Restrita and Sintonia dos Gravatas nuclei, the latter made up of lawyers who, police say, worked for the faction. Also in 2024, prosecutors ran Operation Fim da Linha, which targeted Transwolff and led to the arrest of its then president, Luiz Carlos Efigênio Pacheco, known as Pandora, on suspicion of ties to the faction. Police say Alfa Rodobus and Sancetur took over routes previously run by Transwolff and UpBus after that operation. Investigators are also examining suspected PCC funding of campaigns in the 2024 municipal elections and in the race under way this year.Other arrests and the defenseAlso arrested were Levi dos Santos Oliveira, former head of SPTrans, the city agency that manages the bus system, and Danilo Marco Morgado Silva, who ran for mayor of Praia Grande in 2024 and had his candidacy for state deputy struck down. Investigators say Levi held regular meetings with José Daniel Satilite, described as one of the central figures of the scheme, to handle faction interests in the sector after Fim da Linha. Police describe a "strong link" between Danilo and PCC members and indications that his 2024 campaign was financed by the organization.Leite served seven terms as a city councilman, from 1997 to 2024, led the council four times and left public life last year. He now chairs União Brasil in the city of São Paulo and in July was elected state president of the União Progressista federation, formed with the PP. He is an investigative target, not a defendant, and is presumed innocent. In a statement, he denied the allegations:"I am traveling, I am not a fugitive, and I will turn myself in to the authorities within 24 hours. I will prove my innocence against all accusations."The temporary arrest warrant against Leite runs for 30 days, within which the prosecution service may seek an extension or, once the inquiry concludes, file charges with the organized crime court. The known next step is Leite's surrender to the authorities, which he announced would happen within 24 hours.

A court order authorizing the temporary arrest of Milton Leite, a former president of the São Paulo City Council (União Brasil party), states that members of the PCC, Brazil's largest criminal faction, had decision-making power over financial contributions to political campaigns in the city. The finding is part of the ruling behind Operation Vectura Corrupta, launched on Thursday (Sept 17) by the São Paulo Civil Police and state prosecutors, according to a report by Folha de S.Paulo.According to the investigation cited by the court, 12 of the 22 bus companies serving São Paulo are controlled by the faction. In a statement, the state Public Security Secretariat (SSP-SP) said officers were serving 16 arrest warrants and 18 search warrants in seven cities: São Paulo, Santana de Parnaíba, São Bernardo do Campo, Diadema, Santos, Praia Grande and Cubatão. By Thursday morning, nine suspects had been arrested. Folha's report counted 13 people targeted by arrest warrants. All those named are suspects under investigation; none has been convicted.What the ruling saysA central piece of evidence was the cell phone of suspect José Daniel Satilite, owner of bus company Translider. According to the court document quoted by Folha, the messages recovered dealt with the faction's reach into the justice system and the public sector:"The conversations covered matters related to the 'Sintonia dos Gravatas' [a sector grouping lawyers tied to the PCC], payment of legal fees, legal strategies on behalf of imprisoned members, court measures of interest to the faction and coordination with political agents."It is in that context that the ruling states faction members decided cash injections into electoral campaigns in São Paulo, Folha reports. News site Poder360 described the current phase as an investigation of the PCC's "political arm", and the SSP-SP statement says investigators identified "lawyers and politicians who were part of the criminal strategy". The disclosure comes less than three weeks before the first round of Brazil's 2026 elections, set for October 4.The defense and next stepsThis is the third phase of Vectura Corrupta, run by the narcotics investigation unit (Dise) of Mogi das Cruzes with support from state prosecutors. Earlier phases examined the faction's infiltration of the city's bus system. Leite, who once led the City Council, was not found at his registered addresses. Reached by phone by Folha, he said he was outside São Paulo and not on the run: "I will turn myself in within 24 hours. I am getting organized with my lawyers."Leite denies all the accusations, including the claim that he owns bus company Transwolf. In an audio message sent to Poder360, he said:"I categorically deny any and all relationship with the PCC; I do not know a single member of it in this city or in this country. My relationship with the bus companies was institutional, because in 2019 mayor Bruno Covas asked me to take charge of the transport portfolio [...] Moreover, I am not a fugitive, I will turn myself in within 24 hours."The expected next step is Leite's surrender to the police, promised within 24 hours of his statement, which would be by Friday (Sept 18). Temporary arrest is a precautionary measure for investigation and does not amount to a conviction. Once the warrants are served, state prosecutors will decide whether to file formal charges against the suspects.

Justice Gilmar Mendes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) has formally questioned how the court's Second Chamber, a five-justice panel, handled the virtual session that upheld, on September 8, the removal of Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and the force's intelligence chief, Leandro Almada. In a memo sent to the chamber's president, Justice Luiz Fux, on September 11 and made public on Thursday (17), Gilmar argues there was a "prior arrangement" between Fux and the reporting justice, André Mendonça, without advance notice to the other members.What the memo saysGilmar, the court's most senior justice, wrote that the timeline in the court's internal systems shows that the extraordinary virtual session was designated through a direct understanding between Fux and the reporting justice, "without prior notice to part of the members of the panel". The court's rules, he argued, define the chamber as a body of five justices whose president coordinates the work "through dialogue with all members, without leaning toward any of them". In his assessment, convening the session that way conflicted with the principle of collegiality and with institutional loyalty among the justices."I am not writing this memo out of attachment to formalities, nor out of disagreement with the panel. I am writing it because I consider it indispensable to preserve the institution we belong to."The hours cited in the document show how fast it moved. Mendonça's individual decision was logged at 8:43 a.m. on September 8; at 9:29 the case was placed on the agenda; at 9:38 Gilmar's office was told of an extraordinary virtual session at 10 a.m. Gilmar asked for more time to review the case right at the opening. At 10:04, Fux cast his vote siding with the reporting justice, and at 10:06 Justice Kassio Nunes Marques did the same. In barely more than an hour, according to CartaCapital, the decision removing two Federal Police commanders had been issued, published, scheduled and put to a vote.The next day, Justice Flávio Dino struck down the removal and reinstated Andrei Rodrigues, Metrópoles reported. The dispute is part of the crisis opened by the Banco Master investigation, which examines suspected billion-real frauds and the contacts of the collapsed bank's owner, Daniel Vorcaro, now jailed, with justices of the court itself. The removal of the Federal Police command and messages between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, flagged in a police report, sit at the center of the justices' public battles. The Federal Police is Brazil's federal investigative force, and its director-general answers directly to the Justice Ministry.What comes nextGilmar's criticism carried into the September 15 session, in which the full court debated how to proceed on the inquiry into the Vorcaro-Moraes messages. That vote split 4 to 3 in favor of separating the cases, and Dino asked for an extension, with up to 90 days to return the matter to the bench, Metrópoles reported. On Thursday, STF President Edson Fachin pulled from the agenda the September 23 session that would have examined Mendonça's conduct, writing that it "will be rescheduled in due course". Fachin also canceled an extraordinary plenary session after the public clash between Gilmar and Mendonça.

Brazil's Federal Police delivered on Thursday (Sept 17) the full contents of Daniel Vorcaro's mobile phone to the offices of justices Luiz Fux and André Mendonça of the STF, Brazil's Supreme Court. Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, is jailed and under investigation in the sprawling inquiry known as the Master case. The handover was confirmed by news site Metrópoles and by Folha de S.Paulo.The two justices requested access on Wednesday (16), a request first reported by Metrópoles and confirmed by Folha. Fux's request came one day after messages extracted from the phone became public showing a close relationship between the former banker and lawyer Rodrigo Fux, the justice's son, Folha reports. Dialogues revealed on Tuesday (15) also discuss payments that would go to lawyer Kevin Marques, son of justice Kassio Nunes Marques.The material is the same the Federal Police had already delivered to justices Cristiano Zanin and Gilmar Mendes on Monday (14), according to Metrópoles. Folha reports that the data was also sent to Alexandre de Moraes, and that Nunes Marques is expected to request access as well.How the case got hereVorcaro is jailed within the Master case, a set of inquiries into suspected wrongdoing at the bank he controls. In May, federal police arrested his father, Henrique Vorcaro, also an investigation target, on suspicion of belonging to a so-called "violent core" of the group, made up of cells known as "A Turma" and "Os Meninos" and accused, according to a police source cited by G1's Andreia Sadi blog, of intimidation, coercion, obtaining confidential information and hacking into devices. In June, the Supreme Court upheld his pretrial detention.Access to the phone became a dispute inside the court. Before Tuesday's (15) session, Zanin had asked Mendonça, then the reporting justice for the case, for the full content. Mendonça replied that the material needed for the analysis was already available and that releasing the full set could "disrupt" the session; he said a complete copy remained sealed in his office. The Federal Police then told Chief Justice Edson Fachin that it held a copy and could hand identical versions to every justice without breaking the chain of custody. Zanin and Gilmar went on to request the material directly from the police, and Gilmar asked Fachin to give all justices access.What comes nextThe fight over the data added to open divisions among the justices. In Tuesday's session, the bench stopped judging an order motion after Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to review the case, leaving undecided whether to open an investigation tied to the messages attributed to Vorcaro and Moraes, whose interpretation remains, according to Metrópoles, contested and part of ongoing investigations. Gilmar publicly criticized how Mendonça and Fux handled the case's proceedings; Mendonça pushed back, saying there was "selective concern" about the exposure of third parties in the leaked messages. During the session, he also said he had only learned at that moment of the references to fellow justices.On the police track, the Federal Police summoned Daniel and Henrique Vorcaro to testify on September 30, at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. respectively, the last step before the conclusion of the investigation's third phase, according to G1's Andreia Sadi blog. Henrique's defense asked on Wednesday (16) for his release, arguing he has been held for more than 90 days with no appeal against the detention ruled by the Supreme Court. The suspended court judgment has no date to resume, and Nunes Marques may still request access to the phone data.

São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos), who is running for reelection, said on Thursday (17) that his relationship with Milton Leite, the former president of the São Paulo City Council who faces a temporary arrest warrant in a probe into the infiltration of the PCC crime faction into the city's bus system, "was always institutional". He spoke to journalists during a visit to the construction site of the Hospital Regional de Itapetininga, in the state's interior."It was always an institutional relationship, a proactive relationship, focused on projects, and that is how we have worked. This has nothing to do with other matters, which are the object of an investigation," the governor said, according to InfoMoney. The outlet reported that he cited discussions on basic sanitation and bringing rail service to Parelheiros, in the city's south, as examples of his dealings with Leite, and that he did not directly answer whether the operation changes his support for the former councillor's sons. "On our part, what we had was always an institutional relationship," he repeated. In his view, "police operations do not see people, do not see parties, do not see political positions. They see facts".How the case got hereOperation Vectura Corrupta, launched on Thursday by the São Paulo Civil Police and the Gaeco, the organized crime unit of the state prosecutors' office (MP-SP), served 16 arrest warrants and 18 search and seizure warrants, according to InfoMoney, to investigate the reach of the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital), Brazil's largest criminal faction, in the city's bus system. Leite, who led the City Council for six years, is a suspect in the scheme, is considered a fugitive by police and denied the accusations in an interview with Folha de S.Paulo. Key moments:August 30: Tarcísio attended the campaign launch of Leite's sons, Alexandre Leite (running for state deputy) and Milton Leite Filho (for federal deputy), both of União Brasil, in the Campo Grande neighborhood of southern São Paulo. According to Folha, Leite donated 60,000 reais to his sons' campaigns, 30,000 reais each.September 17: the operation was launched and Leite became the target of a temporary arrest warrant. In a video, Alexandre Leite said he and his brother had suspended campaign schedules "until we manage to regroup" and that he learned of his father's warrant from the press. Later that day, Tarcísio addressed the case in Itapetininga.Reactions and next stepsIn a video posted on social media, Alexandre Leite called the court decision "a cowardice"."It is a cowardice, a 70-year-old man with an unblemished public career, at a moment like this, on the eve of the election, [to face] this kind of decision."InfoMoney reported that São Paulo mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), a Leite ally, praised the former council president's "history" and said it is up to Leite to prove his innocence. The first round of Brazil's elections is scheduled for October 4, and Tarcísio did not say whether he still supports the sons.The warrant for Leite's temporary arrest remains unserved and police still list him as a fugitive. Another target in the same situation is businessman Paulo Korek, known as Paulinho Camarão, whom investigators describe as a front man for the faction in the transport sector; his lawyers told news site G1 he intends to turn himself in, and his company A2 Transportes denies any ties to the PCC. Under Brazilian law (Law 7,960/89), temporary arrest lasts for a set period, and when that period ends the state prosecutors must decide whether to file charges against the suspects.

Justice André Mendonça of the TSE, Brazil's top electoral court, on Thursday (Sept. 17) rejected a request by federal congressman Zé Trovão to suspend the 15.04% increase in the Bolsa Família cash-transfer program announced hours earlier by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Assigned as rapporteur of the case, Mendonça closed the lawsuit without ruling on its merits and found that the lawmaker, who is running for reelection in the southern state of Santa Catarina, lacked standing to sue a presidential candidate, a race contested nationwide.The justice said TSE precedent requires both sides to run for office in the same electoral district before one candidate can file such a complaint against another, a standard the court has applied in recent cases of congressional candidates challenging matters tied to the presidential race, as Folha de S.Paulo reported. Mendonça stressed that closing the case does not amount to an endorsement of the government's measure."I note that recognizing the lack of standing does not entail any ruling on the legality or constitutionality of the Bolsa Família increase, nor on whether it falls under Article 73, paragraph 10, of Law No. 9,504/1997," the justice wrote in the decision, quoted by G1.How the case reached the courtOn Thursday morning, Lula announced a 15.04% adjustment that raises the program's minimum payment from 600 reais to 691 reais starting in October. The floor had been frozen since 2022, when the government of Jair Bolsonaro raised the benefit by 50%, from 400 to 600 reais, also weeks before a presidential vote, as BBC News Brasil recalled. The average payment rises from about 675 to 777 reais.Hours after the announcement, made 17 days before the first round, Zé Trovão, an ally of presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, filed a complaint with the TSE accusing the president of abuse of political power during the campaign. In the petition, cited by G1, the congressman argued that "the intervention of the Electoral Justice" was "necessary" to stop the administrative machinery and public funds from being used to "undermine equal opportunities among candidates." He asked Mendonça to provisionally block the new values until a final ruling or the end of the election, and argued that the measure's national reach and the number of beneficiaries could sway voters' choices at the ballot.The government's defenseThe government rejects any electoral reading of the move. The Finance Ministry said, according to G1, that the adjustment only restores inflation losses from recent years and does not amount to an increase in the benefit, and Planning Minister Bruno Moretti denied any link to the vote. "The Bolsa Família law gives us authorization to make the inflation adjustment, to protect the purchasing power of beneficiaries, the most vulnerable population of this country," Moretti said, citing a cumulative INPC inflation of 15.04% since the current version of the program was created in 2023. The government's legal counsel, the Advocacia-Geral da União, says that 2023 law authorizes the executive branch to correct benefit values and bars any reduction. The Planning Ministry puts the cost at 5.8 billion reais this year and 22.7 billion reais in 2027.The ruling ends the complaint filed on Thursday, InfoMoney reported, but the court did not rule on whether the increase complies with electoral rules. The next date in the matter is practical: payments at the new floor begin on Oct. 19, between the first round and a possible runoff.

The Civil Police of São Paulo said on Tuesday (15) that it will indict at least four people for homicide with eventual intent ("dolo eventual") over the collapse of a building under construction on Tequici street, in the Penha district of eastern São Paulo. The structure fell onto a house in the early hours of Saturday (12) and killed six people, five of them Bolivian immigrants and one Paraguayan, according to Folha de S.Paulo. Those to be indicted include the three suspects linked to the New Home construction company and a municipal building inspector. None has been convicted: under Brazilian law, an indictment ("indiciamento") is a police step within the investigation, not a finding of guilt.According to the Itaquera district police chief, Antônio José Pereira, the three suspects already covered by temporary arrest warrants and the civil servant will be indicted. Eventual intent, in the police's reading, means in theory that those responsible knew of risks that could lead to death and went ahead with the work anyway. Twelve people have been heard so far.Timeline of the caseProblems at the site go back at least five years, according to the city government. In 2021, the municipality asked a court to order the demolition of an irregular structure there and applied a fine of R$ 119,000. In 2022, the company filed a new project, and in 2023 the city issued a permit conditional on demolishing the earlier structure. In February 2024, an inspection by the Penha borough administration recorded the demolition of 154 square meters. In her report, inspector Viviane Rodrigues de Palma, 54, wrote that the demolition had been "carried out in full, giving way to a new building under construction". Photos attached to the document appear to show the building erected since 2019, and the company's lawyer confirmed after the collapse that nothing had been demolished.The inspector's testimony and the defenseQuestioned for about two hours on Tuesday, Viviane admitted that she never entered the site during her inspection."When I arrived, the work was stopped and already well advanced, it already had several floors, but it was not finished. (...) we don't enter a private construction site without authorization."The inspector denied attesting to the demolition. "At no point did I state that that building had been demolished," she said, according to G1. The city removed her from duty for 120 days to keep her from interfering with the investigation.Businessman Ronaldo Vivacqua, 63, described by police as a hidden partner of New Home, had his temporary arrest upheld at a custody hearing. He does not appear in the companies' records, but witnesses told police that he "acted, administered, managed and effectively participated in the work". His son, engineer Cristiano Vivacqua, who designed the project and was responsible for its execution, and Isis Brandão, the company's formal owner, remain fugitives. The defense denies that Ronaldo is a hidden partner, says he only accompanied his son, calls the arrests premature and has asked for his release or house arrest, citing a "serious and documented health condition". On Monday (14), the lawyers said the couple would turn themselves in within days. New Home said it opened an internal inquiry, that there are not yet enough elements to determine the cause of the collapse, and that it does not exempt itself from any responsibility the investigations may point to.The indictment will still be formalized in the inquiry ("inquérito"), with police detailing the role of each suspect individually. A ruling on Ronaldo's release request and the whereabouts of the fugitive couple remain pending. The city government, for its part, halted 26 projects linked to the construction companies on Tuesday.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) is on course to delay rulings with direct effects on workers, companies and public accounts because of its institutional crisis. According to Folha de S.Paulo, cases on PJ contracting, app-based work, the 2019 pension reform and tax law are stalled while the court deals with the Banco Master affair. Specialists consulted by the newspaper expect the labor and social security cases to remain undecided until after this year's elections, possibly slipping to 2027.How the crisis beganThe deadlock traces back to investigations into Banco Master, now defunct. The case's rapporteur, Justice André Mendonça, lifted the seal on Federal Police reports, and one of the documents, according to G1, pointed to 52 messages between the bank's founder, Daniel Vorcaro, and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, along with in-person meetings and a 130 million reais contract between the bank and the law firm of Moraes's wife. No justice has been charged or convicted. What the full bench was debating is whether to open a formal inquiry into Moraes, a first against a sitting member of the court.At an extraordinary session on Tuesday (15), the justices voted 4 to 3 to keep separate the reviews of Moraes's conduct, regarding his ties to Vorcaro, and of Mendonça's handling of the rapporteurship, according to G1. Fachin, Mendonça, Fux and Cármen Lúcia backed the split; Gilmar Mendes, Zanin and Moraes wanted a joint review. Before the end, Justice Flávio Dino asked for time to study the case, a "pedido de vista" that suspends the trial for up to 90 days, a window that runs into December."I have to interrupt this situation because we have a point of order. We are in no condition to deliberate. The climate is going from bad to worse, and society is watching something different from the procedure the law mandates," Dino said.In the dispute, Moraes has accused Mendonça of bias and of pressing the Federal Police to include him in a plea deal. "Who is afraid of the Federal Police?", he asked. Mendonça replied: "That is a lie." The rapporteur also denies releasing files selectively and says he kept under seal only what was needed to protect ongoing investigations and third-party data. Justice Kassio Nunes Marques recused himself from voting because he chairs the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) in an election year, and Justice Dias Toffoli declared himself conflicted out.What is left waitingWith the bench tied up in the Master case, decisions with broad economic reach have no date set: the validity of PJ contracts, the employment status of ride-hailing and delivery drivers, and disputes over the 2019 pension reform, which shapes the deficit of the INSS, Brazil's social security institute. "PJ contracting is an even more central issue because it can reach different sectors of society and produce effects not only on workers' rights, but also on social security and other structures of social protection," Olívia Pasqualeto, a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation law school in São Paulo, told Folha. In her view, the ruling will affect companies that rely on such contracts and workers hired as PJs, and the ideal moment to decide is one of calmer tempers, though she considers the debate already sufficient for a ruling.The next move belongs to court president Edson Fachin: keep the September 23 session on Moraes's accusations against Mendonça or postpone it, as justices aligned with the rapporteur want. If Dino does not return the case within the 90 days, it automatically goes back on the docket.

Nine men died on Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 15) during a Military Police operation in Cajazeiras, on the outskirts of Salvador, the capital of Bahia. According to the force, the operation targeted organized crime and the dead are suspected members of the Bonde do Maluco (BDM) criminal faction. Their names had not been released as of publication.The police accountIn a statement, the Military Police, the uniformed state force that patrols Brazilian streets, said officers of its Mobile Tactical Patrol Battalion (BPATAMO) were carrying out patrols between the Cajazeiras V and Cajazeiras XI neighborhoods when they came across armed men who fired at them and fled into a wooded area. According to the Bahia Public Security Secretariat (SSP-BA), a confrontation broke out as officers tried to arrest members of a criminal faction, and some suspects were wounded. All nine were taken to Hospital Eládio Lasserre, in Cajazeiras II, but did not survive their injuries. The force said no officer was hurt and that one man was arrested.According to g1 and Folha de S.Paulo, officers seized 11 firearms: four rifles, five pistols, a 9 mm carbine and an automatic 12-gauge shotgun. Correio reported the same total with a different breakdown: four rifles, five pistols and two carbines. Police also collected magazines, ammunition, quantities of drugs and mobile phones, as well as a ballistic vest plate that, according to the SSP-BA, may have been diverted from the Brazilian Army.InvestigationThe sequence that led to the operation began about a month ago, when, according to Folha, the group allegedly carried out armed attacks against rivals in the area. A prior police inquiry mapped social media images in which the suspects displayed weapons and faction insignia. The exchange of gunfire took place in the wooded area and was heard in different parts of the neighborhood. The force said "patrolling remains reinforced in the region".The arrested man and the seized material were presented at the Homicide and Person Protection Division (DHPP), in the Itapuã neighborhood, where the case will be investigated. The Military Police said the circumstances of the deaths and the conduct of the officers involved will go through the applicable legal procedures, "in observance of the duties of the competent authorities". The alleged faction ties are a police claim still under investigation, with no court ruling.

Messages seized by Brazil's Federal Police from the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master who is jailed on suspicion of fraud, show a close relationship between the banker and lawyer Rodrigo Fux, son of Supreme Federal Tribunal Justice Luiz Fux. The exchanges run from May 2024 to August 2025 and were published on Tuesday (15) by the news outlets Metrópoles and Metro1. The phone's contents had been delivered on Monday (14) to the chambers of Justices Cristiano Zanin, Gilmar Mendes and Alexandre de Moraes, who had requested the material before a session in which Brazil's top court examined Moraes's ties to the banker.At several points, Rodrigo Fux addresses Vorcaro as "irmao" (brother). On May 17, 2024, he opens a chat with "Fala irmao. Tudo bem?"; in November, saying he was free for a call, he writes "Vamos irmao? Liberei". On December 4, 2024, arranging a meeting at his office in Rio de Janeiro, he said he had rescheduled another commitment to receive the banker at 2 p.m. and then sent: "Tapete vermelho irmao" (red carpet, brother). Vorcaro replied: "Valeu irmao!". A month earlier, the banker had written "Quero te chamar pra me ajudar num caso" (I want to ask you to help me with a case). The justice's son answered "Será um prazer, se eu puder ajudar" (it will be a pleasure, if I can help) and, after a video call, received a document for review.The link to the justice's chambersThe direct connection to the justice appears in conversations from March 2025, according to Metro1. On the 11th, Rodrigo Fux contacted Vorcaro to arrange a meeting in Brasilia and said he would first stop by Justice Luís Roberto Barroso's birthday. At 10:12 a.m. on the 12th, he wrote: "Bom dia. 10:30hs tô aí". At 1:29 p.m., he asked "Qual a data de Londres mesmo?" (what was the London date again?) and asked that material on the engagement be sent to his own email and to Patrícia, Luiz Fux's secretary at the court. "E para a Patrícia. Secretária do meu pai. Com cópia pra mim", he wrote, giving an address on the court's institutional domain. Vorcaro answered "Vou pedir!" (I will ask). According to Metro1, the exchanges indicate the lawyer helped arrange his father's participation in a London event connected to Vorcaro, but they do not clarify the justice's role nor allow the conclusion that he met the banker.The reports themselves stress the limits of the material: the messages do not identify who would attend the meetings they describe, and on their own they do not show that Luiz Fux took part. The chats mix professional and social matters. According to Metrópoles, the two met in Brasilia in February 2025 at a house in the Lago Sul district, and during Rio's 2025 Carnival the banker invited the lawyer and his family to a VIP box.In a statement, the firm Fux Advogados said it never represented, provided services to or received payments from Vorcaro, Banco Master or companies and funds tied to the group. It said the tone of the exchanges reflects a business approach by the banker and partners that never went forward and took place more than a year before reports of suspected fraud and criminal implications involving Vorcaro. The justice was contacted through the court's press office and had not responded by publication time. None of the reports cites a formal accusation against Rodrigo Fux.How the case reached this pointThe phone was seized as the Federal Police investigates Banco Master, and its contents surfaced hours before Tuesday's session, in which the court examined alleged dialogues between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, whose wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, signed a 131 million reais contract with the bank, according to G1. In the same batch of messages, chats between Vorcaro and the bank's former legal director mentioned supposed monthly payments of 500,000 reais to lawyer Kevin Marques, son of Justice Kassio Nunes Marques. Kevin denied receiving those amounts and said he was paid 281,600 reais by a consultancy, Consult, for tax work unrelated to the Supreme Court. Nunes Marques said his son never worked for Master and declared himself barred from the session, citing his role as president of the Superior Electoral Court, which runs Brazil's elections.The session ended without a decision on how to handle the cases of Moraes and of Justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur of the Master case: the vote stood at 4 to 3 for separate proceedings, Justice Flávio Dino asked to review the case files, and the judgment was suspended. According to Folha de S.Paulo, resuming it may take up to 90 days, pushing it past the October 4 election. The messages involving Rodrigo Fux are part of the Federal Police material under review by the justices.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday (16) that he cannot be held responsible for the appointments of justices Alexandre de Moraes, Kássio Nunes Marques and André Mendonça to Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), because he was not in office when they were nominated. It was the first time he named the justices since Tuesday's session (15), in which the court suspended, without a decision, its review of whether to open an investigation into Moraes. Speaking on the podcast "Desce a Letra Show", Lula defended fair trials with full defense rights, and punishment for whoever commits a crime."Everyone who made a mistake has to be judged. I defend a fair trial, the right to a defense, but if someone committed a crime, they have to pay. It applies to me, it applies to Fachin, it applies to Moraes. That is my thesis."The president had earlier argued that responsibility for the nominations lies with whoever held the office at the time. "I was not president when Justice Alexandre de Moraes was appointed to the Supreme Court. I was not president when they appointed Kássio. I was not president when they appointed André Mendonça," he said. Moraes was nominated by then president Michel Temer in February 2017; Nunes Marques and Mendonça were nominated by Jair Bolsonaro. According to G1, when the Senate confirmed Moraes, Flávio Bolsonaro was a state lawmaker in Rio de Janeiro and only took office as a federal senator in January 2019, so he did not vote on that nomination, contrary to what Lula suggested.How the crisis beganThe crisis stems from the Banco Master scandal. In late August, Mendonça, the justice handling the bank investigation, asked the Federal Police for a report that identified Moraes as a recipient of suspicious messages from banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is jailed and suspected of billion-dollar fraud, and sent the material to Justice Edson Fachin, who brought the case to the full court. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the messages would show Vorcaro asking Moraes, days before his arrest, whether he should flee the country, and the paper reported a 131 million reais contract between Master and the law firm of Viviane Barci, the justice's wife. None of these suspicions has been proven, and no investigation against Moraes has been opened.At Tuesday's session the justices debated whether to open the investigation, but Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to review the record (a "pedido de vista") before the merits were examined, and the session ended without a ruling, amid open exchanges between the justices. The court's dean, Gilmar Mendes, accused Mendonça of "shamelessness" (desfaçatez) and of acting with a "police-minded" spirit; Mendonça shouted back "shamelessness of your excellency" and denied wrongdoing, saying he had only asked the Federal Police to identify who sent Vorcaro's suspicious messages.Electoral weightThe statements carry electoral weight: Lula is seeking reelection in October against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who on Tuesday posted a video linking the president to Moraes. According to Folha, Flávio is under investigation in the Master scandal. "His anger is because Moraes ordered the arrest of those who killed Marielle. And because he arrested his father and coup plotters. That is his dread," Lula said, referring to Rio city councilwoman Marielle Franco, murdered in 2018, and to the case that sent Jair Bolsonaro to prison. In the same interview, the president praised the justice: "I think Moraes rendered a service to democracy," he said, citing Moraes's term as head of the Superior Electoral Court in the 2022 election, when Jair Bolsonaro attacked the electronic voting system. Since the crisis began in early September, Lula had avoided commenting on it; sources heard by G1 said the strategy aimed to keep his campaign apart from the fallout among the justices.The next step belongs to Dino, who has up to 90 days to return the case to the full court, on a date to be set by Fachin. The case covering accusations that Moraes filed against Mendonça, for alleged abuses in the Master and INSS investigations, remains on the agenda for the September 23 session. According to BBC News Brasil, however, it is not certain that this trial will go ahead on that date.

Brazil's Federal Police seized roughly R$ 990,000 in cash, plus US$ 10,000 and € 1,255, while executing search and seizure warrants in Operacao Dinastia do Lago on Wednesday (16). The operation investigates suspected fraud in public contracts in Coari, a city in the interior of Amazonas state, and among its main targets are federal Congressman Adail Filho (MDB) and his father, Mayor Adail Pinheiro (Republicans). Both are investigated parties and have not been charged.In Manaus, federal agents seized R$ 352,750, US$ 10,000 and € 1,255, along with 11 cars at addresses linked to the investigated parties, including the congressman's residence. In Coari, the police found about R$ 637,750 and 10 more vehicles, bringing seized cars to 21. Images released by the force also show watches and jewelry among the items collected, with no estimated value disclosed. According to news site Congresso em Foco, 29 warrants were served across the two cities.What the operation investigatesAccording to the Federal Police, the inquiry points to possible coordinated action among businessmen, public officials and third parties, with suspected bid rigging, embezzlement of public funds and financial movements to pay undue advantages and to hide the origin and final recipients of the money. The facts could amount, in theory, to corruption, money laundering, bid fraud, embezzlement (peculato) and criminal organization. By order of Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Adail Pinheiro, who is serving his fourth term as mayor according to Congresso em Foco, and municipal secretaries were removed from office for 90 days. Adail Filho was targeted by search and seizure warrants but keeps his seat in the lower house of Congress; because he is a sitting federal lawmaker, his case runs at the STF, Brazil's highest court.How the case beganThe operation is an offshoot of an inquiry opened at the STF by Moraes at the request of the Attorney General's Office (PGR). The investigation started after three businessmen, Cesar de Jesus Gloria Albuquerque, Erick Pinto Saraiva and Wagner Santos Moutinho, were caught in flagrante at Brasilia airport in May 2025. They were carrying about R$ 1.25 million in cash on a flight from Manaus to Brasilia and could not show proof of its origin at the time.Documents and electronic devices collected were analyzed under court authorization and, according to the case file, pointed to suspicious financial movements, companies linked to the investigated parties holding contracts with the Coari city government, and transfers of congressional budget earmarks (emendas parlamentares, funds lawmakers direct to specific municipalities) sent to the city in 2024 and 2025. On June 24, 2026, Moraes extended the investigation by 60 days at the Federal Police's request, citing the complexity of the facts and the number of people and companies involved. In one of his rulings, the justice wrote:"On the same occasion, documents and electronic devices were seized which, after court-authorized analysis, revealed financial transfers by legal entities linked to the investigated parties for the benefit of Federal Deputy Adail Filho and his father, Manoel Adail, mayor of the Municipality of Coari/AM."The defense of Adail Pinheiro and Adail Filho said it received the warrants "with surprise". Lawyer Fabricio de Melo Parente called the mayor's removal "unnecessary" and said he will file the appropriate measures after gaining access to the investigation files. According to the lawyers, the searches imply neither guilt nor acknowledgment of any crime, and the investigated parties have no connection to the facts that gave rise to the inquiry. G1 reported it is still trying to locate the defense of the three businessmen arrested in 2025. The next step is the Federal Police's analysis of the money, vehicles and documents seized on Wednesday, which could support formal charges to be reported to the STF, while the mayor's removal stands for 90 days.

A decision by Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), made public on Monday (14), states that the R$510,000 in cash seized on August 25 at Congonhas airport in São Paulo was in a carry-on bag carried by lawyer Valéria Rodrigues Linhares. The ruling describes her as the wife of federal deputy Cezinha de Madureira (PL party, São Paulo), who is under investigation on suspicion of influence peddling, and orders that all investigative proceedings related to the seizure be sent to the court.According to G1, which reviewed the decision, Federal Police officers seized the money as Valéria was boarding a flight to Brasília, during X-ray screening of her hand luggage. The seizure matters to the case, Dino wrote, because contracts found on a phone already seized by police set success fees of R$500,000, R$1 million and R$2 million for Valéria's individual law practice. Cash carried in person could make such payments harder to trace, the justice argued, which justified seizing documents, contracts, financial records and electronic devices from those under investigation.What the investigation allegesThe case is the third phase of Operation Transparency, which looks into suspected exploitation of prestige, influence peddling, passive corruption and money laundering. The ruling says investigators see a coordinated effort involving lawyer Mariângela Fialek, described as responsible for recruiting and formalizing cases and drafting legal briefs; Valéria; and the deputy himself, whom the investigation credits with acting before justices of Brazil's highest courts (the STF, the Superior Court of Justice and the Superior Electoral Court). Messages taken from Fialek's phone led police to allege a partnership to obtain favorable rulings at the STF with Cezinha's help. On Monday, officers served four search warrants in the Federal District and in São Paulo, targeting the deputy and Valéria's firm; the warrants allow the seizure of documents, electronic devices and cash above R$10,000.The ruling stresses that the justices of the higher courts named in the messages are not under investigation. According to Dino, the case files contain no record of any judge soliciting, accepting or receiving an improper benefit; the magistrates appear only as possible targets of the influence the suspects allegedly offered.The case so farThe contracts and messages cited in the ruling date from May to July 2025 and involve complaints pending at the STF. Operation Transparency opened in December 2025 to investigate suspected irregularities in the allocation of congressional budget amendments, according to Congresso em Foco. On August 25, police seized the R$510,000 from Valéria at Congonhas; on Monday, Dino's decision became public and the searches were carried out.At the time of the seizure, Valéria said the money had been declared on her income tax return and that she would present proof of its origin. Her defense says the funds came from legal fees paid by a client and that tax documentation will be presented later. The deputy was not with her when she was stopped. The ruling calls her Cezinha's wife; her defense says she is his ex-wife.The deputy's defense, from the law firm Carneiros Advogados, denied any wrongdoing and questioned the timing of the operation, launched less than three weeks before the first round of Brazil's general elections. The lawyers said measures with such impact should be taken "with due distance from any political or electoral circumstance", and stated in a note:"With the calm of someone who fully trusts the Justice system and certain of his always unblemished conduct, federal deputy Cezinha de Madureira is at the disposal of the authorities and will provide all necessary clarifications."The STF will now supervise both proceedings, the seizure case and the investigation into the deputy, which Dino said are connected by shared evidence. The court will later decide whether the cases should be split; no date is set. Everyone under investigation is presumed innocent.

Roughly 3,000 workers laid off by Brazilian retailer Grupo Casas Bahia have still not received their severance pay, more than a month after the dismissal wave that preceded the company's judicial recovery, a court-supervised debt restructuring similar to Chapter 11. According to G1, the money is blocked because the company listed the laid-off workers as creditors in the case, and former employees also report trouble accessing the FGTS, Brazil's mandatory severance savings fund, and unemployment insurance as of Tuesday.The sequence began on August 13, when the group started mass layoffs and the closure of 298 stores across the country. Staff numbers had already fallen from 41,866 employees in 2023 to 30,117 in mid-2026, a drop of about 28%, according to InfoMoney. On August 16, the company filed for judicial recovery to renegotiate debts estimated at 17.3 billion reais. Company documents in the case point to about 3,000 dismissals in this round; the National Confederation of Commerce Workers (CNTC) puts the number near 1,900.What the labor court decidedOn August 19, Judge Katarina Roberta Mousinho de Matos of the 11th Labor Court of Brasilia suspended the collective dismissals because there had been no prior union involvement, applying precedent 638 of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court, which requires union intervention before mass layoffs. According to InfoMoney, the injunction ordered the provisional reinstatement of employment contracts, the return of affected workers to the payroll and, within 48 hours, the restoration of health plans and welfare benefits canceled because of the layoffs. It set a fine of 500 reais per dismissed worker if the company failed to comply within five days.The inspector general of the Labor Court, Justice José Roberto Freire Pimenta, later denied a company request to overturn the injunction, which remains in force and also conditions any new collective layoffs on prior union involvement. The group is waiting for the 10th Regional Labor Court (TRT-10) to review its appeal, with no date set.In the creditors' lineUnder the CLT, Brazil's labor code, severance must be paid within 10 days of the end of a contract. The recovery filing moved the workers' claims into Class I of creditors, the category for labor claims, which has priority over other debts. Because credits generated before the filing can be folded into the payment plan, workers will only be paid under the schedule the court approves."The worker joins the line of creditors and waits for the payment plan to be defined. Many do not even know how much they are owed or when they will get it," said João André Vidal de Souza, who represents the CNTC. The confederation is asking that severance be kept out of the restructuring's creditor regime and paid as a priority.Among those affected, the accounts point to widespread delay. Former saleswoman Talita Magalhães, 42, who worked at the chain for eight years, said she received the key to withdraw her FGTS balance but not her severance or the 40% FGTS penalty owed to dismissed workers. She said the company health plan was canceled and former colleagues are still being billed for purchases made through the employee installment plan. "The 10 days passed and nobody got anything. We got no explanation and were left completely in the dark," she said.In a statement to G1, Grupo Casas Bahia said the rights of dismissed workers remain guaranteed and that severance amounts now follow the rules and procedures of the recovery process. The company said it has provided guidance on unemployment insurance and FGTS withdrawals. The next step in the dispute over the validity of the layoffs is the ruling on the appeal at the TRT-10, which has no date yet.

Judge André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) said he ordered the Federal Police to identify people named in reports about Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of the now defunct Banco Master, in order to establish who belonged to a supposed influence and monitoring network that he ran. The explanation went to the court's president, Edson Fachin, late on Monday (14), on the eve of a session in which the full court begins to review a Federal Police report on messages exchanged between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to CNN Brasil, the filing answers one of the questions Fachin raised about how the Master case investigation has been run.Mendonça supervises the STF's side of Operation Compliance Zero, the Federal Police inquiry into the Master case. On August 24, he summoned the investigators to his office and gave them 72 hours to update information on members of the supposed criminal organization who had not been identified. A report the police produced at his request surfaced messages and records involving Moraes and Vorcaro and set off the current crisis among the justices. Fachin then set a deadline for Mendonça, Moraes, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues to answer questions before the full court reviews the material.What the filing saysAccording to the document, reported by CNN Brasil and the portal TMC, material taken from Vorcaro's phone indicated that the man under investigation had advance access to information about ongoing probes that could hurt him, including inquiries at the Central Bank. The data also raised the hypothesis that he sought to intervene with authorities involved in those cases. Mendonça writes that the evidence pointed to a "true network of monitoring and influence" with the potential to infiltrate public institutions, and that, because the police said some members remained unidentified, he gave the investigators 72 hours to provide data on the so-called "influence and monitoring network". The justice argues the order was never meant to investigate Federal Police or prosecutor's office officials.The filing, recorded in Petição 16.704/DF, also explains why the officers were summoned in person on August 24 at 5:40 p.m. One police report mentioned Rodrigues and Gonet in a note Vorcaro sent to a contact who has not been identified, later forwarded over WhatsApp and reproduced in a police document. Given those mentions, Mendonça wrote, the step was taken as a precaution, to protect the secrecy and the conduct of the investigation, "without imputing any suspicion to anyone". He said the integrity of the case file required compartmentalizing intelligence and judicial police work.The run-up to the sessionThe Prosecutor General's office (PGR) formally argues that the police report should be annulled and archived over alleged procedural defects: according to G1, it was produced at Mendonça's request without any trigger from prosecutors or the police and without notice to the court's presidency. Gonet is named in the report, and Federal Police investigators asked him to recuse himself from the inquiry; he is expected to attend the session. Moraes denies favoring Vorcaro and has called the investigation "unconstitutional and illegal".The full court meets on Tuesday (15) at 10 a.m. in Brasilia for an extraordinary session. Fachin, the case's rapporteur, presents his vote first, after the PGR speaks. One outcome under discussion is to void the report because of its origins and send the data to a new deputy prosecutor general to weigh whether to open a formal investigation. Sources heard by G1 expect a tight 4-3 margin for opening some type of inquiry into the messages; a request for more review time, allowed for 90 days under court rules, would push a final decision to February 2027. Whether Moraes and Mendonça may vote is still open. Justice Dias Toffoli is not expected to vote, having declared himself conflicted in related parts of the Master case.

Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) asked on Tuesday (15) that a ruling on a Federal Police report about alleged messages between former banker Daniel Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes be postponed to September 23 and decided together with a session already scheduled to examine allegations involving the conduct of Justice André Mendonça in the Master case, the sprawling investigation centered on Vorcaro's former bank. In a ponto de ordem, the Brazilian equivalent of a point of order, filed right after court president Edson Fachin read the report, Dino said the court's presidency mishandled the cases by gathering several reports in its own office.Dino's central argument is that the court's internal rules give the president no power to "take over" a case assigned to another justice, a move known in Brazilian legal jargon as avocação. He said the matters should have been reassigned by lottery and that there was a "clear legal rupture" when Fachin pulled the cases from their original rapporteurs and began supervising them himself."Neither the Federal Constitution, nor any other legislation in force in the Brazilian legal system, provides for such a possibility," Dino wrote.Dino asked the court to recognize the alleged irregularity and to have both matters, one concerning Moraes and the other concerning allegations against Mendonça, tried together by a rapporteur who is not the president. "The inquiry must reach everyone involved in the case, without political or ideological cuts, nor personal preferences," he wrote. He addressed the request to Gilmar Mendes, the dean of the court, its longest-serving justice, who Dino said is the president's legal substitute to decide the matter. Gilmar backed the point of order and said there was a political and electoral motive behind the request targeting Moraes; Mendonça, the case's rapporteur, replied that he was being "frivolous". The session was suspended and resumed at 2 p.m.How the case got hereFederal Police intelligence reports examined the conduct of the rapporteur for the Master and INSS cases and raised the suspicion of possible steering of the investigations. According to InfoMoney, the documents themselves stated they carried no probative value.Mendonça began questioning the origin and content of the reports, calling them apocryphal. In a filing to Fachin, Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues said the documents were produced regularly and handed over under an order Moraes had issued in the fake news inquiry.On September 8, Mendonça ordered the removal of Andrei Rodrigues and of the police's intelligence director, Leandro Almada. Fachin later suspended that removal, and also a decision by Dino that had reinstated the two officers, keeping Andrei in command of the force.Moraes began accusing Mendonça of trying to steer the Federal Police against him. On Tuesday he said he had witnesses to the alleged request for investigators to dig up material against him, and mentioned an attempt to include him in a plea-bargain deal.The clash escalated on the bench. Interrupted by Mendonça, Moraes asked: "Should we call this witness? Should we?". The colleague shot back: "You cannot call whomever you want". Moraes also asked "who called the Federal Police and demanded that it put a colleague in the plea bargain", called the inquiry against him "fraudulent" and argued the matters must be judged together: "You cannot judge one thing without the other". Mendonça denies having run the investigations unlawfully. No justice is a defendant at this stage: Tuesday's session only decides whether there are grounds to open an investigation into Moraes.When the session resumed at 2 p.m., the bench first had to rule on Dino's point of order: accept the postponement and merge both matters into the September 23 session, or reject the request and move to the vote on opening an investigation into Moraes. The September 23 session on Mendonça is already on the calendar set by the court's presidency. According to G1, justices Dias Toffoli and Kassio Nunes Marques are not taking part in Tuesday's judgment, the first after declaring himself biased and the second after declaring a legal impediment.

Brazil's largest criminal faction, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), has been cited by Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Flávio Dino in investigations into suspected public money routed to Dark Horse, a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro, according to the BBC's Brazilian service. The alleged link is businessman Alex Leandro Bispo dos Santos, a defendant in a femicide case whom police identify as controller of Favela Conectada, a company subcontracted by the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB). The institute is run by Karina Ferreira da Gama, who also owns Go Up, the production company behind the film.The references to the faction appear in two recent rulings by Dino, the case's reporting justice at the STF, Brazil's top court. On September 10, when he ordered the Federal Police operation Make Up and consolidated at the STF and the Federal Police the probes into diverted congressional budget earmarks, Dino cited "acts linked" to the PCC and said that, according to "police intelligence agencies", one of the men under investigation was a faction member. According to the BBC, that man is Alex Bispo. On September 13, lifting the seal on documents sent by São Paulo state courts, Dino wrote that evidence was strengthening the hypothesis of:"An indissociable entanglement in a sophisticated scheme of allocation and diversion of public funds [...] This organization would even reach ties with the PCC faction (Primeiro Comando da Capital), according to an investigative line mentioned in the case files."The suspicion that Alex belongs to the PCC did not originate in the film investigation. It first surfaced in the inquiry into the femicide of Maria Katiane Gomes da Silva, 25, who died after falling from the 10th floor of a building in Vila Andrade, in southern São Paulo, on November 29, 2025. State prosecutors charged the businessman and the court accepted the charges, making him a defendant. In audio recorded by a neighbor before her death and transcribed in the Civil Police report, Alex says "Tenho escorpião do PCC, não devo satisfação" ("I have a PCC scorpion, I answer to no one"). Investigators also noted his scorpion, carp and dragon tattoos, writing that the combination reinforced "the idea of a member who overcame great challenges" within the faction.Prosecutor Lincoln Gakiya, of the Gaeco anti-organized crime task force in Presidente Prudente, told g1 that Alex has a long criminal record and served time in two prison units that hold PCC leadership, the Mirandópolis and Presidente Venceslau penitentiaries in western São Paulo state. A g1 review of National Council of Justice records found he is cited in more than 60 court cases, which does not mean he is a defendant in all of them. Contacted by the BBC, Alex's defense denied that he belongs to the PCC or to any criminal organization.How the case unfoldedJune 2024: the ICB signs a contract with São Paulo city hall, under Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), to install free public wi-fi in poor outskirts; g1 puts it at 108 million reais a year, while the Civil Police calculates 157 million reais overall.November 2025: Maria Katiane Gomes da Silva dies; Alex's company Favela Conectada had already installed more than 900 internet access points and received more than 3.8 million reais.December 2025: the outlets The Intercept Brasil and Metrópoles reveal the contracts between the ICB and Alex's company.January 2026: control of Favela Conectada passes to Tatiane Camargo de Oliveira Fernandes, who lives at Alex's address according to the state business registry; the company is renamed Urban Connect.June 2026: the Civil Police operation Wi-Fi serves warrants at addresses linked to Karina and seizes 27 devices.September 2026: Dino orders the Federal Police operation Make Up, consolidates the investigations and cites the PCC; on the 13th he lifts the secrecy on documents.The contract promised 5,000 free wi-fi points in low-income areas by June 2025, but only 3,200 were installed, and at least three amendments pushed back the deadline, g1 reported. The first contract between the ICB and Favela Conectada was worth 12 million reais, signed soon after the city hired the nonprofit, which had no experience in the technology and outsourced the installation.Seals on 27 devices and the São Paulo government's responseThe documents released by Dino also detailed a dispute over the chain of custody of the 27 devices seized in the Wi-Fi operation on June 1: 9 laptops, 5 phones and 13 USB drives. In memoranda dated June 3, forensic expert Viviane Menezes refused the materials, writing that the packaging "has enough of a gap for a power and data transfer cable to enter, making it possible to manipulate the data inside the equipment". Five days later the devices were sent back to the police division that investigates crimes against the public administration for "readjustment of the packaging" and, once resealed, were accepted by the forensics institute. According to g1, the case files do not record whether the integrity of the data was ever examined.On Monday (14), the Public Security Secretariat of the government of Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos), led by police chief Osvaldo Nico Gonçalves, denied any tampering. "There was no access to, extraction or manipulation of the data, nor any compromise of the chain of custody", the office said, arguing that the seals were intact, that some packaging had "small gaps" and that the initial refusal by forensics was "preventive". The secretariat added that "the photograph used by the press does not depict the objects seized in the operation".Karina, targeted in Make Up along with federal lawmaker Mario Frias (PL-SP), the film's screenwriter and executive producer, told CNN Brasil, according to the BBC, that the film received no earmark money and described threats she attributes to people with whom she had professional and personal ties. The probes into the earmarks and the city contract remain consolidated at the Federal Police under Dino's relatoria at the STF. Alex has been held in preventive detention since February and is a defendant in the femicide case before São Paulo state courts.

A court in Brasília has given Spribe, the company behind the online betting game Aviator, known in Brazil as the "little airplane" game, 10 days to cut off the supply of the product to betting sites that operate without a federal license. The order was signed on Monday (14) by Judge Luciana Correa Sette Torres de Oliveira of the 7th Civil Court of Brasília, in a public civil action brought by the Federal District and Territories prosecutors' office (MPDFT). If the company fails to comply, it faces a daily fine of 100,000 reais, initially capped at 10 million reais, according to news site Metrópoles.In an urgent injunction, the judge ordered Spribe to immediately suspend the integrations, credentials, licenses and access that let unauthorized operators offer Aviator in Brazil. The company must also file a report listing its authorized operators, aggregators, distributors and partners, disclose the domains, integrations, credentials and APIs used to distribute the game, set up and prove continuous monitoring, traceability, georestriction and blocking mechanisms, and preserve contracts, records, logs and audits. For now, the judge denied the prosecutors' request to suspend the game on licensed platforms too, calling that measure "excessively burdensome and disproportionate", and may revisit the point after the company's full defense. Part of the case file remains under restricted access.How the case reached the courtsThe MPDFT inquiry opened in June, to determine whether Spribe was supplying the game at once to betting houses licensed by the Ministry of Finance and to clandestine sites. In three virtual inspections between July and September, investigators accessed illegal platforms, recorded the presence of the game and preserved the evidence, the same method used in a case against the betting company Blaze that named influencer Virgínia Fonseca, Folha de S.Paulo reports.Once notified, Spribe audited the addresses flagged by prosecutors, removed the game from some of them and reported finding "possible unauthorized cloning of the product". The platforms, however, came back online with small changes of subdomain or technical parameters. "We identified more than 30 new addresses over the course of the investigation, and 10 of them appeared after Spribe claimed to have adopted removal measures", prosecutor Paulo Roberto Binicheski said in the suit. One of the sites checked by prosecutors was still online on Tuesday morning (15), listing Aviator as its most played slot. The case has also reached Senacon, the consumer protection secretariat of the Ministry of Justice, which opened its own investigation into the developer.What each side arguesThe Consumer Protection Prosecutor's Office contends that the company collects "significant financial gains from the game's high popularity, with estimated global revenue of US$ 200 million", while passing the costs of the illicit activity on to consumers. In the suit, Binicheski wrote:"The persistence of the irregular offering, even after notifications and isolated removals, suggests structural failures in the mechanisms of licensing, authentication, georestriction, traceability, distribution, auditing and supervision."In a statement, Spribe's defense said it will comply with the ruling and noted that the judge herself found the total ban sought by prosecutors disproportionate. "We have continuously and proactively assisted in the removal of unauthorized sites and adopted firm measures to restrict access to our products on irregular platforms", the company said. It argues the problem described by prosecutors is structural and affects all game providers. "The asymmetry of treatment, by directing the measure at a single company instead of addressing the situation of the sector as a whole, raises concerns and will be duly addressed in the case."The ruling lands amid a government crackdown on illegal betting. Licensed operators pay a 30 million reais licensing fee to the Ministry of Finance. Finance Minister Dario Durigan said in July that more than 56,000 illegal betting apps and sites were taken down between January 2025 and June 2026, and nearly a thousand influencer profiles were removed from social networks. Counted from the signing of the order on September 14, Spribe's 10-day deadline ends on September 24. After the company files its defense, the judge may reassess a total suspension of Aviator on licensed platforms. The Ministry of Finance expects to publish rules for online casino game suppliers later this year.

Brazil's Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) has concluded that there was "double nullity" in the order issued by Supreme Federal Court Justice André Mendonça for the Federal Police to gather further information on Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The position is set out in a legal opinion read aloud by the court's president, Edson Fachin, at Tuesday's plenary session (Sept. 15) on Petition 16.662, the case file that gathers the crisis involving the two justices, the Federal Police's director general, Andrei Rodrigues, and Banco Master founder Daniel Vorcaro. In the PGR's view, the rapporteur must acknowledge the nullity and dismiss the petition.According to the opinion, quoted by Poder360, the first nullity lies in the origin of the order, which was issued "without a request from the Public Prosecutor's Office" and "without police initiative". In the office's words, "the order given to the police authority to investigate specific people, without a request from the Public Prosecutor's Office, without initiative by the police authority, is null because it exceeds the limits of the magistrate's competence in the pre-procedural phase". The text adds that "landmark decisions of the Supreme Court leave no doubt that a judge's taking on functions other than his own is a cause of nullity that affects the results of the action"."The investigation order issued by the rapporteur justice and the evidence it gathered therefore suffer from double nullity."The second nullity, according to the prosecutors, follows from the fact that the inquiry involved a fellow member of the court itself. Even if there were signs of criminal wrongdoing, the opinion says, it was not up to Mendonça to deepen the inquiries into his colleague: he should have gone to the court's president "so that the plenary could assess the merit of his impression, agreeing or not with the investigation". The text concludes that "since the order and its result are null, it falls to the rapporteur to acknowledge this and dismiss the petition".How the case beganThe crisis started on September 1, when Mendonça, the rapporteur for the Banco Master investigations, made public a Federal Police report that points to communication between Moraes and Vorcaro, who is under investigation as the leader of the largest fraud against Brazil's financial system, according to Poder360. The case has since reached other justices: Dias Toffoli declared himself biased and Kassio Nunes Marques barred, and both are out of the trial. On Tuesday the full court began debating, for the first time in its history, whether to open an investigation against a sitting justice, according to G1.The session and what comes nextThe trial was suspended before the merits. By 4 votes to 3, a majority formed to keep the analyses of Moraes's and Mendonça's situations separate, with votes from Fachin, Mendonça, Luiz Fux and Cármen Lúcia; Gilmar Mendes, Cristiano Zanin and Moraes himself wanted a joint review. Justice Flávio Dino, who had sided with that group, asked for a review period, halting the session. According to G1, the trial resumes next week, with no date set.During the session, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet said the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office "has always worked for the full clarification of the facts and for the success of criminal prosecution", and denied any closeness to Vorcaro: "There is not, and I never had, a relationship of proximity with Mr. Vorcaro". In his own defense, Mendonça said he had not taken the files' content as true nor concluded that a crime occurred, and that he asked the Federal Police for information to understand the context of the messages, under seal. Separately, the Federal Prosecutor's Office's Superior Council scheduled for September 25 a session on Vorcaro messages that mention Gonet, G1 reported.

Brazil's state-owned Caixa Econômica Federal has dropped its plan to take the national bank workers' strike to the TST, the Superior Labor Court and top tribunal for labor disputes, after employees rejected the bank's latest offer. The walkout, which began on Thursday, September 10, has left branches closed across the country with no end date.According to Folha de S.Paulo, the decision was communicated on the night of Sunday, September 13, in a reply to a formal letter from Contraf-CUT, the national confederation of finance-sector workers. In the document, the bank said it would reopen the negotiating table and suspend the sanctions against strikers it had previously announced. In the reading of the São Paulo, Osasco and Region bank workers' union, the country's largest, the reply recognized the importance of collective bargaining and reaffirmed open channels of dialogue.Timeline of the disputeTalks over Caixa's own collective agreement, known as ACT, began in June and went through 13 rounds over more than two months, according to the union. On Wednesday, September 9, Fenaban, the national federation of banks, and the unions signed the industry-wide convention, which grants full restitution of inflation as measured by the INPC index plus a real increase of 0.6% in 2026 and 2027, and covers about 414,000 workers at 171 banks. Because the Caixa-specific items made no progress, workers walked out on September 10 after more than 90% of union branches rejected the bank's proposal, according to the bank's employees' commission (CEE). At Banco do Brasil, the stoppage is partial, limited to the bases that voted the deal down. On Friday night, September 11, Caixa employees rejected the bank's offer in assembly; in São Paulo, Osasco and the surrounding region, the largest base, 68% voted no.The health plan disputeThe health plan is the main sticking point. The rejected offer included a recognition bonus of R$ 3,000 per employee, payment of the profit-sharing bonus (PLR) on Friday, September 18, and a rise in the funding ceiling of the Saúde Caixa plan from 6.5% to 8%. Under the plan, workers would pay between 2.30% and 4.10% of their base salary depending on age, plus R$ 480 to R$ 660 per dependent. Caixa also offered to bring forward its share of the plan's 13th installment for 2028, 2029 and 2030 to cover the Saúde Caixa deficit, to pay amounts owed under the PAMS medical assistance program from 2027, and to spend R$ 236 million on preventive health actions starting in January 2027.For the unions, beyond the health plan, the agenda includes applying NR-1, the workplace health and safety rule, curbing targets seen as abusive and building healthier work environments. During the stoppage, Caixa tells customers to use digital channels such as its app, internet banking, the Caixa Tem app, ATMs and lottery outlets, and says the strike does not by itself suspend benefit payments.In a statement issued when the strike began, Caixa said that:"it keeps an open dialogue with the employees' representative bodies and has returned to the negotiating table with the goal of building an understanding that addresses the interests of all parties involved".The negotiating table has been reopened, but as of the filing of this report no date had been set for the next round. The unions say the strike will continue until any progress is put before workers' assemblies.

Brazil's labor prosecution office, the Ministério Público do Trabalho (MPT), has filed a public civil lawsuit against Luciano Hang, owner of the Havan department store chain, seeking R$30 million in collective moral damages over alleged electoral harassment. The case is before the Labor Court in Goiânia, in central Brazil. Prosecutors point to a second case of the same kind: in 2018, the office sued Hang and Havan over political statements made to employees during that election year.The lawsuit stems from a speech Hang gave on August 29 at the opening of a Havan store in Caldas Novas, in the state of Goiás, in which he criticized a proposal to end the 6x1 shift schedule, six days of work with a single day off, for employees hired at the new store. A video of the remarks spread widely on social media, according to InfoMoney. "You will have to find another job. Underemployment. (...) This is nothing short of an electoral swindle. They want to win your votes in October," Hang said, according to the transcript made by the MPT.Before going to court, the MPT notified the businessman of what it viewed as a possible violation. Prosecutors argue the speech tied workers' votes in October's elections to personal losses: anyone who backed candidates favoring the end of the 6x1 schedule could be left without a job.The requestsBeyond the R$30 million in collective moral damages, the MPT asks the court to order individual compensation of at least 20 times each affected worker's last salary. It also wants Hang to record a retraction video within 48 hours and Havan to release employees on October 4 and 25, the dates of the first and second rounds of Brazil's general elections, with no pay deduction. The lawsuit further requests a ban on new political statements at Havan stores and events and the creation of a permanent political and electoral neutrality program across the chain. Prosecutors want the Goiânia Labor Court to order the measures and to hold the company and the businessman responsible for the conduct described.Prosecutors say the lawsuit targets the setting of the speech, delivered by an employer at an internal event for staff, and that the office has no intention of restricting the businessman's freedom of expression."What separates the legitimate exercise of free speech from an unlawful act is not the content of the opinion, but the presence of coercion and the power imbalance inherent in the employment relationship. Managers represent the company institutionally, and their statements are naturally read as guidance, pressure or favoritism," the prosecutors wrote in a statement released by the office.Timeline and next stepsThe sequence so far: the speech on August 29, the MPT notification that followed and, with no agreement, the lawsuit filed this week. It repeats the pattern of 2018, when the office took a similar case involving Hang and Havan to court during the election won by Jair Bolsonaro, the candidate Hang backed. According to the Federal Prosecution Office, cited by g1, electoral harassment can be a crime under Brazil's Electoral Code and may also amount to abuse of economic power. G1 also reports that the MPT has received 223 complaints of electoral harassment in 2026.For now, the lawsuit represents the accusation brought by the MPT and has yet to be examined by a judge. No public response from Hang or Havan appears in the reports consulted. The next step is a ruling by the Goiânia Labor Court on the requested measures, which prosecutors want in force before the first round of voting on October 4.

Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Thursday (17) ordered evidence of possible crimes in Banco Master's dealings with cemetery concessionaires run by the city of São Paulo to be sent to the Federal Police, and told court president Edson Fachin about the mention of fellow Justice André Mendonça in the case file. Dino, who reports the case, barred the police from taking any investigative step against his colleague and asked Fachin to take the appropriate measures."I clarify that any investigative act that could affect Justice André Mendonça is barred, because this referral falls exclusively to the president of the STF together with the full bench," Dino wrote.In the ruling, Dino described an "intensification of evidence of crimes" and widened the scope of the inquiry. Beyond the concessionaire Cortel, cited in a September 15 decision, the apparent ties of the Master conglomerate now reach Cemitérios e Crematórios SP, controlled by the Maya group. According to documents cited in the ruling, the bank lent R$ 78 million to companies that owned the concessionaire, and they handed over all their shares as collateral. The contracts reportedly gave the creditor power to steer how shareholders voted in certain situations, and Dino says the credits moved through Master Holding structures in the Cayman Islands.Dino sent the material to Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues, added the Maya group to the investigation and gave the securities regulator CVM 15 days to map the group's ties to investment funds and to every private cemetery concessionaire in the city. The group also joined a priority oversight list. The ruling collects complaints about the services, including a R$ 12,000 charge to bury a newborn at the Cemitério da Saudade cemetery. According to G1, the decision does not state that Mendonça favored anyone, and any step regarding the justice belongs to the court president and the full bench.In a statement, SP Regula, the municipal agency that regulates public services in São Paulo, said financial relations between the funeral service concessionaires and banks or private funds "do not in themselves constitute any contractual irregularity". It said the companies' finances are monitored permanently and that the city attorney's office "was notified and is analyzing the situation".How the case got hereMarch 7, 2025: in case ADPF 1196, a suit filed by the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) challenging the privatization and the prices charged by São Paulo's cemetery and funeral services, Dino grants an injunction ordering the city to publicize the criteria for free burials and improve oversight of the concessionaires.March 14, 2025: Master banker Daniel Vorcaro meets Mendonça. According to a Uol report reproduced in the ruling, Vorcaro held credits guaranteed by shares of a concessionaire that would be affected by a ruling at the STF.March 15, 2025: Mendonça asks for time to review the injunction. When the case resumed, in April 2025, he voted against Dino's decision.September 15, 2026: Dino writes that Mendonça would have favored the interests of Master and the city government in exchange for funds to the Iter Institute, founded by the justice, which allegedly signed a R$ 380,000 contract with the city in September 2025. Dino also cited Mendonça's brother, Alexandre de Almeida Mendonça, who works in the funeral and cemetery area of SP Regula. That day, the bench session on how the cases should proceed was interrupted after Dino took the case for review.September 17, 2026: Dino issues the ruling in this story. The same day, Fachin canceled an extraordinary bench session and pulled from the agenda, with no new date, the September 23 review of Mendonça's conduct.The Federal Police investigation into Master's operations with the concessionaires is now open, and the CVM's 15-day deadline runs to early October. At the court, Dino has up to 90 days to return the case file he took for review on September 15. On the session about Mendonça, Fachin wrote that its inclusion on the agenda "will be rescheduled in due course", with no date set.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday (17) that Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) should try the cases involving justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça together, and demanded that information already gathered in the Master case be made public. Speaking to Rádio Itatiaia in Brasília, Lula, who is running for reelection this year, said the investigation into the Banco Master scandal is far from finished: "The Master case has not been unraveled.""If you want justice in the vote, everyone has to be judged on the same day. We will find out whether the phone call is real, whether [Luiz] Fux is involved, whether [André] Mendonça is involved, whether the head of the TSE [the electoral court] is involved. You cannot judge one person before the election and the rest afterwards. Everyone now has the material; all that is left is to make it public."According to G1, Lula said the court already holds the material needed to clarify the facts and that everyone named in the investigations must receive equal treatment. He defended Moraes's record in the cases tied to the attacks on Brazilian democracy, while saying any punishment would be for the court itself to decide: "If Alexandre de Moraes made a mistake, it is the Supreme Court's decision. If he was wrong, he will have to pay for what he did. But we want the same for everyone." Lula also again linked Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) to the scandal and said the lawmaker will have to answer the accusations.What the court is examiningLula's demand echoes a dispute already splitting the bench. According to BBC News Brasil, two separate proceedings are before the STF. Petition 16.662 contains a Federal Police report with messages exchanged between Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is named in the Master case investigations. Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet questions the report's validity and argues that Mendonça could not have asked the Federal Police to examine a fellow justice without prior approval from the full bench. Mendonça counters that he requested the review only to identify who received the messages found on Vorcaro's phone, and that he sent the case to his colleagues once Moraes was identified. Petition 16.704, filed by Moraes, gathers accusations against Mendonça backed by a Federal Police report Moraes himself requested, which points to allegedly irregular conduct by the colleague. According to Moraes, Mendonça acted illegally and with political bias in the Banco Master and INSS investigations, the latter linked to the federal social security institute. Neither justice is a defendant; the accusations are still at a preliminary review stage before the full court. This week brought two main developments:September 15: in a session on petition 16.662, Justice Gilmar Mendes filed a procedural motion asking that the Moraes and Mendonça cases be judged together. The vote stood at 4 to 3 for separate analysis when Justice Flávio Dino asked for a "vista", a request for more time that suspended the session.September 17: Dino said he had identified signs of a link between Vorcaro and a new cemetery concession and ordered the information sent to the Federal Police, which summoned Vorcaro and his father to testify, G1 reported. Mendonça denied any wrongdoing or political motivation, said he had expected reprisals and stated that he has "nothing to fear". Court president Edson Fachin removed the judgment on the accusations against Mendonça, set for September 23, from the docket, canceled the session and cited in an order the "direct relation" between the procedural motion and the case, including "questioning of the regularity of the rapporteurship itself".What comes nextDino has until December 15, a 90-day deadline under the court's rules for a vista request, to allow the vote to resume, and the return to the docket depends on Fachin, who wrote that the session "will be rescheduled in due course". Because the court goes into recess from December 20 to February 1, BBC News Brasil reports the cases may not be judged until next year, after the presidential election and the inauguration of the next president. Lula said the facts must be clarified transparently and that the court "must be respected": "If there is no respect, it becomes hard to believe it is the guardian of the Constitution. It is the only instance from which there is no appeal."

Brazil's Federal Police have summoned former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master, and his father, Henrique Vorcaro, to testify on September 30 in an inquiry into the suspected use of a private militia for intimidation and computer system intrusions. Daniel is set to be heard at 2 p.m. and Henrique at 4 p.m., according to Folha de S.Paulo and a blog run by journalist Andréia Sadi at G1, Globo's news site.The hearings had been scheduled for last week but were postponed at the request of Vorcaro's defense. Investigators treat the new date as the final step before this phase of the inquiry is closed. The G1 blog reported that they fear the two men, both in prison, could be released before they are heard.A timeline of the caseThe investigation points to two cells. The first, known as A Turma, is suspected of making threats at the former banker's behest and was tied to Luiz Phillipi Machado de Moraes Mourão, nicknamed Sicário (Hitman), who is suspected of working for Vorcaro in the private militia. He killed himself in March as he was being arrested. The second cell, Os Meninos (The Boys), consisted, according to the investigation, of hackers paid to take down the social media profiles of critics of Vorcaro and Banco Master and to break into the devices and accounts of opponents.Henrique Vorcaro was arrested on May 14 in the sixth phase of Operação Compliance Zero, on suspicion of belonging to what a Federal Police source described to G1 as the group's "violent core". A federal agent and three hackers were also arrested in the same operation. In June, the STF, Brazil's Supreme Federal Court, upheld his pretrial detention. Vorcaro's brother-in-law Fabiano Zettel, investigated as the group's financial operator, has been in prison since March.The defenses and the stalemate at the STFHenrique's lawyer, Eugênio Pacelli, told Folha his client has been asking to testify for three months. On Wednesday, his defense asked the STF to revoke the detention, arguing that he has been held for more than 90 days without a single release appeal being judged. Daniel Vorcaro's lawyers did not respond to a request for comment. Zettel's lawyers said they fear that the "exceptional reorganization of the handling of the cases produces a jurisdictional vacuum" for their client.The requests reflect a stalemate at the top court. Its president, Edson Fachin, ordered that the Master case investigations and the parallel INSS inquiry, which concerns Brazil's social security institute, be sent to his chambers. According to Folha, the Federal Police work continues, and only requests requiring a ruling by Justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur for the cases, remain on hold. Also stalled is the court's vote on whether to open an investigation into the relationship between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes.The next step is set: Daniel and Henrique testify on the 30th, at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. After the hearings, the Federal Police are expected to close this phase of the inquiry, and the case remains with Mendonça at the STF, where Henrique's request for release still awaits judgment.

A justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Kassio Nunes Marques, has denied a Federal Police request to carry out a search of ACM Neto, a former mayor of Salvador and the União Brasil candidate for governor of Bahia, as part of the Overclean inquiry into the suspected diversion of parliamentary earmark funds, the budget allocations Brazilian lawmakers steer to local projects. The decision became public on Thursday (Sept. 17), the same day the operation's tenth phase was launched, and came even though the Attorney General's Office (PGR) had backed the police request, according to news outlet G1.The new phase executed 24 search and seizure warrants in six states (Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Tocantins, Paraná, Espírito Santo and Bahia), all authorized by Nunes Marques, who serves as the case's rapporteur on the court. It targets procurement by the Belo Horizonte municipal Education Department between 2024 and 2025; at least three contracting processes produced contracts adding up to more than 80 million reais (about US$ 15 million). "Investigators are examining signs of steering of procurement procedures toward suppliers of services and teaching materials," the Federal Police said.Warrant targets include Bruno Barral, the former Belo Horizonte education secretary, dismissed in April 2025 after being targeted in the operation's third phase, and Bahia businessman José Marcos Moura, known as the "Trash King" for his waste-management business, indicted by the police in August on suspicion of taking part in the scheme. Alex Maciel, described by investigators as a businessman and Moura's partner, is also a target. The phase covers crimes against public administration, bid and contract fraud, criminal organization and money laundering. None of the reports published so far mentions an indictment or criminal charges against ACM Neto; the only measure reported concerning him is the search warrant that was denied.TimelineApril 2025: Bruno Barral, then Belo Horizonte's education secretary, is dismissed after being targeted in the operation's third phase.January this year: the Federal Police files the request for the tenth phase, authorized only in recent weeks, according to reporting by the newspaper Estadão carried by InfoMoney.August: José Marcos Moura is indicted by the police on suspicion of taking part in the earmark diversion scheme.September 17: the tenth phase executes 24 warrants across six states; the request to search ACM Neto is denied by Nunes Marques, although the PGR had agreed to it.Contacted by reporters, Nunes Marques's office said it would not comment on the decision, and the reasons for the denial have not been made public. The candidate had not spoken publicly as of the first reports. The case remains assigned to Nunes Marques at the STF, where Overclean continues to investigate a suspected network of businessmen, public officials and operators who allegedly diverted public money through contracts and congressional earmarks.The ruling comes less than three weeks before the first round of Brazil's general elections, set for Oct. 4, in which ACM Neto is running for governor of Bahia. The inquiry remains open at the STF, and further police action in the operation requires the rapporteur's authorization.

Brazil's Federal Police served 24 search and seizure warrants on Thursday, September 17, against Bruno Barral, former education secretary of Belo Horizonte, the businessman José Marcos Moura, known as the "Rei do Lixo" (Trash King), and his partner Alex Parente. The raids are the tenth phase of Operation Overclean, authorized by Supreme Court Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, who oversees the case, and target suspected contract fraud and bid rigging at the education secretariat of the capital of Minas Gerais state.According to the Federal Police, between April 2024 and April 2025 the political core of a criminal organization based in Bahia state allegedly placed members inside the secretariat to steer public contracts for services and school materials to companies tied to the group. Investigators identified six hiring processes, three of which became contracts worth nearly 84 million reais, with more than 77 million reais already paid out. Warrants were served in six states, and about 230,000 reais in cash were seized in the town of Ervália and in São Paulo, according to news site g1.Who the targets areBarral left the Belo Horizonte education secretariat in April 2025, after the third phase of Overclean. Before moving to the Minas Gerais capital he had been education secretary in Salvador, in the administration of ACM Neto, according to news site Metrópoles. CNN Brasil reports that investigators believe he joined Moura's group so that companies belonging to the businessman and to Alex Parente would be hired in Belo Horizonte.Moura, who built his career in the urban sanitation business, and the brothers Fábio and Alex Parente have been Overclean targets since the operation began. According to a column by Mirelle Pinheiro at Metrópoles, the three were arrested in the first phase, launched in December 2024, and later released under precautionary measures. In August, the Federal Police formally indicted Moura and 24 other people in the branch of the case that investigates the diversion of congressional budget amendments. The same column reported that Congressman ACM Neto of União Brasil, a candidate for governor of Bahia, is formally under investigation on suspicion of taking part in the appointment of a secretary to the Belo Horizonte city government. Police asked the Supreme Court for a search warrant against him and federal prosecutors supported the request, but Justice Nunes Marques denied it on the grounds that the legal basis was insufficient. As a result, the congressman was not among Thursday's targets.What each side saysIn a statement, the Federal Police said:"Those involved are under investigation for the crimes of frustrating the competitive nature of public bids, fraud in hiring and overpriced payments, embezzlement, passive and active corruption, membership in a criminal organization and money laundering."The force describes the facts as suspicions and says the investigation is still running. None of the targets has been charged or convicted, and a police indictment in Brazil is an investigative step that does not establish guilt. G1 reported that it sought comment from the lawyers of the people under investigation and had received no reply by publication time.Reached by TV Globo, the Belo Horizonte city government said the current administration signed no contracts for the purchase of school materials and that the municipal school system uses books from the federal PNLD program."The Education Secretariat stresses that it has received no request or demand related to the Overclean investigation, but stands fully at the disposal of the competent authorities and oversight bodies to provide any clarifications that may be necessary."The case file sits with the Supreme Court under Nunes Marques. The Federal Police says other hiring processes are still being analyzed, which could raise the total amount under scrutiny, and that teams remain in the field. Once the inquiry is closed, federal prosecutors will decide whether to bring charges against the people under investigation. No date has been set.

Brazil's Federal Police launched the 10th phase of Operation Overclean on Thursday (17), serving 24 search and seizure warrants across six states to investigate suspected fraud in contracts worth more than 80 million reais signed by the education secretariat of Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais state, in 2024 and 2025. According to the force, at least three contracts already reviewed account for that amount, and other procurement cases are also being examined, which could raise the final figure.Warrants were served in Minas Gerais, Bahia, São Paulo, Tocantins, Paraná and Espírito Santo. Officers seized about 230,000 reais in cash in Ervália, a town in the Zona da Mata region of Minas Gerais, and in the city of São Paulo, news site G1 reports. Teams were still in the field and the amount could rise. If confirmed, the suspected crimes include crimes against public administration, bid rigging and contract fraud, criminal organization and money laundering.Targets include former Belo Horizonte education secretary Bruno Barral, who also held a secretary post in Salvador, and people linked to businessman José Marcos Moura, known as the "trash king", according to CNN Brasil. Investigators say Barral favored the hiring of companies owned by Moura and by businessman Alex Parente in the Minas Gerais capital. Barral had already been targeted in an earlier phase of the operation. The Federal Police says the facts remain suspicions under investigation, and all targets are presumed innocent.How the case got hereOverclean was authorized by a federal court in December 2024 to examine irregularities in a contract of Dnocs, the federal agency for public works against drought, in Bahia state. Because the case involves politicians with privileged standing to be tried only by the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's top court, it was sent there, where Justice Nunes Marques is the rapporteur. Investigators estimate the group moved 1.4 billion reais and diverted public funds from engineering contracts, including through congressional budget earmarks known as "emendas parlamentares". In August, the Federal Police formally named José Marcos Moura and 24 other people, among public officials and private agents, as suspects. Moura denied any wrongdoing at the time.The Belo Horizonte city government said the current administration has signed no contracts to buy teaching materials and uses books supplied by the federal PNLD textbook program. City Hall added that it has received no request connected to the operation and stands ready to assist the authorities.The next step is the analysis of the seized material, which will feed into the inquiry pending at the STF. The Federal Police has announced no deadline for closing the investigation and no further phases. According to G1, the force treats the facts as suspicions and considers the investigation ongoing.

Two associations for public employees in Bahia state under investigation in the Banco Master case held more than 103,000 authorizations for payroll deductions from state workers' paychecks in 2025, in a portfolio valued at an estimated R$ 1 billion. The figures come from a Federal Police inquest whose confidentiality was lifted on September 10 by André Mendonça, a justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), as reported by João Pedro Pitombo of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo on Thursday (17).The entities are Asteba and Asseba, which according to Jornal de Brasília represent health workers and technical-administrative staff of the state administration. They are tied to businessman Augusto Ferreira Lima, owner of Banco Pleno and a former partner of Daniel Vorcaro at Banco Master. Police searched both in the first phase of Operation Compliance Zero, in November 2025. Lima, who is under investigation and has not been convicted, was arrested at the time, released in late November and now wears an electronic ankle monitor.How the associations entered the caseMaster told the Central Bank, in an official letter dated March 25, 2025, that the two associations originated the payroll-deducted loans in a R$ 6.7 billion portfolio sold to BRB, the public bank of Brasília. Vorcaro's bank later reversed course and attributed the credits to a company called Tirreno, according to Folha. A passage of the inquest quoted by Banda B says the entities, "controlled by Augusto Lima", were named by Master to the Central Bank as originators of the credits sold.Federal Police investigators attribute to Lima the creation of fraudulent portfolios. An audit estimated the public bank's losses from buying these assets at least R$ 5 billion. On a larger scale, a Federal Police report cited by Jornal do Comércio puts total BRB transfers to Master in credit portfolio purchases at about R$ 17 billion.Defense, Bahia government and next stepsLima's lawyers reject the allegations and say they do not hold up against the evidence gathered in the inquiry; they also argue the information on the origin of the credits was wrongly given to the Central Bank by Master itself. In a June statement to Poder360, signed by lawyers Pedro Ivo Velloso, Eduardo Toledo and Sebastián Mello, the defense said Lima "has always acted within the limits of the law, with transparency, technical responsibility and observance of the norms that govern the financial system and public administration". Contacted by Folha, the associations did not comment: at Asteba, an employee said no board members were present and messages were not returned; at Asseba, no one answered the calls. Bahia's Administration Secretariat, under Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues of the Workers' Party (PT), said it would not comment on the cooperation agreements with the associations, which provide member services such as dental plans, cellphone purchases and legal assistance.Banco Master was liquidated by the Central Bank after Compliance Zero began. The operation was launched in November 2025 by a federal court in Brasília; Vorcaro was arrested on November 17 as he tried to leave Brazil and was released on November 29. The case moved to the Supreme Court in December 2025 and has been with Justice Mendonça since February. Vorcaro was rearrested in early March and has filed a plea-bargain proposal that remains under review. In June, the operation's ninth phase cited Lima in a probe into ties between Master executives and Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA). The inquest remains open, and according to Gazeta do Povo, Vorcaro's defense asked again on September 11 to postpone his deposition to the Federal Police about the BRB deals; no new date has been announced.

Prosecutors in São Paulo have charged 19 people with building a clandestine financial network they describe as a "crime bank", allegedly used to launder money for members and associates of the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital), Brazil's largest criminal faction. Folha de S.Paulo reports the complaint was filed on Monday (14), while Metrópoles dates the filing to Friday (11). The defendants face charges of criminal organization and money laundering, among other crimes depending on each person's role.According to the Gaeco, the state prosecutors' organized crime unit, the scheme ran at least from 2019 to 2025. Its main service was a cash-for-wire-transfer swap: the group took in cash it knew came from crime and, for a fee, sent back an equivalent bank transfer through its own accounts, front men or shell companies. The flow also ran in reverse, with bank funds converted into cash. Messages recovered from phones seized in the Recidere and Bazaar operations allegedly show the participants knew where the money came from and used that knowledge to set the discount charged on each transaction. The case stems from the Janus and Bazaar operations, which investigated illicit money flows and an alleged corruption scheme inside the São Paulo civil police; Metrópoles reports Janus was launched in July of this year.In the complaint, the prosecutors describe the network as follows:"a center of illicit financial services, or a true 'crime bank', made available to members and associates of the PCC to hide and disguise the origin, nature and ownership of assets and money from drug trafficking and other crimes".From Car Wash to the PCCAccording to G1, the Gaeco places three operators at the center of the structure: Cléber Azevedo dos Santos, Leonardo Meirelles, a fugitive, and Paulo Rogério Silva, known as "Paulo Barão". Prosecutors say all three had been implicated in earlier investigations and criminal cases and moved "amounts in the billions of reais". The indicted group also includes accountant Meire Bonfim da Silva Poza, who worked in schemes exposed by Operação Lava Jato, the Car Wash investigation launched in 2014; the complaint says she was paid R$ 70,000 a month by Azevedo for exclusive services, an amount she acknowledged in a February 2023 message. Raphael Flores Rodriguez, known as "Batata" and also a fugitive, was convicted in a Car Wash case; prosecutors say his role went beyond that of a client, including buying property in partnership with other operators and sharing cash stashes fed by criminal activity.Named among the users of the service are Leonardo Monteiro Moja, known as "Léo do Moinho", in prison since August 6, 2024, and Alexandre Salles Brito, known as "Buiú", previously charged in Operation Fim da Linha over alleged links to the PCC and the bus company UpBus. Prosecutors count at least ten transactions totaling R$ 232,000 made for Buiú's benefit. Intercepted messages cited by Folha indicate Léo passed bank account details to one of the service providers, which received deposits in the tens of thousands of reais. Metrópoles reports that one company tied to the scheme moved more than R$ 28 million in six months, despite declaring annual revenue of about R$ 5 million.Crime courts and police corruptionThe complaint says the financial operators knew internal faction terms, took part in sessions of the so-called "tribunal do crime", the faction's internal dispute court, and at times used the organization's coercive power to settle their own property disputes. The structure also allegedly relied on corruption of public officials: the Gaeco says the indicted Marlon Antonio Fontana brokered and processed bribe payments. A full copy of the case file was sent to the military courts to open investigations into three São Paulo military police colonels named in the document, José Augusto Coutinho, Luiz Carlos Pereira Martins and an officer identified only as "Patricio". None of the three was charged in this action, and the document does not specify what crime each may have committed.Rodrigo Antunes Benetti, the lawyer for Léo do Moinho, told Folha that "the innocence of Mr. Leonardo will be demonstrated" and disputed the accusations against his client, jailed since August 2024. Prosecutors also ask that the defendants pay, jointly, at least R$ 10 million in collective moral and social damages. The case now sits with the São Paulo courts, which must decide whether to accept the complaint and open a criminal trial; Folha reports there is no deadline for that ruling. Until a final verdict, all defendants are presumed innocent.

Brazil's Integrated Forces to Combat Organized Crime, known as FICCOs, served 106 arrest warrants and 173 search and seizure warrants across 19 states on Wednesday (16), according to news site G1. The Federal Police named the joint action Operation Força Integrada IV and said 20 FICCO bases took part. Court orders issued for the operation also froze, seized or otherwise restricted assets worth more than 508 million reais.The warrants target suspects under investigation for alleged drug trafficking, arms trafficking, money laundering and other offenses tied to violent criminal organizations. The financial measures cover real estate, vehicles, bank balances and other assets linked to the groups under investigation. G1 reports that one stated goal is to strip the groups of their financial base through what authorities call decapitalization.How the task forces are organizedThe FICCOs are task forces coordinated by the Federal Police that gather agencies from different levels of government: civil, military and prison police, municipal guards, the Federal Highway Police (PRF), the national prison policy office (Senappen) and state public security departments. On the same morning, the official Federal Police newsroom listed parallel actions by state FICCO bases: in Sergipe, three searches against a group investigated for illegal lending, extortion and threats; in Tocantins, two warrants over money laundering and transnational drug trafficking, with asset freezes of up to 412.5 million reais; in Rio Grande do Norte, Operation Enclave made arrests in Natal, Caicó and Ceará-Mirim; and in Paraíba, the second phase of Operation Trapiche, run with the state prosecutors' anti-organized crime unit (Gaeco), targeted drug trafficking and money laundering.Everyone covered by the warrants is an investigado, a suspect, and benefits from the presumption of innocence guaranteed by Brazil's Constitution. The reports consulted name no target and record no public statement in their defense.A final tally of arrests actually carried out had not been released. As the next procedural step, those arrested under warrant are to be brought before the courts that issued the orders, and the asset freezes and seizures remain subject to judicial confirmation. The Federal Police announced no date for further phases of the operation.

Justice Luiz Fux of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Tuesday defended the removal of Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues, an order issued by Justice André Mendonça and submitted for review to the court's Second Panel. Fux spoke during a full-court session weighing whether to open an investigation into Justice Alexandre de Moraes over messages extracted from the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master.According to G1, Fux said: "There has to be judicial responsibility. We cannot allow an agency to remain acting against the Supreme Federal Court, defying an STF justice." Agreeing with his colleague, Mendonça, speaking off microphone, said: "Today we have a parallel Federal Police.""The Second Panel found a series of deviations of purpose in the conduct of the director-general of the Federal Police. [...] What cannot happen is the Federal Police working against the Judiciary, instrumentalizing people to sustain positions against the Judiciary," said Fux, who also said he has "the greatest admiration for the Federal Police."Timeline of the crisisThe standoff at the top of the force grew out of the Banco Master investigation, which Mendonça oversees as rapporteur. The justice lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report, produced at his request, containing messages found on Vorcaro's phone. The exchanges directly mentioned the name "Andrei," which the force itself identified as director-general Andrei Rodrigues. According to G1, the material also pointed to 52 messages between Vorcaro and Moraes and a 130 million reais contract between the bank and the law firm of the justice's wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes.Moraes then lifted the secrecy on six "intelligence reports" produced covertly by the Federal Police through August. The documents contained allegations about Mendonça's conduct in the Master and INSS cases and about the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias. On September 8, Mendonça ordered the removal of Andrei and of intelligence director Leandro Almada, arguing the papers revealed irregular action against STF members and other authorities. Justice Flávio Dino reinstated the two officers, but STF President Edson Fachin suspended both decisions and kept Andrei in charge of the force.Competing accounts and next stepsAndrei Rodrigues denies wrongdoing. In a filing sent to Fachin, the director-general said the reports were produced regularly and delivered in compliance with an order from Moraes in the fake news inquiry, InfoMoney reported. The documents themselves stated that they carried no probative value. Mendonça calls the reports apocryphal, unsigned and lacking formal identification, and argues there was a deviation of purpose. Moraes counters that they are not apocryphal because Federal Police delegates wrote them, and calls the inquiry against him "fraudulent." In Tuesday's session he accused his colleague of trying to steer the Federal Police and said he has witnesses; Mendonça replied that the accusation "is a lie."The Second Panel's virtual vote already has a majority to ratify the removal, G1 reported, but its conclusion was interrupted after Justice Gilmar Mendes requested time to review the case. Andrei's definitive status will be decided by Fachin. Moraes' accusations against Mendonça are scheduled for a full-court session on September 23.

Messages pulled from the cellphone of Daniel Vorcaro, the former Banco Master owner jailed by Brazil's Federal Police on suspicion of fraud, mention alleged payments of R$ 500,000 a month to lawyer Kevin Marques, son of Supreme Court Justice Kassio Nunes Marques. The exchanges were with Luiz Rennó, the bank's former legal director, and became public on Tuesday, hours before the Supreme Federal Tribunal opened a session to decide whether to order an investigation of Justice Alexandre de Moraes over his ties to Vorcaro. The reporting is from G1.According to G1, on July 4, 2025, Rennó sent Vorcaro the son's contact and asked, "Esse aqui - 500 mil mês - mantém?" ("This one, 500,000 a month, still stands?"), then added, "Então esse aqui já era né" ("So this one is finished then, right"). On October 1, 2024, Rennó had reported the bank's win in the "Alcídia" case, a dispute over precatórios, the court-ordered government debt payments at issue in the sugar and ethanol sector, and noted that Justices Edson Fachin, Dias Toffoli and Nunes Marques had voted in the bank's favor. He then forwarded the son's contact with the message "Dominado aqui" ("All set here").The consultancy and Kevin Marques' denialThe same material references the consultancy Consult. In August 2025, when Rennó sent a list of consultancies and law firms tied to officials and asked about priorities, Vorcaro replied, "Consult? Guido e Lewandowski". On August 8, Rennó wrote: "Dos pagamentos essenciais está faltando a consult" ("Among the essential payments, the consult is missing"). G1 reports that Consult belongs to a business partner of the justice's son and shares an e-mail address with the IPTF, a tax research institute owned by Kevin Marques.In a statement, Kevin Marques denied receiving money from Vorcaro and said his legal work has no connection to the Supreme Court:"As previously informed, lawyer Kevin Marques received R$ 281,600 from Consult, a company for which he provided specialized legal services in the administrative tax area. Lawyer Kevin Marques' professional work for Consult has no relation whatsoever to the Supreme Federal Tribunal."What Nunes Marques saidAt the start of the session, Nunes Marques defended his impartiality. "My son never provided any service to the bank or was paid by the bank," he said, according to BBC News Brasil. The justice said he had never ruled on a case involving Master, never exchanged messages with Vorcaro, and that his son's bank secrecy has already been lifted: "There is no point in speculating otherwise." He added: "If I felt uncomfortable or co-opted in any way, I would never have voted to confirm the arrest of Daniel Vorcaro, his father and other people involved."He then recused himself from the case. As president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that runs Brazil's elections, he said he was not comfortable ruling in a judgment that could affect the campaign ahead of the October 4 vote, and left the chamber. Justice Dias Toffoli declared himself conflicted, for personal reasons, and will also not vote. The material released on Tuesday is part of the same phone extraction that mentions Justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur of the Master case, and a son of Justice Luiz Fux.How the case got hereFederal police arrested Vorcaro in November 2025 in Operation Compliance Zero. On September 1, Mendonça unsealed a police report on contacts between Vorcaro and Moraes, including messages about a R$ 131 million contract between the bank and the law firm of Moraes' wife. Moraes denies wrongdoing and on September 3 asked the court to investigate Mendonça. On Saturday, court president Edson Fachin took over petition 16,662, in which the justices must decide whether to accept the police report and open an investigation of Moraes. The Prosecutor General's office has asked that the report be voided.The session continues on Tuesday, with the votes still open and no scheduled end time. Before ruling on Moraes, the justices must first decide whether Mendonça acted improperly when he asked the Federal Police for the report without consulting the full court.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, has told the court's president, Edson Fachin, that he did nothing irregular when he ordered the Federal Police report that identified fellow Justice Alexandre de Moraes as an interlocutor of Daniel Vorcaro, former controller of Banco Master. His response came one day before the session in which, for the first time in the court's history, the justices gathered to decide whether one of their own should face an investigation.In a filing to the court, Mendonça said the material was handed to him in person by the Federal Police in August, and that given the mention, in the conversations, of the force's director-general, Andrei Rodrigues, and of the prosecutor general, Paulo Gonet, "it was all the more necessary to take action", according to Folha de S.Paulo. BBC News Brasil reports that the justice argued he had summoned the police delegates directly and in person out of caution, "without imputing any suspicion to anyone whatsoever", and that the inquiry had to respect the separation between intelligence work and judicial police duties, the preservation of secrecy, and the principle of functionality.What Moraes allegesOn the eve of the session, Moraes sent Fachin a 44-page statement divided into 121 points, in which he denies any wrongdoing and accuses his colleague of "revenge" and of using the Banco Master inquiry for "political-electoral" purposes. He argues that he never interfered to help Vorcaro before the former banker's arrest in November 2025."Despite the farce that was mounted and publicized, there is absolutely nothing there, and everyone knows the political-electoral motivation behind these criminal lies. REVENGE. The attempt at revenge by the allies of those who tried to destroy Democracy and the Rule of Law, and were convicted by the Supreme Federal Tribunal, is very clear", the justice wrote.According to BBC News Brasil, the exchanges gathered by the Federal Police show Vorcaro pressing for special attention to payments under a 131 million reais contract between Banco Master and the law firm Barci de Moraes, run by Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife. On February 8, 2024, the bank's treasurer sent Vorcaro proof of a 3.42 million reais transfer to the firm. Moraes denies any favoritism and is not a formal suspect in any inquiry.The prosecutor general has also challenged Mendonça's conduct. In a filing presented on September 1, the day the justice made the messages public, Gonet asked that the decision be declared null. In the view of the PGR, Brazil's federal prosecution service, the inquiry exceeded the limits of a judge's role in the pre-trial phase, and the STF itself should decide on any investigation of one of its members.Timeline of the caseNovember 2025: Vorcaro is arrested; he is under investigation for suspected fraud estimated at 12.2 billion reais at Banco Master.August 2026: the Federal Police hands Mendonça, the rapporteur of the fraud inquiry, a report identifying Moraes as a Vorcaro interlocutor, with 52 exchanged messages.September 1: Mendonça makes the messages public; petition 16,662 opens at the STF and leads to Tuesday's session; the PGR asks for the order to be voided.September 14: Moraes files his statement speaking of a "farce" and "revenge"; Mendonça replies denying any irregularity.At Tuesday's session (15), Fachin, who took over the case as rapporteur and votes first, said that "it is up to the plenary of the Supreme Federal Tribunal to investigate its members" and read from the PGR filing, which holds that the order to investigate Moraes is null for "exceeding the limits of a judge's jurisdiction". Two justices left the panel: Kássio Nunes Marques declared himself barred from voting because he heads the Superior Electoral Court in an election year, and Dias Toffoli declared himself biased as a matter of conscience. Nunes Marques denied ever ruling on Master-related cases and said his son never worked for the bank.According to G1, Fachin has signaled to his colleagues that he intends to conclude the judgment on Tuesday itself. Moraes's allies do not rule out asking for more time to review the case, which would delay the decision. If the opening is authorized, Moraes would become an investigated party in an STF inquiry.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's top court, sent its president, Edson Fachin, an explanation on Monday (Sept. 14) for his Aug. 24 decision to personally summon Federal Police investigators to identify the recipients of messages sent by former banker Daniel Vorcaro. The report produced after the request identified Justice Alexandre de Moraes as one of Vorcaro's contacts. The filing came hours before Tuesday's session (Sept. 15), the first in the court's history in which the justices meet to decide whether to open an investigation into one of their own. The explanation met a deadline Fachin set for Mendonça, Moraes, Attorney General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police chief Andrei Rodrigues to provide information before the judgment.In the filing, Mendonça says he acted "out of caution", seeking "to preserve the integrity of the case records and the efficiency of the investigations", "without imputing any suspicion to anyone". According to him, the conversations mentioned Gonet and Rodrigues, which in his reading demanded even greater care with secrecy. He also argues that he requested the identifications to clarify what he called a "true network of monitoring and influence coordinated by the investigated party, with potential infiltration into the highest levels of several institutions of the Republic". According to Folha de S.Paulo, he told Fachin he broke no rules and said the Federal Police handed him the material in person in August.Gonet had asked on Sept. 1 that Mendonça declare void the decision that led the police to produce the report. In the view of the Attorney General's Office, the inquiry "exceeded the limits of the judge's competence" in the pre-trial phase, and the court's full bench itself should decide on any investigation of one of its members. Moraes answered on Monday with a 44-page brief divided into 121 points. According to BBC News Brasil, he calls the case a "farce" and speaks of "revenge" with political and electoral motives. He also writes that the coup attempt "did not end on January 8, 2023" and that the Supreme Court "will know how to resist"."Despite the staged farce that has been publicized, there is absolutely nothing, and everyone knows the political-electoral motivation behind these criminal lies. REVENGE", wrote Moraes, who denies any wrongdoing and says he never favored Vorcaro.How the case got hereVorcaro, former controller of Banco Master, was arrested in November 2025 in the Compliance Zero operation and is under investigation for suspected financial fraud estimated at 12.2 billion reais. He was released at one point and detained again in March. Mendonça was reporting the bank fraud inquiry at the court when, on Sept. 1, he lifted the secrecy of documents and made public messages linking Moraes to Vorcaro, paving the way for petition 16,662, now before the justices. According to G1, the police report lists 52 messages exchanged between Moraes and the former banker. The exchanges show Vorcaro pressing for special attention to payments under a 131-million-real contract between the bank and the Barci de Moraes law firm, run by Moraes's wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, including a transfer of 3.42 million reais documented in February 2024. No investigation against Moraes has been opened so far, and Tuesday's session decides precisely whether one will be authorized.Tuesday's unprecedented sessionOpening the session, Fachin made an institutional appeal. "This institution does not belong to us. We have the duty to preserve it in the present", he said, before reading the Attorney General's filing and stating that "it is up to the plenary of the Supreme Federal Court to investigate its members". Two justices left the judging panel: Kassio Nunes Marques declared himself barred from voting because he chairs the Superior Electoral Court weeks before the elections, and said he never exchanged messages with Vorcaro and that his son never provided services to the bank; Dias Toffoli declared himself conflicted for reasons of foro íntimo, a personal conviction, and said he will stay in the session and may take the floor. Gilmar Mendes raised a point of order to debate, before the vote, a filing in which Justice Flávio Dino asks Fachin to investigate links between Banco Master and an institute tied to Mendonça.After Fachin reads his report, the justices are expected to vote on whether to authorize an investigation of Moraes. Fachin signaled to colleagues his intent to finish the judgment on Tuesday itself, but Moraes's allies do not rule out requesting vista, a postponement for further review, according to columnist Valdo Cruz at G1. The session comes 19 days before the first round of Brazil's general elections, and the case has entered the presidential campaign: Flávio Bolsonaro, Ronaldo Caiado and Romeu Zema commented on the judgment during the morning, according to G1.

Brazil's Prosecutor General's Office (PGR, the federal prosecution service) has asked the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, to verify whether Justice André Mendonça, the justice handling the Banco Master investigation, ruled on a Federal Police request filed about six months ago. In March 2026, the Federal Police asked Mendonça to authorize the financial intelligence council known as COAF to complete a report on an official who holds "foro", the special standing that lets certain officeholders in Brazil be tried only by higher courts such as the STF. G1 reported the filing on Monday (Sept. 14).The PGR filing does not name the official. Among the records exposed by the unsealing of yet another front of the case, the office cited a "Representation filed by the Federal Police in March of this year to obtain from COAF the complementation of a Financial Intelligence Report, kept under seal by the Intelligence Unit because it concerns an official with the prerogative of special jurisdiction". According to the newspaper O Globo, the report sent by COAF had the official's name covered by redaction bars."Since the released case files contain no record of any subsequent action, and the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office has not ruled on the police representation, we ask that the office of the reporting justice certify whether in fact no decision was issued and, if otherwise, and should the request have been granted, whether the document is available for the justices' consultation as requested," the PGR wrote.A timeline of the caseThe Master case investigates Banco Master and its owner, banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is in custody in Brasília. During the probe, the Federal Police asked COAF for financial intelligence reports on individuals and companies tied to the investigation. The one concerning the official with special jurisdiction stayed sealed. On Sunday (Sept. 13), Justice Alexandre de Moraes asked Fachin to unseal the inquiry before Tuesday's session (Sept. 15). The PGR backed the move, Fachin asked Mendonça to lift the seals, and the STF has since made 53 case files public.A Financial Intelligence Report (RIF in Portuguese) is a technical document flagging unusual or suspect transactions. COAF, the Council for the Control of Financial Activities, builds it from alerts filed by banks, insurers and other institutions required by law to report, and it lists overall amounts, the parties involved and signs of crimes such as money laundering.What comes nextThe PGR request lands on the eve of Tuesday's session (Sept. 15), when the STF justices decide whether to open an investigation into Moraes's relationship with Vorcaro. Separately, Fachin's office must process the certification request. The PGR filing sets no deadline, and the released files contain no record of any decision by Mendonça on the March police request.

Messages taken from the phone of banker Daniel Vorcaro and held by Brazil's Federal Police record a lunch on May 14, 2024, in New York, between lawyer Rodrigo Fux, son of Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux, and the then owner of Banco Master. The finding was reported on Monday by the Painel column of Folha de S.Paulo, one of Brazil's leading newspapers. According to the paper, the meeting took place during Brazil Week, a business event held in the city.Folha reports that the records show neither the subject of the conversation nor the restaurant. On the same date, Rodrigo Fux attended a whisky tasting sponsored by Vorcaro with about 40 guests. His name had already appeared on the guest list of the banker's box at Rio de Janeiro's Sambadrome during the 2025 Carnival. Reports in June by the newspaper O Globo and the news site Metrópoles placed the tasting at the Carnegie Club, near Central Park, put its cost at about US$ 1 million based on Federal Police data, and listed politicians such as Cláudio Castro, Hugo Motta and Ciro Nogueira among the guests.Rodrigo Fux's office told Folha that the lawyer did not have lunch alone with Vorcaro and did not sit at the banker's table. It said his presence at the tasting was brief and that he had no contact with the former owner of Master. Justice Luiz Fux did not comment. No criminal charge arises from the lunch, and the records on their own point to no wrongdoing.Timeline of the Master caseThe Master case began as a Federal Police investigation into Banco Master and became an institutional crisis at the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's top court, this year, after messages from Vorcaro's seized phone were linked to Justice Alexandre de Moraes. In recent days, the Federal Police delivered copies of the phone data to Justices Moraes, Zanin and Gilmar Mendes, and Justice André Mendonça lifted the secrecy over the bank's payment network. Vorcaro is a target of the inquiries; he says he cannot recall the recipient of a message the Federal Police attributes to Moraes.Allies of Moraes have begun citing Rodrigo Fux's meetings to question Luiz Fux's role in Tuesday's session. According to the political news site Poder360, the sons of Fux and of Justice Nunes Marques had already been named in reports around Banco Master, with no evidence that family ties influenced votes at the court.What comes nextThe full bench meets on Tuesday to decide whether to open an investigation into Moraes over the Vorcaro case. Poder360 reports that the judgment will begin with an analysis of bias challenges. Vorcaro had been scheduled to testify to the Federal Police on Monday in the Master-BRB inquiry, but the hearing was moved to September 24 at the request of his defense, according to Brasil 247.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Monday (14) lifted the secrecy on a case file detailing the payment network tied to former Banco Master owner Daniel Vorcaro, who is under Federal Police investigation. The decision granted a request by Chief Justice Edson Fachin, filed hours earlier after an application from Justice Alexandre de Moraes and the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR), on the eve of a session in which the full bench will consider opening an investigation into Moraes.The file exposed a standoff that has run through the inquiry since March. According to CNN Brasil, which reviewed the records, the Federal Police asked Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence council, for the financial intelligence reports on the investigated parties to track possible illicit money flows by Vorcaro. Coaf released only part of the material: having identified payments to people who would hold privileged jurisdiction, a standing that sends their cases to higher courts, it said those entries could be shared only with express authorization from the Supreme Court. The police then asked Mendonça for that authorization. According to O Globo, the request has waited six months, and the file carries no ruling by the justice. The name of the official who received money therefore remains sealed.CartaCapital reports that the intelligence report mentions at least 303 individuals and 520 companies, and points to possible recipients with privileged standing before the Superior Court of Justice and the STF itself. The police argued to Mendonça's office that full release is indispensable to avoid gaps in the financial tracing and to prevent any risk of procedural nullity.What the documents showAmong the highlights of the Coaf report delivered to the police is the movement of more than R$ 57 million by the Lagoinha Baptist Church between December 2024 and December 2025. The church, according to CNN Brasil, faced scrutiny in the congressional inquiry into the INSS pension agency and suspicion of diverted congressional earmarks. Vorcaro's brother-in-law, Fabiano Zettel, worked as a pastor at the church and transferred R$ 19.2 million to the institution in the period analyzed. CartaCapital adds that other suspect transfers totaled R$ 28 million sent straight to the church's account, whose presumed annual revenue was R$ 950,000. The outlet said it sought comment from the church and received no reply by publication time.How the case got hereThe Master investigation led the Federal Police to seize Vorcaro's phone, an iPhone 17 Pro, and a police report pointed to messages exchanged between the former banker and Justice Moraes, setting off a dispute inside the court over full access to the data. Key steps:March 2026: the Federal Police asks Mendonça to authorize Coaf to share payments made to an official with privileged jurisdiction, according to O Globo and the site Cláudio Dantas; the request still has no ruling.Sunday (13): Moraes asks that the secrecy on all Master case filings be lifted and that the records be released to every justice before Tuesday's session.Monday (14): Fachin grants Moraes and the PGR and asks Mendonça to lift the secrecy; the Federal Police delivers copies of Vorcaro's phone data to the offices of Moraes, Cristiano Zanin and Gilmar Mendes; Mendonça unseals the payments file.Tuesday (15): the STF full bench reviews the police report on the messages between Vorcaro and Moraes and decides whether to open an investigation into the justice.In the dispute over access, Moraes said the file contains "essential elements" for the session and stated that "it is not for the rapporteur justice to choose which documents the full bench may access to reach its ruling". Gilmar Mendes argued that holding the data in one chamber hurts the court's internal balance and parity. Mendonça has said he had already lifted the secrecy on all the information, and explained that he keeps an encrypted, sealed backup copy, as a safeguard, which he has never handled.The PGR, which backed disclosure, said it did not even know these files existed in the court's system, according to CartaCapital. Vorcaro remains an investigated party in the Master case.The next step is the full bench session on Tuesday (15). The March request for the full handover of Coaf data has no date for a decision.

Brazil's Federal Police said on Monday (Sept 14) that it had delivered copies of the data extracted from the seized cellphone of former banker Daniel Vorcaro to the chambers of three justices of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court: Alexandre de Moraes, Cristiano Zanin and Gilmar Mendes. In a statement, the force said the copies "are identical to the extraction performed on the device", an iPhone 17 Pro collected during operations of the Master Bank case, and that the original material remains entirely in its facilities, inside a "formally documented chain of custody", with intact seals and digital integrity verification mechanisms.The handover answers formal requests filed in recent days by the three justices with the court's president, Edson Fachin, and comes on the eve of a plenary session scheduled for Tuesday (Sept 15) to address the crisis among the justices' chambers. The full bench is set to review a Federal Police report that pointed to messages exchanged between Vorcaro and Moraes, and to decide whether to open an investigation into the justice's conduct. Moraes is currently neither a defendant nor a formal suspect.The standoff between the chambersZanin argued that the bench needs the full context of the data to deliberate, noting that Vorcaro's own defense team had already been given access to the complete content. Moraes backed the request, writing to Fachin that "it is not up to the rapporteur justice to choose which documents are accessible to the Collegiate to carry out its judgment". Gilmar Mendes, the court's most senior member, said keeping the archive only in the office of the rapporteur, André Mendonça, undermines the court's internal balance and parity, and pledged that the material will stay under a "strict restriction regime", with access limited to his own chamber.Mendonça, the rapporteur of the Master case, said in a Sunday ruling that all the material needed for the judgment is already fully available to the justices, and that releasing the remainder "would only contribute to disrupting the judgment" while putting at risk "the entire continuation and success of the investigations". He said that in March he received only a backup copy on an encrypted hard drive, kept sealed as a counter-proof and never handled. The Federal Police told Fachin, however, that this copy does not match the original material, which "never left the institution's custody".From Vorcaro's arrest to Tuesday's sessionVorcaro, former controller of Banco Master, was arrested in November 2025 and is under investigation for suspected financial fraud estimated at 12.2 billion reais. The STF crisis surfaced on September 1, when Mendonça lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report suggesting Vorcaro had sought advice and exchanged information with Moraes. Two days later, Moraes removed the secrecy from police intelligence reports on alleged irregular conduct by Mendonça. On September 9, Fachin took the Fake News inquiry away from Moraes and scheduled Tuesday's session; on Thursday (Sept 10) he ordered the end of secrecy over records tied to the bank. Mendonça then released part of the documents, prompting Moraes to accuse him, in an official letter, of a "selective choice".The next step is the extraordinary plenary session on Tuesday (Sept 15), starting at 10 a.m. Brasília time, according to news outlet G1. Beyond the review of the report, Emílio Peluso, a constitutional law professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais quoted by BBC News Brasil, expects the session may be broadened to other episodes in the justices' dispute. Vorcaro remains an investigation target, with no conviction, and none of the claims involving the justices has so far led to formal charges.

The director-general of Brazil's Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, told the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, that a police report used to support a request to investigate Justice André Mendonça was sent to the court on orders from Justice Alexandre de Moraes. In a filing delivered on Friday (11), Rodrigues denied that the force had monitored or investigated his fellow justice.According to the document, accessed by Folha de S.Paulo and CNN Brasil, the material was handed over to comply with a judicial order issued in the so-called fake news inquiry, which Moraes oversaw at the time. Rodrigues defended the "absolute lawfulness" of the reports and denied they involved "surveillance actions, clandestine data collection or any invasive measure". His lawyers described them as scenario analyses built from information officers already knew in the line of duty, not the "directed and continuous" tracking of any individual. The filing states that "there was absolutely no unlawful monitoring of a Minister of this STF or of the Attorney General of the Union"."The police agency did not cause any disclosure of the classified material, nor did it send it outside the corporation on its own initiative, except, as stated, to comply with a judicial order issued by the STF," Rodrigues wrote.TimelineThe standoff between the court and the police began on Tuesday (8), when Mendonça suspended Rodrigues and the police intelligence director, Leandro Almada, preventively and ordered the force's internal affairs office to examine how the reports were produced. The move responded to Moraes's use of the internal document to ask the court to investigate Mendonça for abuse of authority, administrative improbity and crimes of responsibility in his handling of the Banco Master and INSS cases, the latter a federal social security agency. Moraes alleges that Mendonça steered those investigations with "a breach of judicial impartiality and favoritism toward certain political groups". Mendonça, for his part, says the police produced reports on officials who can only be tried by the top court. Hours after the suspension, Justice Flávio Dino, in a separate case, ordered the two directors back to their posts. On Wednesday (9), Fachin suspended both rulings, spoke of an "irreconcilable conflict of judicial positions", gave Rodrigues 48 hours to provide information and Mendonça 72 hours to explain the removals.In the filing, Rodrigues also challenged the basis of his own suspension. The measure had been requested by the party Novo, and his defense argues that a political party lacks standing to seek precautionary measures against an official, since such requests must come from prosecutors. Folha reports that police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, had already said the report was produced for internal use and sent to Moraes's office at his request. The fake news inquiry was later removed from Moraes's docket by Fachin.The next step sits with the full court. Fachin has called an extraordinary session for Tuesday (15), when the justices are set to weigh the crisis between Moraes and Mendonça. On Friday the court president also ordered Mendonça to lift, within 24 hours, the secrecy over the investigations tied to Banco Master, except for material linked to ongoing operations. Fachin has yet to decide whether Rodrigues stays in charge of the Federal Police.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been complaining privately to allies about what he sees as the inertia of his justice minister, Wellington Lima e Silva, but a change at the top of the ministry is ruled out for now. The report came from the Painel column of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, published on Saturday (12).According to Folha, the complaints come amid a crisis of unprecedented proportions involving Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) and the Federal Police. The Justice Ministry, the portfolio held by Wellington, commands the Federal Police, the institution at the center of the dispute between the court's justices.How the crisis beganThe standoff at the court grew out of Federal Police investigations into fraud at Banco Master, owned by former banker Daniel Vorcaro, and into the financing of "Dark Horse", a biographical film about former president Jair Bolsonaro. One police report pointed to more than 50 messages from Vorcaro to Justice Alexandre de Moraes. A separate police intelligence document, sent to the court at Moraes' request in the fake news inquiry and described by news site G1 as carrying no probative value, questions the conduct of rapporteur André Mendonça in the Master and INSS cases, the INSS being Brazil's federal social security institute, citing alleged lack of impartiality.On Saturday, court president Edson Fachin rejected Moraes' request to take both matters up together. Moraes accuses Mendonça of a "selective choice" in unsealing only part of the case files, with about 180 pieces left out. Mendonça denies it and said keeping parts of the files sealed was a "prudent and responsible" step. Neither justice is a defendant: the court's sessions will decide whether investigations against them are opened at all.What comes nextThe Supreme Court meets on Tuesday (15), in a special session, to weigh the police report on the messages between Vorcaro and Moraes. On September 23, the full court examines the challenges to Mendonça's handling of the Master and INSS cases.A change at the Justice Ministry is the president's call alone. As of Saturday, according to Folha, no replacement for Wellington Lima e Silva is planned.

The budget spreadsheet for the film Dark Horse, presented by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of Rio de Janeiro, the PL presidential candidate, to banker Daniel Vorcaro, allotted US$ 4 million (about 20.5 million reais at current rates) to its lead actor, the American Jim Caviezel, who plays former president Jair Bolsonaro. The figures appear in a Federal Police inquiry into suspected irregularities in the film's financing, made public late on Friday (September 11) by a decision of Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça. Documents from Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence council, cited in the report indicate that at least US$ 12.3 million (63 million reais) of the US$ 24 million (123 million reais) the senator requested from Vorcaro were actually paid.Caviezel is not named explicitly in the document. The first two installments the banker was to pay, US$ 2 million each, are listed as "main talent part 1" and "main talent part 2", the term the movie industry uses for performers. Because the spreadsheet records only the planned budget, there is no way to know whether the payments were made or what the final cost of the production was, reports BBC News Brasil, which had access to the inquiry.In its report, the Federal Police points to a mismatch between the values of Dark Horse and those seen in the Brazilian audiovisual market, while cautioning that the gap by itself does not amount to a crime."Although it does not in itself constitute any criminal offense, it reinforces the need to deepen the investigation into the actual destination of the funds and the economic compatibility of the financial operation identified," the document says.Hollywood comparisonsIndustry professionals interviewed by the BBC on condition of anonymity called the US$ 4 million figure inflated. For context from the American market itself, Robert Downey Jr. earned the same amount for Oppenheimer, even though in a major supporting role, while the film's star, Cillian Murphy, reportedly received US$ 10 million. Joaquin Phoenix was paid US$ 4.5 million to play the Joker in the first film of that franchise and only reached about US$ 20 million for the sequel after the original passed US$ 1 billion at the box office. The producers of Dark Horse project a best-case gross of US$ 100 million, the same total earned by Challengers (released in Brazil as Rivais), a recent film starring Zendaya.Timeline of the caseThe inquiry is part of the investigations surrounding Banco Master, the institution Vorcaro controlled before the scandal broke. The Federal Police lists a series of meetings, calls and messages between Flávio and Vorcaro beginning on August 20, 2025. On September 8 of that year, the senator sent an audio message demanding overdue payments and voiced fear of defaulting on prominent figures in American cinema, naming Caviezel and director Cyrus Nowrasteh. A call logged on September 16 coincides with the last transfer of US$ 1.66 million sent by Entre Investimentos to the Havengate Development Fund in the United States, according to Coaf. Vorcaro was arrested on November 17, 2025, as he tried to board a private jet bound abroad, on the eve of the first phase of Operation Compliance Zero.Flávio Bolsonaro first denied having asked Vorcaro for money and later confirmed the request. He says the contacts were part of a private sponsorship arrangement and denies having received any funds directly or committing any irregularity. His press office referred questions about Dark Horse to the producer, Go Up Entertainment, which did not reply to the BBC before publication. Nowrasteh defended the film's costs on X: "The cost comparison that the Brazilian press is making is flawed," he wrote, arguing that budgets in the United States are disclosed without marketing costs. The BBC notes that the spreadsheet given to Vorcaro contains no distribution expenses, the category that includes marketing, and that this stage typically accounts for at least 30% of a film's remaining costs.The Federal Police states that Flávio acted as Vorcaro's direct interlocutor in securing the funding and recommends probing the origin of the money, the role of intermediary companies, the function of the Havengate fund registered in Texas and the final beneficiaries of the payments. The documents were released after Supreme Court President Edson Fachin granted a request by the Prosecutor General's office (PGR). No date has been set for the next decisive step in the inquiry, which remains under investigation.

Senator Jaques Wagner of the Workers' Party (PT-BA), a former floor leader for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government in the Senate, refused to give the Federal Police the passwords of two cell phones seized during a search of his home in Salvador on June 18. The detail is in a police report made public on Friday (11), after Justice André Mendonça of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court, widened the release of sealed records from the Banco Master case at the request of the Attorney General's Office (PGR). Wagner is under investigation, has not been charged, and under the Constitution is presumed innocent until a final conviction.According to the report of the search, which CNN Brasil gained access to, officers collected a black Samsung phone and a white device at the start of the search. "The person under investigation refused to provide the passwords of the devices," the police wrote. During the same operation, officers seized R$ 16,500 in cash, plus US$ 16,795 and € 39,675, along with luxury watches. Part of the money was found in a suitcase attributed to the senator and part in a safe in his wife's closet. The report says Wagner told officers the cash was used for travel and the watches had been bought over the years, but he produced no receipts. The value of the watches "can only be precisely determined after the appropriate expert examinations," the police wrote.What Operation Compliance Zero investigatesThe search was part of the ninth phase of Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates suspected corruption, money laundering and financial crimes involving Banco Master and its former controlling shareholder Daniel Vorcaro, who is jailed. In Wagner's case, the Federal Police is examining his relationship with banker Augusto Ferreira Lima, Vorcaro's former partner, and whether the senator received improper benefits from businessmen and structures tied to the bank. The episodes under investigation include trips on private jets, concert tickets and the negotiation of an apartment worth R$ 2.45 million in Salvador. BBC News Brasil notes it is unclear whether the property was actually purchased, or by whom.The report cites "robust indications" of active and passive bribery and money laundering in the senator's exchanges, according to the BBC. Between November 17, 2023 and May 25, 2025, investigators counted 74 phone calls between Wagner and Lima, totaling 5 hours and 30 minutes. On the relationship between the two, the police wrote:"Beyond a possible friendship, the relationship between the two, as can be inferred from the exchanges, appears to be one-way: as a rule, the Senator receives or requests advantages or favors, and the businessman grants them."The report also says Wagner worked in the Senate for amendment 11 to PEC 65/2023, the so-called "Master Amendment," which would have raised the cap on deposits protected by the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC). In August 2024, the senator allegedly wrote to Lima: "Let's meet, I needed to talk to you to know how things are at the bank." The document records no direct contact between the senator and Vorcaro, but states there was "at least some degree of dialogue."Positions and next stepsCNN Brasil said it sought comment from Wagner's lawyers and received no reply by publication time; BBC News Brasil said it was still seeking a statement from his office. A longtime ally of Lula, Wagner stepped down as the government's Senate leader after becoming a target of the investigation and is running for reelection in October with the president's backing. In a TV Globo interview in late August, Lula defended him: "I am certain that Wagner is honest... until proven otherwise, everyone is innocent."Procedurally, expert examinations must still establish the value of the seized watches. The inquiry is at the STF, where court president Edson Fachin on Saturday (12) ordered the Master and INSS investigations transferred to the court's presidency. According to G1, the cases remain on hold until Fachin decides whether to take over their handling himself or refer the question to the full court.

A Federal Police forensic audit has concluded that former directors of Banco de Brasília (BRB) engaged in what Brazilian law calls gestão fraudulenta, or fraudulent management, in the purchase of portfolios from Banco Master, in acquisitions totaling R$ 17.5 billion between 2024 and 2025. The report, prepared in August, was unsealed on the night of September 10 by Justice André Mendonça of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), who oversees the main investigations into the Master case. According to Estadão, Terra and G1, the audit concluded that frauds between the two banks added up to roughly R$ 17 billion and were built on the mass production of false documents and the use of a shell company.The experts examined operations worth R$ 47.8 billion and centered their finding on 25 portfolio purchases approved by BRB's executive board, worth R$ 17.5 billion. Master, the bank owned by businessman Daniel Vorcaro, was later put into liquidation by Brazil's central bank. The experts ruled out explanations such as business failure, high risk-taking or isolated procedural lapses."The evidence therefore allows us to characterize, from a forensic-technical perspective, the practice of fraudulent management in the acquisition of Banco Master portfolios, materialized through the manipulation of governance sequences, the retrospective formalization of controls, the material circumvention of the approval-threshold regime, and the objective continuation of operations despite prudential alerts and concretely identified weaknesses," the report states.What the audit foundAccording to the report, BRB had "relevant prudential, financial and reputational signals about Banco Master, formally incorporated into its informational environment, but did not demonstrate their consideration in the decision-making process." The experts identified 22 operations, worth R$ 7.63 billion, in which technical opinions were issued only after payments had been made. Of the 25 purchases, 21 came in exactly at the board's R$ 750 million ceiling, the amount that did not require approval by the board of directors, a practice the audit describes as splitting deals to avoid aggregate review. The bank also failed to show it had conducted structured due diligence on Master despite internal and external warnings about liquidity, capital and business-model risks. A working group created by BRB itself had already flagged weaknesses in collateral, documentation, lien registrations, financial transfers and the origination chain of the credits bought. By June 2025, Master accounted for 90.31% of BRB's exposure, which stood at R$ 19.78 billion that month.The directors namedThe audit documentarily linked six former members of BRB's executive board to the approvals. According to the report, they took part in decisions on continuing the operations, new acquisitions, the easing of risk alerts and the later completion of documents, and the decisions were approved unanimously. The finding is technical evidence within an ongoing investigation; those named retain the presumption of innocence. They are, with the positions they held:Paulo Henrique Bezerra Rodrigues Costa, presidentCristiane Maria Lima Bukowitz, executive director of People ManagementDario Oswaldo Garcia Junior, executive director of Finance and ControllershipLuana de Andrade Ribeiro, executive director of Control and RisksDiogo Ilário de Araújo Oliveira, executive director of Wholesale and GovernmentJosé Maria Correa Dias Junior, executive director of TechnologyThe bank's legal director at the time, Jacques Mauricio Ferreira Veloso de Melo, was not linked to the approvals because, according to the minutes examined, he had no voting rights or was absent from the deliberations.In short, the case unfolded as follows: the purchases ran from 2024 to 2025, with concentration peaking in June 2025; Master was later put into liquidation by the central bank; the investigations moved to the STF under Mendonça; the audit was carried out in August to check information already gathered by the Federal Police and to review documents sent by BRB; and the report was unsealed on September 10.In a statement, BRB said it was a victim of the crimes and that former directors should not be confused with the institution, without commenting on each of them. The defense of Vorcaro, who is jailed, did not comment on the report.On Friday (September 12), STF President Edson Fachin took over the review of the alleged relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Vorcaro and ordered the Master and INSS investigation files sent to the court's presidency. The INSS is Brazil's social security institute, hit by a separate fraud inquiry. Both cases are now on hold until Fachin rules: he may take over the investigations himself or refer the question to the full court. No date is set. On Tuesday (September 15), the STF meets to discuss the validity of the Federal Police report on messages between Moraes and Vorcaro.

Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino on Sunday (Sept. 13) lifted the secrecy on material gathered by the São Paulo Civil Police about the suspected use of public money to finance Dark Horse, a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro. In the same ruling, issued under Petition 16,669/DF, Dino ordered that the state-level inquiry now run publicly at the Supreme Court and told the São Paulo public security department to hand over to the Federal Police the phones, computers, documents and raw data extracted from devices seized last Thursday (Sept. 10). According to BBC News Brasil, Dino justified ending the secrecy as a matter of transparency and as a way to prevent selective leaks.Among the newly public files is the report of the state investigation, code-named Operation Wi-Fi. According to the news site G1, the inquiry covers federal money from congressional earmarks known as emendas parlamentares and municipal funds from agreements with the São Paulo city government, and the report says there are "consistent suspicions" that money from WiFi Livre SP, the city's free internet program, paid for work on the film, which was shot in English with a Hollywood cast and director:"There are consistent suspicions of commingling of assets and that public resources from the 'WiFi Livre SP' program were diverted to cover the production activities of this film, using accounts of subcontracted companies and of other social organizations run by the person under investigation to launder values taken from São Paulo's public coffers."The "person under investigation" named in the report is Karina Ferreira da Gama, owner of the production company Go Up Entertainment and president of the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB). Reviewing the material, Dino wrote that the evidence points to a possible "sophisticated scheme of allocation and diversion of public funds", centered on federal earmarks. He also cited, without detailing the faction's alleged role or naming members, an investigative line pointing to "ties with the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital)", one of Brazil's largest criminal organizations. On Congressman Mario Frias (PL-SP), the film's screenwriter and executive producer, Dino wrote: "There is repeated reference, in the criminal itinerary, to a federal deputy, Mr. Mario Frias, who in the hypothetical terrain of the investigation would occupy a leadership role in the supposed criminal architecture." Frias and Gama are under investigation and deny any wrongdoing.A closed financial circuitThe ruling transcribes Federal Police findings that Complexsys Soluções Integradas, a company hired by the ICB to carry out publicly funded projects, received direct transfers from Frias himself and sent money back to the institute and to the Academia Nacional de Cultura (ANC), an organization run by the same administrator as the ICB. To investigators, the flow of funds among the lawmaker, the grant recipient, the contractor and another beneficiary shows "a closed financial circuit". The inquiry also points to commingled assets: the ICB, Go Up and a consultancy called G07 shared the same address on Avenida Paulista, and experts found invoices issued in numerical sequence on the same date and tax receipts worth 2 million reais canceled right after issuance. BBC News Brasil reports that investigators also point to a 2 million real transfer from Frias to Gama. The police estimate the film cost between 8 million and 20 million reais.TimelineThe Civil Police has sought, since May, access to financial intelligence reports from Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence unit, on Gama and the ICB, filing at least four requests. On Aug. 28, state judge Nelson Augusto Bernardes denied the request; on Sept. 3 the police sent additional information. On Thursday (Sept. 10), search warrants were served on Frias and Gama, with no arrests. On Sunday, as he lifted the secrecy, Dino also authorized access to the Coaf data, G1 reported. Separately, the Supreme Court is investigating the origin of money sent by former banker Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, to finance the film after requests by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), according to BBC News Brasil.Gama's defense said it received the ruling "with absolute respect" and viewed it as "positive". "Whoever has already voluntarily presented more than 20,000 pages of documents does not fear transparency," lawyer Ricardo Sayeg said in a statement, adding that "an investigation is not an accusation, much less a conviction". Frias, in a video posted on Thursday, called the police operation a "smoke screen" during an election season and said the earmark under investigation funded a sports and digital literacy project for children, backed by documents and receipts that prove it was lawful. In May, he had called the claim that he steered earmarks to the film "absolutely false, devoid of any evidentiary basis and defamatory".The next step is the transfer of the seized raw material to the Federal Police and the start of public proceedings of the unified inquiry at the Supreme Court under Dino. The outlets consulted did not report a deadline for the handover.

Sao Paulo's Institute of Criminalistics rejected 27 electronic devices seized by the state Civil Police in the investigation into the financing of the film "Dark Horse", a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro. According to Folha de S.Paulo, which reviewed the rejection records, gaps in the packaging seals made it possible to remove the items or access the devices' data without breaking the security seals. The documents list 13 USB drives, nine laptops and five cell phones.The refusals came in two rounds. On June 2, the day after the searches, the institute sent back four guias de remessa, the chain-of-custody forms that track seized evidence, because the packages had openings large enough to remove the contents. "The forms 278035, 277890, 278028 and 277899 show a gap large enough to remove the item to be examined," the first rejection record states. The rejected equipment included USB drives seized at addresses of Make One and Complexys/Fast Future, companies subcontracted by the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB) to carry out the internet program.On June 3, forensic examiner Vivian Menezes rejected 13 more lots, whose openings allowed cables to be connected to cell phones and laptops."The forms show a gap large enough for a power or data transfer cable to be inserted, which makes it possible to manipulate data inside the device."The examiners attached photographs of what they called a "formal defect in the plastic wrapping" and returned the devices to the police station so the seals could be redone, InfoMoney reports. After the re-packing, the case file went from 17 to 18 evidence forms, a sign that at least one package was split during the process. A single form grouped ten USB drives.The caseThe devices were collected in searches carried out on June 1 at homes and companies tied to ICB, an organization chaired by Karina Ferreira da Gama. She also runs Go Up Entertainment, the producer of "Dark Horse". The Sao Paulo Civil Police inquiry, code-named Operação Wi-Fi, investigates suspected fraud and embezzlement in a 108 million reais contract between ICB and the Sao Paulo city government to install and maintain 5,000 free internet access points in low-income communities. One hypothesis under investigation is that part of the public money was steered to private ventures linked to Karina, including the film.The records became public on Sunday, September 13, when Flávio Dino, a justice of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's highest court, lifted the secrecy of the investigation and consolidated state and federal inquiries under his docket. In his decision, according to InfoMoney, Dino wrote that the hypothesis of a "sophisticated scheme" to divert public funds had grown stronger, and that federal deputy Mário Frias (PL-SP) would occupy, "in the hypothetical terrain of the investigation", a leadership role in the alleged "criminal architecture". The Federal Police says the flow of money between the lawmaker, ICB and a company called Complexsys formed a "closed financial circuit".Frias denies any wrongdoing. On Thursday, September 10, he called the police operation a "smoke screen", said he was ready to cooperate and hand over documents, and said he expects the case to be closed. No one named in the inquiry has been charged so far. The consolidated investigations continue at the STF, and the material gathered by the Sao Paulo Civil Police has been shared with the Federal Police under Dino's order.

An operation led by the São Paulo state prosecutors' office (MPSP) with the civil and military police arrested 15 people identified by investigators as members of the "phone theft mafia", a network suspected of stealing, fencing and reselling mobile phones in the state. According to the investigation, the group moved about R$ 460 million over five years. The raid, called Operation Frankmobile, ran on September 10 across São Paulo state and Goiás, and its findings were detailed on Sunday (13) by Fantástico, the weekly news program of TV Globo.The scale of the illegal market is large. Prosecutors estimate that more than 830,000 phones were robbed or stolen in Brazil in a single year, one device every 38 seconds, and that in São Paulo, the country's largest city, only 6% of devices are ever recovered. The investigation took about two years and mapped a chain split into at least four units: robbery and theft (including smashed car windows in traffic jams, killings during robberies, and thefts at large events), unlocking and access to victims' data, resale, and dismantling for parts.From Guaianases street to fake IMEIsInvestigators say a phone taken from a victim went quickly to fencing points, where attempts began to reach bank accounts and apps. A protected witness who took part in the crimes and cooperated told prosecutors the devices already had a set destination right after the theft: Guaianases street, in downtown São Paulo."We proved that Guaianases street was in fact this essential entrepot for the first fencing of these phones. It is where they begin attempts at bank transfers, and other access to apps and content the victim has on the phone," said prosecutor Luiz Fernando Bugiga.After fencing, the phones went to units specialized in altering the IMEI, the unique identification number of each handset. Prosecutors say the scheme swapped the IMEI of stolen phones for numbers of inactive devices and exploited weak integration of records among manufacturers, carriers, stores and government agencies. Websites hosted abroad supported the work, fraudulent invoices gave the resale a legal appearance, and a fourth unit dismantled phones to sell the parts separately.Arrests, sniffer dogs and 60 tons of materialThe mega-operation deployed 1,700 officers and served 84 search warrants and seven temporary arrest warrants, all fulfilled according to the civil police. Arrests in the act and of wanted suspects raised the total to 15 people in custody. A court authorized the seizure and freezing of assets and funds above R$ 5 million, and the state treasury suspended the tax registrations of the 18 companies targeted. Prison police sniffer dogs trained to detect chemical components present in the devices were used to find hidden phones. About 10,000 items, including handsets, parts and accessories, were seized; with far too many to count one by one, experts estimated their weight at about 60 tons.All of those arrested are suspects under investigation, and none has been convicted. The reports by Fantástico and O Globo record no statements from the defense. Authorities say the next steps are the analysis of the seized material, to identify victims and assign responsibility, and the start of proceedings to revoke the registrations of the 18 companies; no dates were announced. To hinder new frauds, the São Paulo state government now requires the IMEI on electronic invoices issued for phone sales.

An investigation by the Civil Police and the state prosecutors' office of Bahia has identified an Army corporal as a supplier of weapons and restricted-use ammunition to criminal organizations in Salvador, the state capital. According to a report aired on Sunday (13) by Fantástico, TV Globo's weekly newsmagazine, Corporal Deivison dos Santos Ferreira, assigned to the 6th Army Police Battalion in Salvador, negotiated rifle ammunition, grenades and firearms with members of a group that resold drugs and weapons to gangs. The soldier is an investigated party and, according to his lawyers, denies all accusations.The evidence came from mobile phones seized in April at a house in Itapuã, a Salvador neighborhood used to store and prepare drugs. One phone belonged to Gabriel Reis Oliveira, whom police describe as responsible for buying and reselling weapons and drugs to different gangs, and on it investigators found conversations attributed to the corporal. Although he identified himself in the chats with a single emoji, he allegedly handed over his CPF, Brazil's taxpayer ID, and a Pix key, used in the country's instant-payment system, to receive payments. That data allowed police to confirm his identity.Timeline of the caseThe inquiry began in March, according to G1 Bahia, and led to an operation this week with about 250 officers. Fantástico reported that the operation arrested 33 suspects: 27 in Salvador and its metropolitan region, two in the interior of Bahia, three in Sergipe and one in São Paulo. The phase carried out on Thursday (10), reported by G1 Bahia, detained 23 people in cities including Salvador, Camaçari, Lauro de Freitas, Simões Filho, Juazeiro and Senhor do Bonfim, as well as in municipalities of São Paulo, Sergipe and Espírito Santo. Police say the group moved more than 4 million reais and split its tasks into command, finance, storage, logistics and drug-sales cells, shipping 5.56-caliber ammunition through a front company.According to investigators, the corporal sold about 1,000 rifle rounds in calibers 5.56 and 7.62 to that group alone. Negotiations also involved grenades, though the exact quantity diverted has not been established. The main investigative theory is that ammunition and grenades were taken during military exercises: leftover material from training drills, including sessions in Paulo Afonso, in the interior of Bahia, was supposed to return to the unit's armory, and investigators suspect stock records were altered to hide the difference. The corporal also offered pistols and rifles in the chats, but there is no confirmation yet that those weapons came from Army stocks.The Army and the defenseIn a statement to Fantástico, the command of the 6th Military Region said the corporal has been held in preventive custody since August under an order from Brazil's military courts, in a separate investigation into the disappearance of ballistic vests, and that he will remain in military custody at the disposal of the justice system. One of this week's arrest warrants targeted the soldier, but he was already in detention.The corporal's lawyers said in a statement that he denies all accusations and that "at the appropriate time, all the facts will be clarified." They added that they are working to have the pretrial detentions revoked.The next steps lie with the Civil Police and the prosecutors. Investigators are trying to trace the origin of the weapons and ammunition and to identify other participants in the scheme, since in several chats the corporal refers to other people involved in supplying grenades and ammunition. For the Civil Police, it is still too early to say whether other soldiers took part in the organization, but that possibility has not been ruled out. No dates for further steps in the investigation have been announced.

Messages intercepted by Brazil's Federal Police show that members of "A Turma" ("The Gang"), a group investigators say was paid by former banker Daniel Vorcaro to intimidate people and obtain confidential information, treated Justice Dias Toffoli's departure as rapporteur of the Banco Master case at the Supreme Federal Court, or STF, as a setback and lamented it. The rapporteur is the justice assigned to review a case and write the first opinion on it. The finding was reported on Sunday (13) by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, based on material from the police investigation.In a WhatsApp conversation intercepted on February 27, Bruno Correa Lopes, whom the police identify as the man who bought property and brokered deals for the Vorcaro family, spoke with Manoel Mendes Rodrigues, known as Manolo, who is also under investigation in the Compliance Zero operation. Manolo sent a link to a news story about alleged diversions of funds by Daniel and Henrique Vorcaro, and the two discussed how the family's businesses were deteriorating as the investigations advanced. The exchange came two weeks after Toffoli asked to leave the case."Collect from him, please, because what happens... otherwise it weakens, and I can't collect from him, right? Once they take everything, we can't keep collecting. I want to settle this today," Bruno said, according to Folha.Timeline of the caseFebruary 12: Toffoli acknowledges holding a stake in Marindt, a company run by relatives, and asks to leave the rapporteurship; all ten justices sign a joint note ruling out bias.February 27: the police intercept the conversation in which "A Turma" members describe Toffoli's exit as a setback.August 28: Vorcaro testifies to the Federal Police and says he cannot remember the recipient of messages attributed to Justice Alexandre de Moraes.Early September: Justice André Mendonça lifts the secrecy on a police report listing 52 messages between Vorcaro and Moraes, and the crisis takes hold of the court.Why Toffoli left the caseToffoli left on February 12, the same day he acknowledged holding a stake in Marindt, a company run by relatives that belonged to the Tayayá resort group in the state of Paraná, which is under investigation over suspected irregularities. According to A Tarde and UOL, the request came after a meeting of the ten justices, who signed a joint note declaring "the absence of bias or impediment" and upholding the validity of all acts Toffoli performed as rapporteur. The case was sent for reassignment. Toffoli faces no criminal charge in the Master case; the messages record the reading of the investigated group, not any conduct by the justice.A Federal Police report cited by Times Brasil says "A Turma" had six members and was paid about 400,000 reais a month. Investigators identify its leader as Marilson Roseno da Silva, a retired federal police officer. One member was Felipe Mourão, known as Sicário (Hitman), who killed himself after being detained by the Federal Police, according to Folha. The police say the group was paid to gather information, including classified data, buy public officials, break into government systems and intimidate people seen as opposing Vorcaro's interests.Vorcaro, the former controlling owner of Banco Master, is investigated on suspicion of paying bribes to Central Bank directors and of leaking information about inquiries against him. In testimony to the Federal Police on August 28, he said he could not remember the recipient of messages the investigators attribute to Moraes, and said the "G" cited in one note was probably Central Bank president Gabriel Galípolo. His defense told investigators that Vorcaro is willing to cooperate, but only under a future plea bargain.What comes nextThe full bench of the STF may decide on Tuesday (15) whether to open an inquiry against Moraes based on the police report with the 52 messages. On September 23, the court is set to review an intelligence report submitted by Moraes, which has no evidentiary value according to G1, questioning Mendonça's handling of the Master and INSS investigations.

Brazil's Prosecutor General's Office (PGR), which leads federal prosecutions, told the Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Monday (14) that it favors lifting secrecy on yet another strand of the Master case investigation: the file detailing the payment network of banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is jailed in Brasilia, and of the now-defunct bank. Whether to make the material public now rests with the court's president, Justice Edson Fachin.The opinion responds to a request filed on Sunday (13) by Justice Alexandre de Moraes. He wants the case, numbered Pet 15.645 and assigned by prevention to Justice André Mendonça, opened and made available to all justices before Tuesday's (15) session on a Federal Police report that points to a supposed relationship between him and Vorcaro. According to CNN Brasil, Moraes says the filing contains "essential elements" for that ruling.The PGR opinion was signed by Deputy Prosecutor General Hindenburgo Chateaubriand Filho. He said the office had not weighed in earlier because it did not know the file existed, and that the case had not even appeared visible to the institution in the court's system. The office says it has backed every request to lift secrecy it has reviewed in the case so far."Because this is a document considered relevant so that a Justice of this Court can understand the full range of factors involved in the matter to be debated, consistent with the premises of the earlier opinion, the Prosecutor General's Office understands that secrecy should also be lifted," the deputy prosecutor general wrote (translated from Portuguese).How the case got hereVorcaro was first arrested on November 17, 2025, as part of the investigations into Banco Master. The Federal Police found 52 messages exchanged between Moraes and the banker between December 21, 2023 and the date of that arrest. A police report, ordered by Mendonça, says the justice took direct part in reviewing and editing a 130 million reais contract between the bank and the Barci de Moraes law firm of lawyer Viviane Barci, Moraes's wife. The PGR, however, has asked the court to shelve that report, arguing it was produced irregularly: Mendonça ordered it without prior notice to the court's presidency, without submitting it to the full bench and, allegedly, with predetermined direction.The fight over documents has consumed the court for days. On Friday (11), Mendonça lifted secrecy on dozens of proceedings after the PGR and justices demanded wider access to the Master files. Moraes criticized what he called "selective" disclosure and said digital files were still missing from the released set. According to G1, the court has made 53 Master-related proceedings public so far, following Fachin's request.What comes nextFachin must now decide whether Pet 15.645 will be made public. The next step comes on Tuesday (15), when the full court reviews the Federal Police report on the messages between Moraes and Vorcaro, in a session expected to determine whether the court opens an investigation into the justice. No one cited in the case has been convicted, and Moraes is not yet the target of an inquiry.

Brazil's federal prosecution office, the PGR, said on Monday (14) that it favors lifting the secrecy on Banco Master payment records, backing a request by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes one day before a full-bench session set for Tuesday (15). The filing was signed by Deputy Attorney General Hindemburgo Chateaubriand and sent to Chief Justice Edson Fachin.According to Folha de S.Paulo, the records are detailed in a report by the Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence council. The seal should come off, the deputy attorney general wrote, because the document is "relevant for a justice of this court to understand the full range of factors involved in the matter to be debated." The PGR also noted that the case files were not visible to the prosecution office.Moraes made the original request in a petition to Fachin on Sunday (13). He asked that the secrecy be lifted on PET 15645, an inquiry assigned by prevention to Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the Master case, on the argument that it holds "essential elements" for the judgment of PET 16662, scheduled for Tuesday. "I ask Your Excellency to order the lifting of the secrecy of PET 15645 and to make the records available to all members of the panel before the judgment," the justice wrote, according to G1. Fachin then asked the PGR to weigh in "promptly."The case and Tuesday's sessionThe fight over the records is part of the crisis the Master investigations have opened at the STF, Brazil's top court. According to G1, federal police found 52 messages exchanged between Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Master, between December 21, 2023 and November 17, 2025, the day Vorcaro was first arrested. The federal police report, ordered by Mendonça, points to an alleged relationship between the two and states that the justice took part directly in reviewing and editing a 130 million reais contract between the bank and the Barci de Moraes law firm of lawyer Viviane Barci, Moraes' wife. No formal investigation has been opened against the justice; the full bench will decide whether the material justifies that step.The PGR has separately asked the court to shelve the federal police report. In the office's view, Mendonça ordered its production without notifying the court presidency, without submitting it to the full bench and with alleged targeting, a defect that would taint the report at its origin. Back in March, Folha reports, the federal police itself had asked Mendonça for access to the confidential financial intelligence data, still unexamined by the rapporteur, to map the Master payment system and funds linked to the bank.The next step comes on Tuesday (15), when the full bench takes up PET 16662. If the justices accept the defect argument pressed by the PGR, the substance of the messages may never be discussed. If they reject it, the court will then decide whether the exchanges justify opening an investigation into Moraes.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's highest court, heads into Tuesday's session (15) with no agreement on which justices will judge a Federal Police report that flagged 52 messages sent by banker Daniel Vorcaro to Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to G1, justices are privately debating whether Moraes and fellow Justice André Mendonça should take part in the session, which could open a formal probe against Moraes.The session will examine the regularity of the police report. The court has confirmed only that proceedings will be broadcast on TV Justiça, its official channel, and that access to the chamber will be restricted. Moraes has indicated in internal conversations that he has not yet decided whether to ask to speak or vote, G1 reports. On Sunday (13), court president Edson Fachin referred to the Attorney General's Office a request by Moraes to see a sealed filing tied to Banco Master payments, without ruling on access himself, according to InfoMoney.Positions behind the scenesOne group of justices believes Moraes should stay away from the chamber so as not to pressure colleagues. On the other side, justices aligned with Moraes are considering raising a point of order to bar Mendonça, arguing that questions over how he handled the report would disqualify him from voting. In a court filing on Sunday, Mendonça said that "all the material for next Tuesday's judgment is available, in full, to every justice" and that inserting additional elements "would only serve to disrupt the judgment".The Attorney General's Office has argued the report is null. It contends that Mendonça steered the Federal Police's data searches against Moraes and did not consult the court's presidency before taking measures against fellow justices. If the justices do not step aside on their own, one possibility is that the question will go to the full bench.How the case got hereVorcaro, former controller of Banco Master, was arrested in November 2025 and is under investigation for suspected fraud estimated at 12.2 billion reais, according to BBC News Brasil. On September 1, Mendonça unsealed a Federal Police report with indications that Vorcaro had sought advice and exchanged information with Moraes. Two days later, Moraes unsealed police intelligence reports on alleged irregular conduct by Mendonça. On Wednesday (9), Fachin took the case away from Mendonça, made himself the reporting justice and scheduled Tuesday's session. Fachin spoke with Mendonça on Saturday (12) and said that, depending on the outcome, a section of the Civil Procedure Code on the disqualification of the reporting judge could apply, a move praised by justices aligned with Moraes.According to G1, justices are also discussing the participation of other members cited in the Master case, including Kassio Nunes Marques and Luiz Fux, as well as Dias Toffoli, who left the case's reporting duties after the police pointed to a link between a family company and Vorcaro. All three deny any wrongdoing, and the bench is expected to accept the participation of Fux and Nunes Marques. A request for review or a postponement has not been ruled out. The next step is the opening of the plenary session on Tuesday (15), when preliminary questions, including the composition of the bench, are expected to be debated before the merits of the report.

Justice Gilmar Mendes, the longest-serving member of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), ordered the Federal Police on Sunday (13) to send his chambers the full contents extracted from the cellphone of former banker Daniel Vorcaro. The order follows a decision by Justice Cristiano Zanin, who gave the force until 11 p.m. Sunday to deliver a copy of the device. In his ruling, Gilmar wrote that no improper handling of the data is being considered, according to the newspaper O Globo. The dispute comes two days before a session in which the full court will decide whether to open a formal investigation of Justice Alexandre de Moraes.The device is an iPhone 17 Pro seized on November 18, 2025, when Vorcaro was first arrested in Operation Compliance Zero, an inquiry into suspected fraud at Banco Master estimated at 12.2 billion reais. Vorcaro is under investigation and has not been convicted. A Federal Police report identified 52 messages between the banker and Moraes; according to investigators, Vorcaro asked the justice for help to contain moves by the police and federal prosecutors against the bank. Some of the replies attributed to Moraes were reportedly sent through single-view or self-erasing mechanisms, which prevented full recovery of the conversations, according to InfoMoney. Questioned on August 28, Vorcaro said he could not recall the recipient of the messages police attribute to the justice, and his defense said he is willing to cooperate in a future plea deal.What each side arguesJustice André Mendonça, who reports on the Compliance Zero case, opposes releasing the full contents now. He argues that broader sharing would only "disrupt the trial" and could put "the continuation and success of the investigations" at risk, and says every justice already has the material needed for the session. Mendonça quoted court president Edson Fachin, who wrote that "the gravity of the facts does not allow shortcuts", and added that there is no room for "subterfuges or detours".Zanin answered that "there is no hierarchy among the justices of the STF" and that the evidence belongs to the full court, not to a single member, adding that judges cannot face "any restriction on access to information". He noted that Vorcaro's own defense has already seen the complete file and said he needs the full material to form his judgment by Tuesday (15). Moraes backed the request, writing that "it is not up to the reporting justice to choose" which documents the court may see. Gilmar said keeping the data only in Mendonça's office undermines the court's internal balance, and pledged that his copy will remain under "a strict regime of restriction, with access limited to this office". The Prosecutor General's Office has also asked that all justices see the complete file and argues the police report should be voided because the inquiry was conducted irregularly, according to InfoMoney.The Federal Police told Fachin that the phone and the original extraction never left the institution, kept under documented chain of custody with intact seals, and that it has "full technical capability" to produce and send identical copies to any office that requests them. The force said the file sent to Mendonça's office in March was a copy of the extracted data, delivered at that office's formal request, not the original. Mendonça says he holds only an encrypted and sealed backup copy that he has never handled.How the case reached this pointNovember 18, 2025: Vorcaro is arrested in the first phase of Compliance Zero; the iPhone is seized.March 2026: a copy of the extracted data is sent to Mendonça's office, which reports on the investigation.September 1: Mendonça lifts the secrecy of the Federal Police report on the messages between Vorcaro and Moraes.September 3: Moraes removes the secrecy of police intelligence reports on Mendonça's conduct.September 9 and 10: Fachin takes the Fake News inquiry away from Moraes, schedules the September 15 session and ends the secrecy of case records.September 12: Gilmar asks Fachin for the full file; Fachin gives the police 24 hours to explain how the device is stored.September 13: the police say they are ready to send copies, and Zanin and Gilmar issue their orders.The next step is Tuesday's session (15), when the justices are to weigh the report on the messages and decide whether there are grounds to investigate Moraes. Moraes's request that the court also vote on investigating Mendonça is scheduled for September 23, according to G1. Emílio Peluso, a constitutional law professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, told BBC News Brasil the session may be widened to address other fronts in the dispute among the justices.

Justice Cristiano Zanin of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) ordered the Federal Police on Sunday (13) to deliver to his chambers, by 11 p.m., a full copy of the cellphone of banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is under investigation in the Banco Master inquiry. In the order, addressed to police director-general Andrei Rodrigues, Zanin wrote that "there is no hierarchy among the ministers of the Supreme Federal Court". The line answered his colleague André Mendonça, who hours earlier had spoken out against releasing the material.The device, an iPhone 17 Pro, was seized on November 18, 2025, in the first phase of Operation Compliance Zero, when Vorcaro was arrested for the first time. Federal Police say the extracted data are among the materials supporting the investigations into the bank and include records related to Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Zanin's decision comes two days before Tuesday's (15) session, when the court's full bench is set to review the police report on messages exchanged between Vorcaro and Moraes. According to InfoMoney, the session may determine whether there are grounds to open a formal investigation against the justice.The dispute between the justicesZanin argued that he needs the full contents to form his conviction for Tuesday's judgment, "regardless of other implications the material may indicate". In his view, the evidence "belongs to the plenary of the Supreme Federal Court and its members, and not to one specific member", and the September 15 session still has no defined object, and may require analysis of material extracted from the phone of the man under investigation."One cannot impose on the judges any restriction on access to information, since all of them are bound by the duty of confidentiality and of performing their functions well, with impartiality and independence."Mendonça, the reporting justice for Operation Compliance Zero, sent an official communication on Sunday against opening the full contents at this point. In his view, sharing the material "would only contribute to disrupting" Tuesday's judgment and would put "at risk the entire progress and success of the investigations" into suspected fraud involving Banco Master. He argued that all justices already have the same material needed for the judgment. Citing a statement by court president Edson Fachin that "the gravity of the facts does not authorize shortcuts", Mendonça added: "It also does not tolerate subterfuges or deviations from routes, toward interests other than those of Justice".On Sunday morning, the Federal Police told Fachin it has "full technical conditions" to provide copies of the data while preserving the chain of custody. Zanin noted that the material has already been made available to Vorcaro's lawyers, and stressed that delivery to his chambers comes "without prejudice to other chambers that may submit an identical request". Besides Zanin, Moraes and Gilmar Mendes have expressed interest in the full contents, and the Attorney General's Office (PGR) has also requested them, to assess the context of the messages.How the case got hereThe crisis inside the court has as its backdrop the investigations into Master, the bank owned by Vorcaro. The cellphone at the center of the dispute was seized in November 2025. Since then, the Federal Police produced a report with messages in which Vorcaro reached out to Moraes as the inquiries advanced. Some of the replies attributed to the justice were sent through single-view or deleted messaging features, which prevented full recovery of the conversations, according to InfoMoney. On Friday (11), Fachin decided to keep on Tuesday's agenda only the judgment on the investigation report, and took over the case as reporting justice. The next step is the full bench session on Tuesday (15).

Civil Police in São Paulo arrested Ronaldo Vivacqua on Sunday (Sept. 13). Investigators describe him as a hidden partner in one of the companies behind a building under construction that collapsed onto a house in Penha, a district on the east side of São Paulo, early on Saturday (Sept. 12), killing six people. According to G1, a court issued temporary arrest warrants for three people linked to the project. Besides Ronaldo, they target his son Cristiano Vivacqua, identified by police as the author of the design and the engineer in charge of the work, and Isis Brandão, who formally appears as the owner of the company. Cristiano and Isis are considered fugitives. None of the three has been convicted; all are suspects in a police inquiry.According to police, Ronaldo's name does not appear in the documents of the two companies identified as responsible for the project, but witness statements and older records indicate that he ran the firm and took part in the construction. "We found out that he is, in fact, a hidden partner," said Safira Borges Moreira Parente, one of the police chiefs (delegadas) in charge of the case. Ronaldo denied any involvement with the builder in a preliminary hearing. The arrest request was based on the fact that none of the three had come forward to the authorities since the investigation began. Antônio José Pereira, the police chief for the Itaquera section, said officers tried to locate the company owner and the project engineer right after the collapse, without success, and also visited addresses listed with Jucesp, the state commercial registry. Investigators reported signs of an "attempt at concealment."The defense disputes the claim. The lawyer for the companies tied to the project said Ronaldo held no management role at the builder and denied that he was a hidden partner; according to the defense, he was only accompanying his son, the engineer responsible for the work. The defense called the temporary arrests "premature" and said it will ask for Ronaldo's release. New Home Construtora, the company identified as responsible for the project, has said it opened an internal inquiry into the collapse.A timeline of the irregularitiesThe site had drawn city enforcement action before the accident. In 2019, the work was cited and shut down for lacking a permit, a permit request by the builder was denied by the city and a fine of R$ 119,000 was issued, according to CNN Brasil. In 2021, the city government sued to have the irregular structure on the lot demolished. The permit for the new building was granted on the condition that the previous structure, roughly five or six stories tall, be torn down first. An inspection in February 2024, signed by an employee of the Penha subprefecture, recorded the demolition as completed, and the lawsuit was closed. After the collapse, preliminary findings by the CGM, the city's internal control office, indicate the required demolition never took place, and the employee who signed the report was suspended for an initial 30 days. "If that document is false, that person will also answer, civilly and criminally, for what she did," Mayor Ricardo Nunes said, according to Metrópoles. São Paulo State Governor Tarcísio de Freitas said the work was under embargo and that what was built did not match what had been authorized.The collapse and the investigationThe 12-story building under construction fell onto a house on Rua Tequici around 2 a.m. on Saturday; security camera footage recorded the collapse at 1:58 a.m., according to Metrópoles. Eight people inside the house were hit. Two were rescued alive, a man and a child, and six died: three women, one of them pregnant, two men and a 7-year-old girl. The girl's body, the last missing victim, was found on Sunday afternoon, and firefighters ended the emergency search, G1 reported.Police are investigating whether those responsible knew about stability problems before the collapse. Neighbors came forward to investigators and reported cracks in the house that was hit. A man with relatives in the home told police he had tried to contact the person who rented out the property to report the cracks, but the problem was never resolved. The line of inquiry, in the words of police chief Safira:We started looking into the possibility that this was not entirely an unforeseeable event, but something the people responsible could have known about, the instability of that building.Police stress that the cause of the collapse has not been determined; the conclusion depends, among other evidence, on the forensic engineering report from the São Paulo Scientific Police. Ronaldo was taken to the 24th police station (Ponte Rasa), where he will give a statement, the state government told CNN Brasil. The role of each of the three suspects will be laid out individually during the inquiry, and the defense intends to request the revocation of Ronaldo's temporary arrest.

Civil police in São Paulo arrested on Sunday (13) Ronaldo Vivacqua, identified by investigators as a hidden partner in one of the companies behind the construction of a building that collapsed onto a house in the Penha district, in the east of the city, early on Saturday (12). According to G1, a court ordered the temporary pretrial arrest of three suspects linked to the project. Ronaldo was taken to the 24th police station, in the Ponte Rasa area, where he is due to give a statement.Rescue teams also recovered the body of a 7-year-old girl on Sunday, the last victim who had been missing, bringing the death toll to six. The other two warrants target Cristiano Vivacqua, Ronaldo's son, described by police as the author of the project and the engineer responsible for the work, and Isis Brandão, who formally appears as the owner of the company; police consider the two fugitives. Folha de S.Paulo reported that the crimes the suspects may face have not been confirmed. None has been convicted: the arrests are temporary and all three are treated as suspects.TimelineThe building under construction, 11 floors according to Folha (CNN Brasil says 12), collapsed at around 2 a.m. on Saturday on Rua Tequici. The rubble hit a neighboring house that sheltered nine Bolivian people and doubled as the sewing workshop where the family worked. Eight were in the house when it was hit; two were rescued alive. The dead are three women, one of them pregnant, two men and the 7-year-old girl. According to Folha, the victims were Bolivian and had lived in Brazil for nine years. With the girl's body recovered, the fire department ended the emergency search, and the city government took over removal of the rubble.The site had a history of irregularities before the collapse. According to CNN Brasil, the construction company had a permit denied by the city in 2019, and in 2021 a lawsuit demanded the demolition of an illegal structure on the lot; inspections by the Penha sub-city hall shut down the work and imposed fines, one of them R$ 119,000. Police say the permit for the new building was conditional on demolishing the previous structure, of five or six floors, and that the condition was not met. A February 2024 inspection recorded that the demolition had been carried out, and the lawsuit was closed. After the collapse, the city opened an inquiry in its comptroller general's office; preliminary findings indicate the demolition never happened, and the inspector who signed the report was suspended for 30 days. Governor Tarcísio de Freitas said the site was under embargo and that the execution did not match what had been authorized. The civil defense agency said it is not possible to confirm a link to the heavy rain that hit the city the same night.What police and the defense sayPolice said the arrests were requested because the suspects had not come forward to the authorities since the investigation began. Antônio José Pereira, the police chief for the Itaquera region, said officers tried to locate the company owner and the engineer right after the collapse, without success. Teams visited company addresses listed in the São Paulo state business registry (Jucesp) and found, in the assessment of police delegate Safira Borges Moreira Parente, signs of "an attempt to hide" the suspects. "We discovered that he is in fact a hidden partner," she said of Ronaldo, who does not appear formally in company documents. Police said Ronaldo denied, in a preliminary hearing, any involvement with the construction company."We started to investigate the possibility that it was not entirely an unforeseeable event, but something the responsible parties could have known about, the instability of that building," said delegate Safira, according to G1.Neighbors told police that the house had cracks before the collapse, and a man whose relatives lived there said he had tried, without success, to contact the person who managed the rental to report the problem. The cause of the collapse has not been determined and depends, among other evidence, on an engineering report by the forensic police.The defense disputes the police account. The lawyer for the companies said Ronaldo held no management role and was not a hidden partner: he was only accompanying his son, the engineer responsible for the work. The lawyer called the arrests "premature" and said he will ask a court to revoke Ronaldo's detention. In an earlier statement, the builder, New Home Construtora, said "there are no elements that allow the conclusion that the cause of the incident resulted exclusively from the conduct of the construction company," and, according to G1, it opened an internal inquiry. The company's lawyer told Folha it would not comment for now.Next steps: Ronaldo Vivacqua gives his statement at the 24th police station, and the defense is expected to request the revocation of his temporary arrest. The warrants for Cristiano Vivacqua and Isis Brandão remain to be served. The investigation will define the role of each suspect, and a conclusion on the causes awaits the engineering report, for which no deadline has been announced.

Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Sunday (Sept. 13) lifted the confidentiality of documents sent by São Paulo state courts in the Dark Horse case and consolidated under his docket the investigations into an alleged scheme to divert public money through congressional budget earmarks, contracts tied to the São Paulo city government and people linked to federal lawmaker Mário Frias (PL-SP). In the ruling, Dino said there are signs the inquiries are connected, raised the hypothesis of a criminal organization devoted to capturing, circulating and hiding public funds, and logged a line of investigation into possible ties between the group and the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital), Brazil's largest criminal faction.The unsealed material came from the São Paulo state court specialized in organized crime and money laundering, at the Barra Funda criminal courthouse. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Dino ordered São Paulo's state security department to hand the Federal Police all raw data extracted from the phones of the people and companies under investigation, along with computers and documents, to be held in PF custody with all legal safeguards.A closed financial circuitThe ruling describes transfers between the lawmaker and organizations led by businesswoman Karina Ferreira da Gama, producer of the film. The technology firm Complexsys, hired by the Conhecer Brasil Institute (ICB), a beneficiary of earmark funds, received transfers from Frias and also sent money back to the institute. The firm additionally wired funds to the National Culture Academy (ANC), a nonprofit also presided over by Karina Gama. The Federal Police, as cited by the minister, reads the flows as evidence of coordinated action by a single core group."This circulation of funds between the lawmaker, the executing entity, the hired company and another beneficiary organization is not compatible with independent, economically justified business relations. On the contrary, it evidences a closed financial circuit, characteristic of structures designed to circulate, fragment and reintroduce funds among members of the same core," wrote Dino, in a passage translated from Portuguese.The ruling also reproduces the PF's case that there may be a commingling of assets between the institute, its contractors and people tied to the group, citing crossed corporate ownership, declared revenue incompatible with the amounts moved and repeated refunds with no apparent economic justification. Investigators also say Frias wired sums to Go Up Entertainment, a company linked to Karina Gama, that exceed his declared income, which in the PF's view rules out the theory that the lawmaker merely authored earmarks later diverted by others and points to him as a possible active participant in the financial machinery. All of it remains under investigation.How the case got hereDark Horse, a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro, drew scrutiny after the news site The Intercept revealed in May audio recordings from November 2025 in which Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), the PL presidential candidate, asks Banco Master owner Daniel Vorcaro for money to finish the production. The senator denied arranging any improper advantage and said the funds were entirely private. The 61 million reais Vorcaro sent to the film is being examined separately by Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the Banco Master case at the court, while Dino handles the earmark front. On Thursday (Sept. 10), the Federal Police served 49 search and seizure warrants authorized by the STF across São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceará and the Federal District in Operation Make Up, which targeted Frias and Karina Gama; Folha counted 29 people covered by the action. Investigators put the suspected diversion in the hundreds of millions of reais and list crimes including embezzlement, document fraud, money laundering, criminal organization and procurement offenses, with alleged irregularities running until July.In a video posted on social media, his first statement after the searches, Frias called the operation a "smokescreen," denied wrongdoing, said he will cooperate and hand over every requested document and said he expects the case to be shelved. Flávio Bolsonaro's lawyers, in turn, asked the court at least four times to keep the whole case with Mendonça instead of Dino, without success. Karina Gama had not responded to interview requests from the state news agency Agência Brasil. No charges have been filed and everyone named is only under investigation. The next step set out in the ruling is the transfer of the São Paulo police material into Federal Police custody, after which the inquiries continue under Dino, with no date announced for their conclusion.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) authorized on July 24 the freezing abroad of assets of banks linked to former banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is jailed in the investigation into Banco Master. According to a G1 report published on Saturday (12), 11 listed items add up to more than R$ 1.7 billion, and seven more items have not yet been valued. The documents became public only now, after the court's president, Luiz Edson Fachin, ordered Mendonça to lift the secrecy over the bank investigations.The list was sent to the court by the law firm representing EFB Regimes Especiais de Empresas, the liquidator of Banco Master, Banco Master de Investimento and Banco Master Múltiplo. The figures are the firm's own estimates, and the filing includes no images of the items. Assets to be recovered in the United States include:proceeds from the sale of an aircraft: R$ 280 million;duplex apartment in Miami: R$ 130 million;vacation home and guest residence in Miami: R$ 500 million;luxury residence and ranch in Colorado: R$ 500 million;luxury residence in Miami: R$ 150 million;yacht docked in Florida: R$ 80 million;Cigarette 52 Thunder boat in Florida: R$ 2 million;the painting "Mousquetaire" by Pablo Picasso: R$ 40 million;the painting "Untitled (Everybody's 2 Cents)" by Jean-Michel Basquiat: R$ 27.5 million;the painting "Untitled" by Jean-Michel Basquiat: R$ 25 million;a Benetti Oasis 40 boat located in Brazil: R$ 154.2 million.TimelineBanks tied to Vorcaro are in extrajudicial liquidation run by Brazil's Central Bank, with EFB as liquidator, and the criminal case sits at the STF, which is investigating fraud tied to Master and to the INSS, the public pension system. On June 19, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet asked for what Brazilian criminal procedure calls a "sequestro" of assets, a precautionary measure that reserves property to secure possible future compensation for damages and does not amount to a conviction. Mendonça granted the request on July 24. Investigators are still trying to locate more assets abroad, and courts in the United States, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands have recognized the Master liquidation and EFB's role as liquidator.The argumentsGonet wrote that "the progress of the investigations revealed that the illicit operations of Banco Master S.A were far more extensive and that the damage caused by the violations reached billion-real figures". In his view, seizing "all the assets reached by the extrajudicial liquidations is the only measure capable of guaranteeing the correct allocation of the estate in its legal order and the market value of the collected assets". In the ruling, Mendonça denied that the order interferes with the management of the liquidation estates and wrote:The immediate purpose of the decision is to prevent the dispersal or premature disposal of assets already reached or identified in the future in the extrajudicial liquidations. (...) The objective is to establish criminal judicial control over the final destination of assets and amounts potentially relevant to the recovery of the damages.The release of the papers comes amid an internal standoff at the STF over the Master case. On Saturday, Fachin took over as rapporteur of the discussion on the alleged relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Vorcaro, and sent the Master and INSS investigation files to the court's presidency, where they stay on hold until he rules. On Tuesday (15), the full court debates the Federal Police report that pointed to the alleged relationship between Moraes and the former banker. The Prosecutor General's Office has asked that the report be voided, arguing that Mendonça could not order an inquiry into a fellow justice without the full court's authorization.

Brazil's Federal Police found, on a corporate hard drive handed over by Banco Master's liquidator, a PowerPoint presentation that describes, step by step, a "document factory" run by bank employees to give an appearance of legitimacy to 7.155 billion reais in credits sold to Banco de Brasília (BRB). The finding appears in an analytical police report (IPJ-A 1390980/2026) concluded on March 23, and was detailed by g1 on Saturday (12), after secrecy over documents in the Master case was lifted.According to the report, the file "Revisão - processos e documentos.pptx" was stored on the bank's SharePoint, had 26.7 MB and 30 slides, one of them hidden. Technical records show it was created on October 23, 2025, at 12:09 p.m., and last modified the next day at 5:45 p.m. The presentation described a flow that began with the extraction of real client and contract data from CredCesta, the bank's payroll lending program, ran that data through software built for the task and ended in what police classify as an "industrial generation of financial documents".The papers included Cédulas de Crédito Bancário (CCBs), bank credit notes used in Brazil to formalize debts, along with consent forms and powers of attorney, the latter generated by direct mail. The presentation also records changes to documents: removal of dates from consent forms, extraction of specific pages and separation of signature pages. Employees also requested proof of financial transfers that lacked information allowing the operations to be traced. Police concluded that the activities involved several departments in a "coordinated operation".How the papers reached BRBThe documents backed a simulated credit assignment involving Tirreno Consultoria, a company created in October 2024 with 100 reais in share capital, no employees and no operational capacity, according to forensic experts. Between December 2024 and May 2025, Master and Tirreno signed 28 credit assignment agreements, with more than 1 million contracts entered into the bank's systems. Forensic analysis found no real financial settlement: Tirreno's account, opened later, remained inactive, and the amounts were limited to internal bookkeeping entries in a reserved account at Master itself. The papers were then passed to BRB, a bank controlled by the government of Brasília's Federal District, which accepted the credits despite the irregularities, g1 reported.The case so farMaster, controlled by Daniel Vorcaro, who is under investigation in the case, is now in liquidation. It has been a target of Operation Compliance Zero since its first phase in November 2025. Unable to copy all the data during the searches, the Federal Police asked the liquidator for the equipment, and the hard drive was handed over on November 27, 2025. The main facts established so far:October 1, 2024: SX 016 is created, later renamed Tirreno, with 100 reais in share capital.December 24, 2024 to May 14, 2025: Master and Tirreno sign 28 credit assignment contracts totaling 7.155 billion reais.June 23, 2025: André Seixas Maia, who signed the contracts for Tirreno, sends BRB a link with 1,785 document kits.October 23 and 24, 2025: the presentation on document production is created and modified on Master's SharePoint.November 27, 2025: the liquidator hands the hard drive to the Federal Police, which locates the file.March 23, 2026: the Federal Police concludes report IPJ-A 1390980/2026.The findings are investigative conclusions, not court rulings, and everyone named remains presumed innocent. The g1 report includes no statement from Banco Master, BRB or defense lawyers about the presentation. Valor Econômico also reported on the document on Saturday. The Master case now sits with the Supreme Federal Court (STF), where it has fed a crisis among the justices. The next step is Tuesday's session (September 15), which court president Fachin kept limited to the case of Justice Alexandre de Moraes; on September 23 the court meets on a petition by Justice André Mendonça, the case's rapporteur, g1 reported.

A company registered with just R$100 in capital, with no employees and no effective banking activity, was used by Banco Master, the bank founded by Daniel Vorcaro, to simulate the origin of R$7.155 billion in payroll loans, the credits Brazilians repay through automatic deductions from salaries or pensions. That is the conclusion of a Federal Police forensic report detailed by G1 on Saturday (12) and by Poder360 on Friday (11). According to the police, the money for the credit assignments never reached the company, named Tirreno: the amounts were booked internally by the bank, which entered more than 1 million contracts into its own systems under the company's name.The company was incorporated on October 1, 2024 as SX 016 Empreendimentos e Participações, with R$100 in capital, of which only R$10 had been paid in, R$5 from each of the two founding partners. In December 2024 it was renamed Tirreno Consultoria Promotora de Crédito e Participações, took credit promotion as its stated activity and had its declared capital raised to R$30 million, to be paid in within 12 months. The forensic team says it found no evidence or document showing the R$30 million were ever deposited.Between December 24, 2024 and May 14, 2025, Master and Tirreno signed 28 credit assignment contracts worth a combined R$7.155 billion. Twenty-five of them, about R$5.96 billion, were signed before the changes to the company's name and management were registered with the São Paulo commercial registry on April 15, 2025. André Felipe de Oliveira Seixas Maia signed all 28 contracts on the company's behalf even though he only formally appeared as a director later. The signatures on a batch of 26 contracts worth R$6.34 billion were notarized in a single round on May 13 and 14, 2025. The Federal Police called it late notarization and said the document chain needs validation.Investigators found unusual patterns in the contracts, employers with inconsistent registration data and documents produced at scale inside the bank itself. On May 22, 2025, when Master requested registration data from Tirreno, revenue, net worth, clients and suppliers came back blank or at zero. The company's first bank account was opened only on May 23, at Banco Master itself, and it remained without balance or movement, the police said.Sale to BRB and the "document factory"The credits were resold to Banco de Brasília (BRB), a state-owned bank that initially bought the portfolios without proper checks and only later began demanding documents, according to the police. On June 23, 2025, Seixas Maia sent BRB a storage link with 1,785 document kits on the receivables. On July 4, Master's anti-money-laundering committee decided to close the irregularity alerts and not to report the case to COAF, Brazil's financial intelligence council. By October 2025, the credits attributed to Tirreno accounted for 64% of all payroll loan receivables managed by Master in the Função 13 system.According to G1, the Federal Police also described a "document factory" set up by bank employees. A PowerPoint presentation found on a corporate hard drive, handed over by Master's liquidator on November 27, 2025, details the extraction of real client data from the CredCesta credit program, processing in dedicated software and the industrial-scale generation of bank credit notes, consent forms and powers of attorney, with dates and signature pages removed. The findings are part of a police analysis report concluded on March 23, 2026.What each side saysThe Federal Police called the R$7 billion operation "completely atypical". According to Poder360, BRB's president told the Supreme Federal Court (STF) in testimony that Tirreno never received the funds, a version the police say is corroborated by Vorcaro, an investigated party in the case. Vorcaro reportedly admitted the deal with Tirreno was canceled and that no money was delivered either to the company or to BRB. "How can a company that received nothing at all (Tirreno) and had the operation canceled have committed to buying back portfolios worth 7 billion reais", the police asked in its filing.Cartos, the direct credit company identified by the police as Tirreno's controller, denied in a statement having any contractual, commercial or operational relationship with the company and said it did not originate, structure, market, broker or assign any credits in the case. BRB did not respond to Poder360. The Master case is before the STF under rapporteur Edson Fachin, who scheduled for September 23 the session in which he will examine petitions related to the inquiry, according to G1. The investigation is ongoing and no one named in the report has been convicted.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, on Saturday (12) rejected requests to review the cases of Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça together. The extraordinary session set for Tuesday (September 15) remains dedicated solely to a Federal Police report that logged more than 50 messages from former banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, to Moraes. In the same ruling, Fachin scheduled for September 23 a session on questions about Mendonça's conduct in the Master and INSS cases, the latter involving Brazil's social security agency.According to G1, Moraes had asked the court's presidency for the full bench to jointly decide whether investigations would be opened against him and against Mendonça. He argued there was a "concrete risk of contradictory decisions and procedural turmoil" if the cases were heard separately. Folha de S.Paulo reports that Fachin also denied a formal request from the court's senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, to place the report on Mendonça on the same agenda and postpone the date.Fachin wrote that the two cases are at different stages. The file on the messages involving Moraes was ready and cleared for judgment, while the proceeding on Mendonça still has open deadlines for gathering information and formal submissions. Bringing the second case to the bench before those deadlines close would make the review unfeasible, he concluded. In the ruling cited by Folha, keeping only Moraes's case on Tuesday's agenda "ensures the precise delimitation of the object of the court's deliberation, enabling the examination of a matter whose adversarial review and preliminary clarification will already have been completed".How the case got hereThe standoff grows out of Federal Police investigations into fraud at Banco Master, including Operation Compliance Zero, which led to Vorcaro's arrest. A police report produced at Mendonça's request recorded the messages between the banker and Moraes, first disclosed by the newspaper Estadão. According to Folha, shortly before his arrest Vorcaro asked Moraes for information about the investigation, arranged meetings with him and even asked whether he should flee the country. The material also mentions Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet. Moraes struck back based on a police "intelligence report" with no evidentiary value, sent to the court under his order in the fake news inquiry, and asked that his colleague be investigated for abuse of authority.What each side allegesMoraes accuses Mendonça of a "selective choice" in releasing documents from the Master case. He says the reporting justice lifted secrecy from only part of the proceedings and omitted roughly 180 records and files from the court's system, and he demands full disclosure. Mendonça denies acting selectively and says he made every available proceeding public. He said he met the deadline set by Fachin, who had granted a request from the Prosecutor General's Office to release the documents, and called keeping parts of the file secret a "prudent and responsible" measure to protect ongoing investigations and the personal, banking and tax data of those involved. The intelligence report behind Moraes's counterattack points to a lack of impartiality and a supposed selective targeting of probes against political figures, such as Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, and Moraes himself.The full bench will now take the two cases on separate dates. On Tuesday (15) the justices are to review the report on the messages and decide whether to open an investigation into Moraes. On September 23 the court examines the questions about Mendonça's conduct in the Master and INSS cases. Folha describes the clash between the two justices as the deepest crisis in the court's recent history, unfolding amid the broader Banco Master inquiry, which includes suspicions that congressional earmarks were steered to finance Dark Horse, a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro.

Federal Police documents say that Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master, and businessmen under investigation for ties to the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), Brazil's largest criminal faction, in the fuel sector used the same financial structure to move money and hide assets. According to G1, which obtained the papers filed with the 7th Federal Criminal Court of São Paulo and unsealed by the Supreme Federal Court this week, the meeting point between the two groups was Trustee Distribuidora de Títulos e Valores Mobiliários, a securities distributor, and its director, Artur Martins de Figueiredo.The connection surfaced during Operation Quasar, which was examining the use of investment funds to hide assets attributed to Roberto Augusto Leme da Silva, known as Beto Louco, and Mohamad Hussein Mourad, known as Primo, both described by the Federal Police as leaders of a criminal scheme in the fuel business. When officers analyzed Artur's phone, seized during the searches, they found chats about Banco Master operations. In the messages, Ascendino Madureira Garcia, known as Dino, relayed to Artur orders attributed to Vorcaro and pressed for the technical execution of the deals through funds managed by Trustee. In one exchange, after receiving a spreadsheet with the web of funds, companies and investors involved, Ascendino replied with a sticker of Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Wolf of Wall Street".The same machineryIn the police reading, Vorcaro would be the final beneficiary of the operations, Ascendino the go-between, and Artur the one responsible for the technical execution and the paperwork in Trustee's funds. Investigators say the distributor appears on both sides of the scheme: it managed funds used in operations attributed to Mohamad's core group and, at the same time, carried out demands related to Banco Master. The structure used investment funds, companies and special purpose entities to build layers between the money and its final beneficiaries, with accounting adjustments and asset revaluations meant to give a legitimate appearance to suspect transactions, the report says. On the fuel side, the goal would be to shield assets from tax inspections and enforcement. On September 3, Brazil's Central Bank placed Trustee and Banvox, distributors linked to a former Master partner, into extrajudicial liquidation, a step reported by UOL and InfoMoney. The Federal Revenue Service has already said, in a survey cited by G1, that the PCC controls at least 40 investment funds holding more than R$ 30 billion.How the case got hereUntil the messages were found, the two inquiries had separate targets: one investigated money laundering in the fuel sector, focusing on funds managed by Trustee, Reag and the former Ruby Capital; the other examined Banco Master's financial operations. The phone review led the Federal Police to request the sharing of evidence between the two cases. Beto Louco and Mohamad have already been indicted for money laundering and for falsidade ideológica, the crime of entering false information into official records, in a scheme worth R$ 1 billion, and both are considered fugitives. According to the police, Beto Louco would be a PCC member and the actual owner of the business group, which includes Aster Petróleo and Copape, while Mohamad would run the operational core.The defense teams deny the charges. In a note on Operation Carbono Oculto, Mohamad's lawyers said the investigations present "unproven facts" inside a "narrative disconnected from reality". Beto Louco's defense said it will show the charges lack merit. G1 said it contacted the lawyers for Vorcaro, Ascendino, Artur and Trustee and had received no reply by publication time. Everyone named in the report remains an investigated party, with no conviction.The fuel-sector case now sits in the 7th Federal Criminal Court of São Paulo, where the documents were filed. The next steps on record are the handling of the Federal Police request to share evidence between the two inquiries and the responses of the defenses of Vorcaro, Ascendino, Artur and Trustee, which have not yet spoken publicly about this report.

Michael Brian Davis, an American producer who identifies himself as the majority partner of Go Up Entertainment LLC in the United States, has refused to hand over voluntarily to Brazil's Federal Police records on spending for "Dark Horse", the film biography of former president Jair Bolsonaro. In a September 2 email attached to the case file at the STF, Brazil's Supreme Court, Davis said documents held in the United States will reach Brazilian authorities only on the order of a US judge.According to G1 and Folha de S.Paulo, the Federal Police sent a formal request on August 19 to producer Karina Ferreira da Gama, Go Up's partner in Brazil, giving her ten days to produce documents voluntarily. The police asked for copies of invoices issued and received abroad, contracts with foreign actors, including Jim Caviezel, who plays Bolsonaro, along with proof of payment, currency-exchange records, tax documents and corporate papers tied to the financing. Karina forwarded the request to Davis on September 2 and asked for help drafting the reply; the producer answered the same day with the refusal.In the message, published in full by G1, Davis wrote:"As instructed by our lawyers in the United States, I inform that, in my capacity as majority partner of GOUP Entertainment LLC, I do not authorize the sending to Brazilian authorities or to any third parties of corporate, accounting, tax, banking or contractual documents of the company held in the United States without strict compliance with American due process of law."Davis also wrote that any request from Brazilian authorities involving documents under US jurisdiction must be made "exclusively through the competent diplomatic channels and international legal cooperation channels, including, where applicable, a letter rogatory or a mutual legal assistance request". In his view, any handover can happen only "by order issued by a US judge". He asked that no company document be shared without prior sign-off from Go Up's American lawyers.The case so farThe film follows the life of Jair Bolsonaro, whom Folha reports is jailed over an attempted coup. "Dark Horse" drew national attention after the news site Intercept Brasil published messages in which Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president's son and a candidate in Brazil's 2026 presidential election, asks former banker Daniel Vorcaro for money to finance the production. Flávio has been formally under investigation since July in the inquiry led by Justice André Mendonça, which examines transfers of at least US$ 24 million, about 122.7 million reais at the current exchange rate, from Vorcaro to the film. Investigators suspect, according to G1, that part of the money never went into the production. A second inquiry, under Justice Flávio Dino, is examining whether Go Up financed the film with congressional budget earmarks. On Thursday, September 10, the Federal Police executed search warrants against suspects in an earmark diversion scheme, among them Congressman Mario Frias and Karina. The emails became public after Mendonça lifted the seal on case documents on Friday, September 11.Folha reports that Flávio promised a public accounting of the film's financing but has delegated the release of a balance sheet to Go Up. Flávio and the others named in the inquiry are investigated parties and are presumed innocent.What comes nextWith the voluntary handover refused, the Federal Police can reach the records kept in the United States only through international legal cooperation, the very route Davis pointed to. A mutual legal assistance request or a letter rogatory must go through the US courts before anything is handed over, and no date is set for such a filing. At the Supreme Court, the Mendonça and Dino inquiries remain open, and investigators argue, according to G1, that they still need to trace the origin of the money, how it moved and who the final beneficiaries were.

Brazil's Federal Police says two officials who held command posts in the central bank's banking supervision department took bribes from Daniel Vorcaro, the former controller of Banco Master, to work as his informal advisers inside the very institution that was supposed to police his bank. According to the police, Paulo Sérgio Neves de Souza, then deputy head of the Banking Supervision Department, known as Desup, and Belline Santana, who headed the department, coached Vorcaro for meetings with central bank directors and with Roberto Campos Neto, the bank's president at the time, and reviewed supervision documents before the regulator saw them. The allegations are in a filing sent to the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court, on February 27, 2026. It became public on Thursday after Justice André Mendonça lifted secrecy on proceedings related to Banco Master, as BBC News Brasil reported. The case is at the investigation stage and no one named has been convicted.In the investigators' reading, the two officials defended Master's interests inside the central bank and at times behaved like "employees" of the banker. The alleged advisory work began in October 2023, when Paulo Sérgio took his post: he suggested strategies, previewed internal central bank positions and told Vorcaro what to say in meetings with senior officials, the police says. It also says it found indications that Belline worked as an informal adviser consistently, in private meetings and in direct contact with Vorcaro. In December 2023, according to G1, Paulo Sérgio proposed talking points for the banker's meetings with the "Presi"; in testimony, he confirmed that "Presi" meant Roberto Campos Neto. The main milestones of the case, according to the documents now public, are:October 2023: Paulo Sérgio becomes deputy head of Desup and, according to the police, begins advising Vorcaro; Fabiano Zettel records the first payment to Belline.February 2024: before a meeting between Vorcaro and the supervision director, Ailton Aquino, Paulo Sérgio warns the banker he may face questions about the asset manager Reag, according to BBC News Brasil.January 2025: a list of payments due that month sets aside 750,000 reais for Belline alone.March 28, 2025: BRB, a bank controlled by the Federal District government, announces a deal to buy 58% of Master's total capital; the Compliance Zero operation points to about 12 billion reais injected through payroll loan portfolios of "highly dubious" origin.October 2, 2025: Belline creates the WhatsApp group "Master", with Vorcaro and Paulo Sérgio.February 27, 2026: the Federal Police signs its filing to the STF.September 10, 2026: Mendonça lifts the secrecy and the material becomes public.Disney trip and monthly paymentsIn the police's reading, the messages show the work for the banker had a price. The two officials allegedly received material benefits paid by Vorcaro: a luxury Disney trip for Paulo Sérgio and his family, and monthly, repeated payments to Belline. The transfers to Belline were handled by Fabiano Zettel, the banker's brother-in-law. In October 2023, Zettel wrote: "Hoje tem que pagar a primeira do Belline, ok?" (Today we have to pay Belline's first one, ok?). Vorcaro answered: "Ok". In January 2025, Zettel sent Vorcaro the list of payments due that month. For Belline alone, it came to 750,000 reais.The filing also documents the document review work. On April 25, 2025, Vorcaro asked Paulo Sérgio to check a draft reply to a termo de comparecimento, a formal central bank summons to give explanations. The official proposed replacing "captação de receitas" (revenue raising) with "captação de recursos" (fund raising), fixed a date and closed with "Importante protocolar rapidamente" (important to file it quickly). On October 27, 2025, the banker shared in the group "Master", opened by Belline with the message "Criei esse grupo, no intuito de facilitar nossa interlocução", a draft letter updating the bank's actions addressed to Desup itself: "Segue minuta para avaliação" (here is the draft for review). Paulo Sérgio also advised caution regarding BRB: "entendo imprudente citar problema no canal BRB" (I find it unwise to mention the BRB channel problem).Testimony and the defensesTestifying, Paulo Sérgio said his guidance came in a specific context, with Vorcaro complaining of persecution within the financial system: "Se o S1 está te perseguindo, quem pode fazer alguma coisa é a diretoria. Então, aproveite para falar com o Roberto" (If S1 is after you, only the board can do something. So take the chance to talk to Roberto). Pressed by the investigator, he called the episode "very specific". The investigator replied:To anyone not used to your work, this looks much more like work as a consultant for the bank than for the central bank. You are working almost as a strategist-manager for Banco Master.Lawyers for Paulo Sérgio de Souza and Belline Santana said the two always acted within their central bank duties and that contacts with Banco Master were strictly institutional, with no interference in supervision. Lawyers for Daniel Vorcaro and Fabiano Zettel declined to comment.The messages are part of the Banco Master proceedings before Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça. All those named are investigation targets and hold the presumption of innocence until a final ruling. The next steps depend on any charges being formalized by the Federal Police and the prosecutor general's office, and on the justice's decisions on the inquiry. No date is set.

Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça on Friday (11) defended his decision to preventively remove the director-general of the Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, and the force's police intelligence director, Leandro Almada da Costa. In a filing sent to Chief Justice Edson Fachin, Mendonça denied that the measure harms public order, the standard used to suspend the removal, and rejected the claim that it intrudes on the powers of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, according to news site G1.The filing, signed on Friday night, responds to a request from the Attorney General's Office (AGU, the government's legal arm) to keep the removal suspended, as reported by Metrópoles. Mendonça rejected the argument that the departure of the two officers would disrupt the force's chain of command, arguing the Federal Police, Brazil's main federal investigative agency, has enough qualified staff to replace them."With all due respect to the AGU, the Federal Police is an institution of the state, composed of thousands of members who entered their careers after passing a rigorous civil service exam, and it therefore has a broad and valuable body of technical, qualified professionals able to take on even the highest leadership posts," the justice wrote, according to Metrópoles.Mendonça also denied overstepping into the executive branch. He said the measure does not stop the president from naming other people to the posts or from dismissing the current officeholders. He cited Supreme Court precedents allowing judges to order the preventive removal of civil servants, including a ruling by Justice Alexandre de Moraes that barred the appointment of Alexandre Ramagem as Federal Police director-general.Timeline of the caseMendonça ordered the removal on Tuesday (8). On Wednesday (9), Justice Flávio Dino reinstated Andrei in a ruling of his own, and hours later Fachin suspended both decisions, kept the director-general in office until the full court rules on the matter and described the measures as a "grave injury to public order", according to Folha de S.Paulo. The dispute grew out of the rift between Mendonça and Moraes in the so-called Master case, an investigation into Banco Master and businessman Daniel Vorcaro. Andrei denies any spying and has said the report on Mendonça was produced at Moraes' request, according to Poder360 and Gazeta do Povo. No one has been convicted, and the removal is strictly a precautionary measure.On Friday, the AGU reaffirmed its position in a brief signed by Attorney General Jorge Messias. It said a removal "without just cause" directly interferes with the president's constitutional authority over the federal administration and that such a step presupposes exceptional circumstances, Metrópoles reported. Also on Friday, Mendonça answered Justice Cristiano Zanin, saying Vorcaro's seized phone remains in Federal Police custody and that his office holds only a "sealed and untouched" copy of the data, according to InfoMoney.The next step is a ruling by the Supreme Court's full bench on whether the removal stands. Fachin has not yet set a date. On Friday, Justice Gilmar Mendes asked Fachin to take over the case involving Moraes and to have the Federal Police report on Mendonça examined together with the other pending issues, G1 reported.

An account of the Igreja Batista da Lagoinha, a Baptist congregation in the Belvedere district of Belo Horizonte, moved R$ 57.1 million between December 24, 2024 and December 8, 2025 in transactions that Brazil's financial intelligence unit, the Coaf, classified as unusual. The report was sent to the Federal Police in February and became public only on Thursday night (10), when the Supreme Federal Court lifted the secrecy on the files of the so-called Master case, the sprawling investigation into former Banco Master owner Daniel Vorcaro. The congregation was run by Fabiano Zettel, Vorcaro's brother-in-law, whom investigators describe as a financial operator for his group. Vorcaro and Zettel are jailed and listed as suspects; neither has been convicted.According to Folha de S.Paulo, which reviewed the document, the account at state-owned Banco do Brasil recorded R$ 28,493,311 in credits and R$ 28,617,002 in debits in the period, for a total of R$ 57,110,313. That is about 60 times the church's presumed annual revenue, estimated at R$ 950,000. The Coaf wrote that the transactions, "by their regularity, value and form," could amount to a "device to circumvent the identification of the origin, destination, responsible parties or final recipients" of the money.Broadcaster Band reported further details from the document. Zettel is listed as the church's proxy and legal representative and as the sender of 26 transfers that add up to R$ 19.2 million. The report says the money received was passed on mainly to construction companies, including payments of R$ 86,200 to AFEB Estruturas Metálicas and R$ 62,600 to BPO Gestão de Disponível. In all, the document names 823 people and companies in Zettel's orbit: 303 individuals and 520 firms.The report also describes luxury spending. Moriah Asset, a company tied to Zettel, bought a Range Rover for R$ 1.53 million in April 2025, with a down payment of R$ 1.23 million whose origin could not be identified, and in December 2025 purchased a Cadillac Escalade for R$ 1.6 million and an Audi RS6 for R$ 650,000. In real estate deals by Super Empreendimentos, another company Zettel represents, one property changed hands for R$ 48 million against a reference value of R$ 6.99 million, and another for R$ 16.99 million against a reference of R$ 3.74 million. Both deals involved advance payments, of R$ 5 million and R$ 11 million, with no record of how the money moved.How the case got hereDecember 2024 to December 2025: the period of the transactions flagged by the Coaf in the church account.February 2026: the Coaf sends its report to the Federal Police, which is investigating Vorcaro and his circle in Operation Compliance Zero.March 2026: Zettel is arrested, according to ICL Notícias, and the Belvedere congregation is shut down.Thursday (10): Justice André Mendonça, the case's rapporteur, lifts the secrecy on Petição 15.556, described as the main inquiry, at the request of Chief Justice Edson Fachin.Friday (11): the reports reach the media, and Vorcaro's lawyers ask the court to filter what remains sealed.Lagoinha Global, the church network led by pastor André Valadão, said local congregations have their own leadership and financial autonomy. In a statement, it said it had been told at the time that the money would pay for renovations, and that the funds were described as amounts raised by Zettel for the works, not as tithes or offerings."The amounts involved in the transactions now disclosed, however, were not known to the institution, and their scale only became known through the investigations."What comes nextVorcaro's defense argues that releasing the files wholesale could expose personal material, such as images of family members and messages exchanged with his lawyers, and asked the rapporteur for "extreme prudence" in any further disclosure. The next date on the calendar is Tuesday (15), when the full bench of the Supreme Court meets to weigh the validity of a Federal Police report on Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the session that led to the files being opened. The reports consulted record no public response from Zettel's defense.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) sought out the court's president, Edson Fachin, on Wednesday (Sept. 9) and demanded an institutional response to a ruling by fellow justice Flávio Dino that returned Andrei Rodrigues to the top job at the Federal Police. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Mendonça was caught off guard by the ruling and considers it illegal because it effectively undid the removal he had ordered on Tuesday (8). He does not plan to fight it within the case files.People close to Mendonça told Folha that he expects Fachin to lead a way out of the standoff. In his camp's reading, Dino bypassed the procedures run by the court's president and the ruling of the Second Chamber, a five-justice panel that had upheld the removal by majority vote. Other justices are also waiting for Fachin to address the string of conflicting orders, the newspaper reported.Dino restored Rodrigues and Federal Police intelligence director Leandro Almada after a request filed in an investigation he oversees into congressional budget earmarks tied to "Dark Horse", a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro. In his view, the removal was flawed from the start because it came from a petition by the Novo party, which he said has no standing to seek pretrial restraining measures in criminal cases. "The active illegitimacy of the Novo party to request the restraining measure is unequivocal", he wrote. Dino also said hiring and firing the Federal Police chief is the president's exclusive power, argued the dispute belongs to the full bench, barred new personal restraining measures against the two officers and ordered the intelligence directorate back to normal work. Noting that Mendonça is named in the police intelligence reports behind the removal, he asked whether "one party can be a judge in one's own case".How the case got hereThe standoff grew out of Federal Police intelligence reports that, according to Mendonça, showed illegal snooping against him and Attorney General of the Union Jorge Messias, later used to ground measures by justice Alexandre de Moraes. On Tuesday (8), Mendonça issued an injunction removing Rodrigues and Almada, banned new intelligence reports on judges, prosecutors and police officers, and sent his order to the Second Chamber, which upheld it by majority, as BBC News Brasil reported. Rodrigues then appealed to Dino, who reversed the picture on Wednesday. In his ruling, Dino called the suspension of intelligence work unprecedented in the force's history and mentioned reports of a meeting between Mendonça and businessman Daniel Vorcaro, jailed in the Banco Master investigation, while saying he was passing no judgment on the encounter.Inside the court, pressure on Fachin is growing. Ministers told Folha he has shown no sense of urgency, while Fachin tells his staff he prefers caution and discretion to protect the institutions. Under pressure, he canceled Wednesday's plenary session. The court is split in two blocs: Mendonça can count on justices Luiz Fux and Kassio Nunes Marques, while Moraes, weakened by his contacts with Vorcaro, is backed by Dino, Gilmar Mendes and Cristiano Zanin. Cármen Lúcia has not taken a side, and Dias Toffoli has recused himself from Banco Master cases.What comes nextThe next move belongs to Fachin. He had already set a 72-hour deadline for Mendonça to respond on the removal before sending the matter to the full bench, and Dino wrote that his reinstatement order stands under the plenary's authority. With Wednesday's session canceled, no date is set for a collective ruling, which will land in the middle of the 2026 election campaign.

Brazil's Superior Court of Justice (STJ) on Wednesday (Sept. 9) upheld a limit on back payments to claimants who sue the INSS, the national social security institute, to obtain or revise benefits. In the same session, the court set rules for benefits granted automatically by software systems. The ruling closed a set of clarification appeals in repetitive case 1,124, decided without floor debate, in a block vote that followed the rapporteur, Justice Paulo Sérgio Domingues.According to Folha de S.Paulo, the justices held that a claimant who goes to court before exhausting the administrative process with the social security agency can lose part of the back payments and, in some situations, even the right to the benefit. The rule covers retirement pensions, survivor benefits, sickness and accident benefits, maternity pay and the BPC, a continuous benefit for low-income elderly and disabled people. The core change is the starting date of back payments: they now count from the moment the claimant filed suit, or from the date the INSS was formally summoned in the case, instead of from the date of the original administrative claim.How the case got hereThe original binding thesis was fixed in November 2025 by the STJ's First Section, according to IEPREV, a social security law institute that took part in the case as amicus curiae and published the full thesis. Under those rules, an administrative claim must come with minimal documentation; a request without it, which the court called a forced denial, can be rejected outright, and the claimant then lacks standing to sue. Anyone wishing to present new documents or facts must first file a new claim with the INSS, based on case 350 of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), decided in 2014. If the INSS receives a valid but poorly documented claim and fails to ask the claimant to complete the file, standing is preserved. Installments older than the five years before the lawsuit are barred by the statute of limitations.The clarification appeals, requests to clear up points of a ruling, were filed by IBDP, the Brazilian Social Security Law Institute, in an attempt to improve payment conditions for claimants. Lawyer Jane Berwanger, of the institute, argues that STF case 350 allows claimants to go straight to court, bypassing the social security agency, in specific situations, such as when the INSS rejects the claim. She also challenged automatic denials: according to the lawyer, quoted by Jornal do Comércio, an audit by the TCU, the federal accounts court, found that 2.2 million claims received an automatic decision in 2023, a rise of 70 percent, with no human review.In the vote adopted by the court, the rapporteur kept automatic granting in place. In his view, the INSS may continue awarding benefits through software, but whenever documents are needed to confirm entitlement, the claimant must be told how to present them, by the system or by a civil servant, and there can be no automatic denial.With the appeals closed, the thesis of case 1,124 remains valid and binding on courts across Brazil. The ruling will still be published in the official gazette, and individual cases on the matter will be decided under the rules now confirmed.

The full council of the Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil in the Federal District (OAB/DF), the Brazilian bar association's chapter in Brasília, approved by majority vote an institutional position asking for the impeachment of Supreme Federal Court (STF) justices Alexandre de Moraes and Dias Toffoli on suspicion of crimes of responsibility. The decision came out of an extraordinary session that began on Tuesday night (Sept 8) and ended in the early hours of Wednesday (Sept 9). The requests now go to the OAB's national Federal Council, which meets on Wednesday afternoon with the presidents of the state chapters.According to Correio Braziliense, the council approved seven measures. The main ones:filing impeachment proceedings against Moraes and Toffoli before the Senate, on suspicion of crimes of responsibility;a deep and transparent investigation into the involvement of any authorities in the facts under investigation, including members of the STF and of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), with precautionary suspension of those under investigation if necessary;an investigation of Moraes and Toffoli given the gravity of the conduct being examined by the Federal Police; according to Correio Braziliense, the same request covers Justice André Mendonça over the selective lifting of secrecy in the Banco Master inquiry;lifting secrecy on ongoing investigations that involve authorities, except for confidential precautionary proceedings;that STF President Edson Fachin take over investigations of people without privileged jurisdiction at the court and refer them to the competent judges;the dismissal of the court's so-called Fake News inquiry, with publication of the case files;an open letter to society on the measures and proposals for a reform of the judiciary.How the crisis beganThe requests come amid a crisis at the STF triggered by a Federal Police report on the cellphone of Banco Master founder Daniel Vorcaro. According to g1, the material reconstructed messages sent by Vorcaro to a number registered on the former banker's phone as "Alexandre de Moraes BRASILIA", with references to the justice's family, including discussion of two contracts with lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife, and Vorcaro's statement that he had a "debt for life" to him. Justice André Mendonça, the case's rapporteur, lifted the secrecy on the material on September 1, starting a confrontation between justices that is still running. In April, data obtained by Folha de S.Paulo and reported by g1 indicated that Toffoli had flown on a plane of a company linked to Vorcaro. G1 notes that the Federal Police report reconstructs only the sender's side, with no record of what was received or replied. No justice has been indicted or convicted.On Tuesday (Sept 8), OAB/DF president Paulo Maurício Siqueira, known as Poli, ordered the opening of disciplinary ethics proceedings against the partners of the firm Barci & Barci Advogados, which belongs to Moraes's wife, based on the Federal Police report from Operation Compliance Zero.Reaction and next stepsIn an official statement, the chapter said:"The OAB/DF reaffirms that its decisions are guided exclusively by the defense of the Constitution, of legality and of harmony between the branches of government, with no political-party bias, and trusts that the competent bodies will examine the requests with the rigor and impartiality that the gravity of the moment demands."According to CNN Brasil, the OAB/DF will also ask the Federal Council for a "deep, impartial and transparent" investigation into the involvement of any authority in the facts. The national OAB had already said it was following the crisis with "attention and extreme concern" and called for a rigorous investigation of anyone involved, with respect to due process and the presumption of innocence. The chapters of Paraná, Rondônia, Ceará and Santa Catarina asked for Moraes to be provisionally removed from the STF, while those of Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Pará, Goiás, Pernambuco, Amazonas and Rio de Janeiro called for a rigorous, independent and transparent investigation.The next step is the Federal Council meeting on Wednesday (Sept 9). STF President Edson Fachin had been expected to attend, but canceled his appearance amid the escalation of the crisis. If the Federal Council adopts the requests, the impeachment filings would go to the Senate, the body competent to try STF justices for crimes of responsibility.

Karina Ferreira da Gama, the producer of "Dark Horse", a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro, bought a hybrid BYD Song Plus SUV for R$ 102,190, paid entirely in cash. The purchase took place on January 13, 2025 at the BYD Dahruj dealership in São Paulo and was reported to Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence unit, because it was settled with "total amounts in cash", according to G1. The detail appears in a decision by Supreme Federal Court Justice Flávio Dino authorizing Operation Make Up, launched Thursday morning (10) by the Federal Police and the CGU, the federal audit office.Cash payments above R$ 50,000 in the financial system and R$ 100,000 at notaries are automatically reported to Coaf even without evidence of a crime, because large amounts of physical money are hard to trace. The decision also records that the vehicle, a 2025-model Song Plus 1.5 16V automatic hybrid, was listed at R$ 184,858 on the Fipe reference price table, R$ 82,668 above the price paid. The document does not explain the gap between the two figures.A Coaf report on its own does not make the purchase criminal. Gama is an investigated party in the inquiry, not a defendant, and the presumption of innocence applies. Thursday's operation carried no arrest warrants: police served 49 search and seizure orders in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceará and the Federal District. Gama and federal congressman Mario Frias (PL-SP), the film's screenwriter and executive producer, are among the targets. The Go Up production company itself is not named in the warrants; two entities owned by Gama, the Instituto Conhecimento Brasil (ICB) and the ANC, were searched, according to Agência Brasil. Police are investigating embezzlement (peculato), document fraud, money laundering, criminal organization and public bidding crimes.Timeline of the caseThe inquiry examines the suspected diversion of congressional earmarks, budget funds that Brazilian lawmakers direct to specific projects. A CGU audit found in May a suspected diversion of a R$ 2 million earmark sponsored by Frias to entities tied to Gama, including unproven expenses. According to Dino's decision, the ICB, which Gama chairs, received earmark money sponsored by Frias, and Go Up received funds from people and companies in the investigated core, which could suggest "possible patrimonial and operational integration" with entities that benefited from earmarks. Police say they identified flows of hundreds of millions of reais among companies tied to the scheme, with attempts to hide the diversions until July this year. In parallel, the Supreme Court is examining, under Justice André Mendonça as part of the Banco Master case, R$ 61 million transferred by banker Daniel Vorcaro to the film at the request of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.What each side saysIn May, Frias sent a filing to the Supreme Court denying that earmarks sent to nonprofits tied to the producer went to "any film production". Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, cited in the parallel inquiry, denied arranging any improper benefit with Vorcaro and said the funds transferred to the film were entirely private. People named in the operation had not responded to requests for comment from G1 and Agência Brasil by publication time.The inquiry remains with Dino at the Supreme Court. The next steps are the analysis of the material seized in Thursday's searches by the Federal Police and the CGU and, eventually, a decision by the Prosecutor General on whether to file charges. No date has been set for that stage.

The Federal Police report that supported Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) in authorizing Thursday's operation against the producer of the film Dark Horse points to signs of a financial triangulation of at least R$ 6.1 million among companies and entities linked to businesswoman Karina da Gama. According to the document, cited by g1, the money left the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB), an organization owned by Karina that runs Sao Paulo's free municipal wi-fi network under a R$ 157 million contract with city hall, moved through outsourced contractors and returned to another entity in her name, the culture-focused social organization Academia Nacional de Cultura (ANC).The two entities share the same address in the Jardins district of Sao Paulo, according to the justice's decision. To carry out the suspected triangulation, Karina would have used Complexsys Soluções Integradas and Fastfuture Tecnologias Emergentes, companies owned by the couple André Feldman and Débora Gomes Feldman that provided services under the wi-fi contract. The Federal Police also cites two other companies in the alleged scheme: Ultra IP Tecnologia e Serviços, owned by businessman William Silva Ferreira, which also received wi-fi funds, and Distribuidora de Produtos LMS."The ANC appears repeatedly as the recipient of funds from different companies financed by the ICB. (...) The movements described show strong signs of a return of public funds paid to the ICB to the sphere of availability of those responsible for the organization itself, with potential characterization of diversion and contours of money laundering," Dino wrote in the decision.The investigation lists the transfers received by the ANC from companies paid by the ICB:Complexsys: R$ 2,626,949.69 and R$ 1,308,986.33;Ultra IP: R$ 1,336,201.50;Fastfuture: R$ 603,136.12;Distribuidora LMS: R$ 300,000.The total cited by police reaches R$ 6,175,273.64.The owners of the three companies were targets of search and seizure warrants on Thursday and are barred from leaving Brazil. According to the state-run Agência Brasil, the phase, named Operation Make Up, executed 49 STF-issued warrants in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceara and the Federal District. The force is investigating embezzlement, document fraud, money laundering, criminal organization and public bidding crimes, with diversions estimated by the authorities in the hundreds of millions of reais. According to newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Dino also barred Congressman Mario Frias (PL-SP), the film's screenwriter and executive producer, from leaving the country and lifted the secrecy of the inquiry, in which investigators suspect that at least R$ 750,000 transferred to the production company Go Up Entertainment during filming came from Frias's congressional budget amendments.Background of the caseDark Horse is a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro produced by Karina da Gama, with Frias as screenwriter and executive producer. In May, the website The Intercept published audio of a conversation from last November in which Senator Flavio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) asked banker Daniel Vorcaro of Banco Master for money to finance the shoot; the senator denied any wrongdoing and said the funds given to the film were entirely private. The inquiry into the suspected diversion of congressional amendments is before the STF under Dino. In parallel, Justice André Mendonça examines the transfer of R$ 61 million from Vorcaro to the production.What the parties sayIn a statement, Karina da Gama's defense said it filed a constitutional complaint on criminal jurisdiction before the STF presidency on Thursday, a measure that "does not discuss the merits of the investigation". According to the lawyers, the businesswoman "was contributing spontaneously and voluntarily", answering the Federal Police's request last Friday and handing over more than 20,000 pages of documents, which they say proves her "good faith and procedural loyalty". Frias called the operation a "smokescreen" and denied irregularities, saying the R$ 2 million amendment under investigation funded a sports project and a digital literacy program.Complexsys, owned by André Feldman, said that "the Federal Police operation will prove, once again, that the funds received by the company were used solely in the contract to maintain the wi-fi network in the city of Sao Paulo, with no link to the financing of the film production under investigation". The company added that "the independent expert examination, already attached to the police inquiries, also proves that there is no relationship between the company's contract and the producer Go UP". g1 and GloboNews contacted the lawyers of everyone involved and had received no reply from some of them.Sao Paulo city hall, led by Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), said it rejects "any attempt to draw connections between municipal projects and programs and the film production about former president Jair Bolsonaro". The administration said the film received no municipal funds and that the cooperation agreement signed with the ICB has "no identified irregularity". The free wi-fi program remains in operation, with 3,200 installed access points and more than 760 million recorded connections, the statement said.None of those named has been indicted: all are investigation targets and enjoy the presumption of innocence. The next defined step is the STF presidency's review of Karina's constitutional complaint, which will decide whether to uphold Dino's measures. The inquiry remains open under the justice, with no date set for its conclusion.

The Brazilian Federal Police claims, in reports sent to the Supreme Federal Court (STF), that former banker Daniel Vorcaro paid for international trips and dinners enjoyed by two officials of the Central Bank, Brazil's monetary authority and bank regulator, who were removed from their posts on suspicion of favoring Banco Master. According to Folha de S.Paulo, which gained access to the files after the court lifted a secrecy order on Thursday night (10), Vorcaro would have covered part of a trip to Paris by Belline Santana, former head of Banking Supervision, and his wife, as well as expenses from a trip by Paulo Sérgio Neves de Souza, former director of supervision, to Disney in the United States.On the Paris leg, the police report says Vorcaro arranged the couple's itinerary and kept direct contact with service providers abroad:"He dealt directly with service providers abroad about restaurant reservations, reception and logistics, going as far as passing along the official's personal contact so the schedule could be finalized"In messages cited in the document, the former banker instructed that a dinner be organized at the restaurant Lapérouse and a lunch at Loulou. For the police, his instruction to order good wine and food suggests the bills were meant to be his. The report notes that Belline and his wife traveled to Paris during the period covered by the messages, but lists no other expenses and no amounts.In testimony to the Federal Police on August 24, heard as a witness, businessman Leo Serrano, owner of the travel agency Signature Luxury, said Vorcaro paid US$ 38,000 for a "VIP guide" who accompanied Paulo Sérgio through the Disney and Universal parks in Orlando in January 2024. According to Valor Econômico, which obtained the full testimony, the agency covered the cost and later sent the invoice to Vorcaro. On Belline, Serrano said no reservation requested for the 2025 Paris trip was ever paid or carried out.Both officials' lawyers deny any wrongdoing. Paulo Sérgio's defense, in a statement by lawyer Odel Antun, says he has documents proving he paid for the entire family trip himself and only accepted, on boarding day, a slot in a priority park-access package offered by Vorcaro, paying US$ 8,000 in cash through a person indicated by the former banker. Belline's defense, signed by lawyer Leonardo Palazzi, maintains that no "tourism, logistics or concierge service" was provided to him and criticized the leak of the testimony. Folha reported that the lawyers did not respond to requests for comment before publication.How the case reached the Supreme CourtBelline and Paulo Sérgio were removed from the Central Bank and are under investigation on suspicion of taking bribes to favor Master's interests while they supervised Vorcaro's bank, which has since been shut down. The probe is part of Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates an alleged scheme of financial fraud and money laundering tied to Master, and it reached the STF because it involves accusations against members of Congress and Justice Alexandre de Moraes.September 1: the case's reporting justice, André Mendonça, lifts the secrecy on a Federal Police report with indications that Vorcaro sought advice from and exchanged information with Moraes.September 3: Moraes releases police intelligence reports on alleged irregular conduct by Mendonça.September 9: STF President Edson Fachin removes Moraes from the Fake News inquiry and schedules a full-court session for September 15.September 10: at Fachin's request, Mendonça lifts the secrecy on Petition 15.556, the original core of the operation, and other related proceedings.The next step is set for Tuesday (15), when the full court examines the police report that identifies Moraes as one of Vorcaro's interlocutors and a request by the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) to void the document. No one has been convicted, and everyone named in the case is presumed innocent.

Justice Cristiano Zanin of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) asked the court's president, Justice Edson Fachin, on Friday (11) to release in full the media contents of the cellphone of businessman Daniel Vorcaro, seized by the Federal Police in November 2025. The request comes two days before the full bench meets on Tuesday (15) to decide the fate of a Federal Police report that names Justice Alexandre de Moraes as an interlocutor of Vorcaro in the Master bank case.On Thursday night (10), Fachin asked the case's rapporteur, Justice André Mendonça, to lift the secrecy covering part of the investigation records. Mendonça complied, but what became public were the Federal Police reports on the phone's contents, rather than the full set of media files such as photos, videos and notes, according to Folha de S.Paulo. In his memo, Zanin argues that the material on the phone of the former banker is directly related to the case and that Fachin's order to lift the secrecy already covers it. The release, he wrote, will allow a "necessary and complete" review of next week's judgment. G1 reports that Zanin maintains the media files are covered both by the order to share the case files among the justices and by the secrecy lift granted by Mendonça.Timeline of the caseThe Master case grew out of Federal Police operations such as "Sem Desconto" and "Compliance Zero" and is handled at the STF under Mendonça. Vorcaro, a former banker under investigation, had his phone seized in November 2025. On September 1, the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR), the federal prosecutors' authority, asked for the annulment of the Federal Police report that gathers messages between Moraes and Vorcaro. On Thursday (10) Fachin asked for the records to be opened; the files went public on Friday (11), the same day Moraes, Zanin and the PGR sent memos to Fachin asking for wider access to the documents.The dispute inside the courtMoraes said Mendonça made a "selective choice" of what became public and asked for all secrecy to be lifted immediately. According to his memo, only 15 proceedings were released in partial form, excluding 180 documents and digital files; Folha counts 14 proceedings unsealed. Moraes called Mendonça "directly interested in the judgment" and also asked that two petitions be judged together: one covering the messages he exchanged with Vorcaro and another gathering Federal Police reports on the rapporteur's conduct in the "Sem Desconto" and "Compliance Zero" operations."The piecemeal judgment of petitions 16,704 and 16,662 (...) added to the selective lifting of secrecy on only part of the proceedings, and the subjective direction by one of the interested parties on which documents should be delivered to the judging ministers, with the suppression of 180 documents, gravely obstructs the analysis of evidence," Moraes wrote.The PGR weighed in on Friday as well. Deputy Prosecutor General Hindenburgo Chateaubriand Filho asked for the secrecy to be lifted from all case documents to avoid "inducing the mistaken idea of transparency." The office said the list sent by Mendonça omitted most of the proceedings linked to the broader Compliance Zero investigation.The next step is Tuesday's session (15), when the bench is expected to review petitions tied to the investigation, including the one on the Federal Police report about Moraes and Vorcaro. The judgment may lead to an investigation against Moraes or to the annulment of the report, as the PGR requested on September 1. Fachin is still defining the format of the session, according to G1. No one named in the case has been convicted, and the proceedings remain open.

Brazil's Federal Police has concluded, in a filing sent to Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice André Mendonça, that there are elements indicating that Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the right-wing PL party's presidential candidate, acted as the "direct interlocutor" of Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the now-defunct Banco Master, in negotiations to finance the film Dark Horse, a production about the career of former president Jair Bolsonaro, the senator's father. According to the police, the evidence shows the senator in "payment demands, in-person meetings and monitoring of the shooting's progress". The document was sent on July 8 and was unsealed late on Thursday (10), following a decision by STF President Edson Fachin.Flávio Bolsonaro has been formally investigated in the inquiry since July 22, at the Federal Police's own request, on suspicion, still unproven, of money laundering, illegal currency transfers abroad and corruption. According to G1, Vorcaro moved 61 million reais to the film's producers through the Havengate fund in the United States, and the senator allegedly negotiated a transfer of 24 million dollars, about 134 million reais at the time. The production company says it spent 75.1 million reais on the film. Besides the senator, the police lists Eduardo Bolsonaro, lawmaker Mário Frias, publicist Thiago Miranda and three other people tied to the production as figures whose roles still need clarification.Timeline of the caseDecember 2024: messages taken from Vorcaro's phone show a meeting being scheduled with Flávio to discuss the "president's film", with Mário Frias, the project's originator, expected to take part.August 2025: the police records "direct exchanges" between the two, with messages indicating an in-person meeting on the 20th.September 2025: the senator sends an audio message demanding the film's payments; investigators say he was worried about the risk of defaulting on commitments to actor Jim Caviezel and director Cyrus Nowrasteh.October 22, 2025: Flávio reports that the film was on its third day of shooting and "at the limit", and asks Vorcaro to warn him if he cannot deliver the funds, so he can urgently find another path.November 7, 2025: the senator sends the banker a video saying the production was only happening because of his help.November 16 and 17, 2025: on the eve of the public phase of Operation Compliance Zero, Flávio tries to call Vorcaro and sends him a message; the next day, the banker is arrested as he tries to board a private jet to Dubai."Brother, I am and I will always be with you, there is no half-talk between us. I just need you to give me a light! Cheers!"The message above was sent by Flávio to Vorcaro on November 16, as transcribed by the Federal Police in its filing.Box office projections and a plea dealAccording to the newspaper O Globo, the production's business plan projected revenue more than three times the record box office of "Minha mãe é uma peça 3", and UOL reported that the Federal Police saw in that record projection a suspicion of money laundering. The police has also asked the STF to identify the final beneficiaries of the Havengate Development Fund LP and Havengate Development Fund GP LLC.The inquiry gained new material from the plea agreement of businessman Antônio Carlos Freixo Júnior, owner of Entre Investimentos, signed with the Attorney General's Office on August 8 and ratified by Mendonça on Wednesday (9). According to G1, he said he made seven transfers, described as "quotas subscriptions", to the Havengate fund between January and September 2025, on Vorcaro's orders, totaling 12.333 million dollars, about 62.8 million reais. The September transfer, of 1.666 million dollars, contradicts Flávio Bolsonaro's account that the last payment had come in May.The defenseIn Manaus on Friday (11), the senator called for every file in the case to be made public. "For me, the best thing that can happen is total transparency on this matter. Because they will only confirm what I have always said, that there is nothing wrong with the film", he said, according to Folha de S.Paulo. He also praised the justice overseeing the case: "André Mendonça is right. He is being a judge. I wish everyone on the Supreme Court were like him, leaning to no side. Investigate everything, everyone, with transparency, show it to the press, to the people".Part of the inquiry remains sealed because it covers ongoing police operations. Investigators still want contracts, payment records and currency-exchange documents tied to the financing. No deadline has been disclosed for the inquiry to be concluded, after which it goes to the Attorney General's Office for review. The case unfolds less than a month before the first round of Brazil's presidential election, in which Flávio Bolsonaro is one of the leading candidates.

Justice Flavio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) ruled on Friday (11) that the Federal Police must open a dedicated inquiry into suspected fraud in the wi-fi service contract between the city of Sao Paulo and the Conhecer Brasil Institute (ICB), an organization run by businesswoman Karina da Gama, who is under investigation for money laundering. According to G1, the ruling, still under judicial seal, also orders the Sao Paulo state Civil Police to hand its own inquiry into the NGO over to the Supreme Court and suspends any payment of public contracts with the institute.In the justice's view, the state-level investigations into ICB contracts are directly connected to the federal probe into the diversion of congressional earmarks, known in Brazil as "emendas parlamentares", which is before the STF because it involves federal Congressman Mario Frias (PL-SP). He enjoys privileged jurisdiction, a rule that sends cases involving members of Congress to the Supreme Court. Dino wrote that there are strong indications the facts form a single diversion and money laundering scheme, which led the court to take over the case. On Thursday (10), Frias and Karina da Gama were targets of Operation Make Up, in which the Federal Police served 49 search warrants in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceara and the Federal District, seized passports and barred the suspects from contacting one another. Police are investigating embezzlement, money laundering, document forgery, criminal organization and bidding crimes, and estimate the alleged losses in the hundreds of millions of reais.The ICB's wi-fi contract with the Sao Paulo city government is worth R$ 157 million, according to the Federal Police report that underpinned the justice's decision. The document points to signs of a financial round trip of at least R$ 6.1 million: money left the institute for subcontracted companies, including Complexsys and Fastfuture, owned by the couple Andre Feldman and Debora Gomes Feldman, and returned to another entity controlled by Karina da Gama, the National Academy of Culture (ANC), which shares the same address as the ICB in the Jardins district. According to G1, the purchase of a car for roughly R$ 100,000 in cash drew the attention of COAF, Brazil's financial intelligence unit.Earlier on Friday, before the ruling, Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB) had said he would ask the STF whether the ban on contracts with the investigated entities, set on Thursday, applies to deals already signed. If it does, he said, the city will terminate the contract, which he put at R$ 108 million per year. "If the company really can no longer have a contract with anyone (...) we will have to break the contract. And lose 3,200 wi-fi points in the communities and favelas," he said. Nunes defended the bidding process, which was open for 30 days, and said the city's internal audit office is reviewing the NGO's accounts and has found no wrongdoing by the administration.TimelineMay 2026: news site The Intercept publishes audio of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro (PL) asking banker Daniel Vorcaro for money to finance the film "Dark Horse"; the case spawns inquiries at the STF, now split between Dino (earmarks) and Andre Mendonca (film financing).Thursday (10): the Federal Police serves 49 Operation Make Up warrants against Mario Frias and Karina da Gama, investigated on suspicion of diverting congressional earmarks.Friday (11), morning: Nunes announces he will consult the STF on whether to terminate the ICB wi-fi contract.Friday (11): Dino orders the exclusive Federal Police inquiry, pulls the state case to the STF and suspends payments to the institute.Asked about the cash purchase of the car, Nunes said: "Absolutely no one is above the law. Not a mayor, not a journalist, not a judge." Frias called the operation a "smoke screen" timed to the election season and said he has documents proving the earmark was lawful, destined for a sports and digital literacy project for children. Flavio Bolsonaro, a senator under investigation in a parallel inquiry into the film's financing, insists the movie was made with private money: "Everything there was spotless, private investment in a private film." Agencia Brasil reported it received no response from Karina da Gama.Everyone named is an investigation target and is presumed innocent until conviction. The Federal Police must now open the exclusive inquiry and gather the state case files; no deadline has been disclosed, as the case remains under seal. City Hall awaits a reply on whether to terminate the contract, which keeps 3,200 wi-fi points running in low-income neighborhoods.

The director-general of Brazil's Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, has told the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, that the force did not monitor Justice André Mendonça or the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias, who is named by Metrópoles. The filing was delivered on Friday afternoon (11), within the 48-hour deadline set by Fachin, who will now decide whether the officer keeps his post at the head of the police."There was, absolutely, no illegal monitoring of a Justice of this STF and none of the Attorney General of the Union. The documents challenged by the ruling issued in Pet 16662 did not come from surveillance actions, clandestine data collection or any invasive measure," Rodrigues wrote, in a passage quoted by G1.In the filing, Rodrigues defended the intelligence reports challenged in Pet 16662, the court case in which the standoff runs. He said the papers were sent to Justice Alexandre de Moraes in compliance with a judicial order, and that calling them apocryphal is a mistake: they were produced by fully identifiable units and duly registered in the police's system, as Mendonça's own decision acknowledged. The absence of the analyst's name, he argued, follows the duty to protect intelligence professionals set by Decree 8.793/2016.Timeline of the standoffTuesday (8): Mendonça orders the precautionary removal of Rodrigues and of the Federal Police intelligence director, Leandro Almada, and the opening of criminal and administrative investigations into the reports. He asks the court's Second Chamber to review the order in a virtual session; a majority of three votes forms to keep the removals, but the vote is interrupted when Justice Gilmar Mendes asks for more time, leaving it unfinished.Wednesday (9): Justice Flávio Dino, ruling on a request by Rodrigues, reinstates the two officers. Dino held that Partido Novo, the party behind the original request, had no standing to seek criminal precautionary measures, and that the removal could harm ongoing inquiries, including the investigation into "Dark Horse", a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro that Dino oversees.Wednesday (9), late afternoon: Fachin suspends both decisions, cites a "conflict of judicial positions" and sends the standoff to the full court. He gives Rodrigues 48 hours to submit information on his continuation as director-general.To justify the removal, Mendonça described the reports as technically weak, anonymous and incompatible with intelligence work, and spoke of "arapongagem institucional", a Brazilian term for the illegal snooping of authorities. He wrote that there were signs the police's intelligence structure had been misused to monitor STF justices and other authorities, and that keeping Rodrigues in command could allow interference with the investigations, early access to operations and influence over witnesses or evidence. The removal is precautionary: no one has been convicted."An interpretation based on that mistaken premise would make intelligence work itself unfeasible, since the agency's analysis of the institutional circumstances affecting its own investigations cannot be described as surveillance," Rodrigues replied, adding that there was no intrusion into the privacy or the official duties of the authorities involved.With the response filed before the deadline expired at around 6 p.m., the case now sits with Fachin. Under article 33, sole paragraph, of the LOMAN, the Brazilian law that governs the judiciary, the court president will assess whether Rodrigues stays on as director-general. The clash between Mendonça and Dino goes to the full bench, and the Second Chamber's vote remains suspended after Mendes's request. No dates have been announced for any of these steps.

Brazil's Federal Police has found strong signs of irregularities in the transfer of R$ 7.15 billion in credit rights from a firm named Tirreno Consultoria Promotora de Créditos e Participações to Banco Master, a Brazilian bank, in 2024 and 2025. The conclusion appears in a police expert report unsealed on the night of Thursday, September 10, by Justice André Mendonça of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), who oversees the main investigations into the bank pending at the court.According to G1, the examiners concluded that Tirreno had no capacity compatible with originating the credits, that is, with generating or granting the loans that made up the portfolio. In building the securities sold to Master, the report points to "recurring and unusual patterns in the distribution of values, replication of contracts and concentration of attributes, which are strong signs of artificiality".The police also found no evidence that Master actually paid for the assignments. "The exams performed found no evidence of effective financial settlement of the assignments through the deposit of funds in a freely movable checking account held by Tirreno", the report says. The company's only checking account identified in the Customer Registry of the National Financial System (CCS) was opened on May 23, 2025, after all of the assignments examined had already taken place, and it showed no financial movement.How the case got hereNovember 2024: SX 016 Empreendimentos e Participações is created and later renamed Tirreno. One month later comes the first assignment of credits to Master, worth about R$ 280 million.2024 and 2025: the assignments examined by police total R$ 7.15 billion. According to the force, part of these credit rights was later passed on to Banco Regional de Brasília (BRB).2026: the Master crisis breaks open, the bank's former owner Daniel Vorcaro is arrested in Brasília, and BRB's current management links the crisis to a R$ 8.8 billion hole.September 10, 2026: at the request of STF President Edson Fachin, Mendonça lifts the secrecy on 14 proceedings, in addition to the main inquiry, and the report becomes public.BRB, a bank controlled by the government of the Federal District, sits at the center of the investigation into the origin of the portfolio it acquired. According to the bank's current management, the crisis revealed a hole of R$ 8.8 billion tied to securities that were nonexistent, fraudulent or hard to recover. To cover the loss, the bank approved a capital increase of up to R$ 8.8 billion.Vorcaro is jailed and under investigation for running what is believed to be Brazil's largest financial fraud, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The release of the documents followed a request made hours earlier by STF President Edson Fachin, with a carve-out to keep secret any police steps whose confidentiality is essential to the inquiry. Investigations into the film "Dark Horse" and into Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), among other lines of inquiry, remain under seal, according to G1.The report's conclusions carry, for now, the weight of evidence in an ongoing inquiry, and no person or company named has been convicted. The next expected step is a session of the full STF to discuss the police report on the relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Vorcaro, with no date set so far.

A group tied to former banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is under investigation in the Master case, obtained information from sealed case files at the MPF, Brazil's federal prosecution service, including, according to Folha de S.Paulo, records on the Banco Master itself and on BRB, the public bank of the Brasília district government. The finding comes from a Federal Police report sent to the STF, Brazil's Supreme Court. The queries were logged under the functional credentials of prosecution staff, the PF says. The material became public after Justice André Mendonça lifted the secrecy order on the case's main investigations on Thursday (10), at the request of the court's president, Edson Fachin.A report by Folha published on Friday (11) details the episodes. In one of them, a document attributed to the MPF was used to find out who had hired a helicopter that allegedly flew over the former banker's house in Bahia state. Messages reproduced in the report show Luiz Phillipi Machado de Moraes Mourão, known as Sicário and identified as Felipe Mourão in the chats, offering Vorcaro the chance to research people and companies and forwarding results of queries into internal systems, including sealed proceedings. In June 2024 he sent a list of names of people and companies and said Vorcaro could add others "to pull the sealed ones." Asked in another exchange which documents he wanted to receive, Vorcaro replied: "All of them, obviously."According to the PF, Mourão was paid R$ 1 million a month to work as Vorcaro's operational executor. The tasks described by Folha include access to confidential information, coercion and the fabrication of dossiers; CNN Brasil adds monitoring, removal of online content, hacker attacks and dealings with criminals. Investigators describe Mourão as a member of the core known as A Turma ("the crew"), presented by Folha as an alleged militia set up to monitor and intimidate people seen as adversaries or connected to the inquiries into the bank.What the report saysAfter analyzing data extracted from Vorcaro's phone, the PF concluded that he had built an "organized structure, with a functional division of tasks" aimed at repeated unlawful conduct on several fronts. The access took place through third parties' functional logins, improper extraction of documents and unauthorized queries in internal systems, the document says."The messages show that there was recurrent and irregular access to sealed proceedings under way at the MPF, the Federal Police, the Civil Police and the Central Bank," the report states, as cited by CNN Brasil.In the table of people named in the investigation, the PF notes that the login of two MPF staff members was used repeatedly to access sealed cases, with a notation of "possible improper use, with or without conscious participation." Information protected by secrecy was used for purposes "unrelated to the public interest," the document says.TimelineThe Master case brings together at the STF investigations into fraud attributed to the Banco Master group, which was controlled by Vorcaro and has since been liquidated. The bank drew scrutiny after the website Intercept Brasil published chats in which presidential hopeful Flávio Bolsonaro asked Vorcaro for money to finance the film "Dark Horse"; the former banker paid R$ 61 million to the producers through a fund in the United States, according to G1.The Federal Police has pursued the group through successive phases of Operation Compliance Zero.March 4: Mourão is arrested in Compliance Zero and dies by hanging in his cell at the Federal Police superintendence in Minas Gerais; his death is confirmed two days later.Thursday (10): Mendonça grants Fachin's request and lifts the secrecy order; part of the files is released that same night.Friday (11): Folha details the access to sealed MPF data on Master and BRB.In testimony to the Federal Police, Vorcaro denied obtaining privileged information from the Central Bank and has again signaled a plea deal proposal, according to CNN Brasil. The inquiries remain under partial secrecy: Mendonça kept sealed, among others, the investigations into the financing of "Dark Horse" and into Senator Jaques Wagner's relationship with former Master partner Augusto Ferreira Lima, G1 reports. The PF report remains before the court, where the Master investigations are handled by Mendonça as rapporteur.

A group tied to former banker Daniel Vorcaro, of the Banco Master now in liquidation, obtained information from sealed proceedings at Brazil's federal prosecutors' office (MPF) through queries registered under the staff logins of the agency's own employees, according to the Federal Police. The finding appears in a police report sent to the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, and made public on Thursday night (Sept. 10), after Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the case, lifted secrecy over part of the investigation at the request of the court's president, Edson Fachin.According to CNN Brasil, an analysis of data extracted from Vorcaro's cell phone showed recurrent, irregular access to sealed proceedings not only at the prosecutors' office but also within the Federal Police, the Civil Police and the Central Bank. "The messages show that there was recurrent and irregular access to sealed proceedings underway at the MPF, the Federal Police, the Civil Police and the Central Bank," the report states. The police say the access relied on third parties' staff logins, improper extraction of documents and unauthorized queries in internal systems, and that the protected information was used for "purposes unrelated to the public interest". In the table of people named in the inquiry, the PF records that the logins of two prosecutors' office employees were used repeatedly to reach sealed cases, and speaks of "possible improper use, with or without conscious participation", leaving open whether the employees knew their credentials were being used.The messages and the "operational executor"Messages reproduced in the document show Luiz Phillipi Machado de Moraes Mourão, described by police as Vorcaro's "operational executor" and identified as "Felipe Mourão" in the chats, sending the then-banker results of queries to internal systems. Folha de S.Paulo reports that the queries covered investigations into Master itself and into BRB, the Banco de Brasília, and that among the seized messages is an "I want it all" attributed to the group. In June 2024, according to the report, Mourão sent a list of names of people and companies and said Vorcaro could add others "to pull the sealed ones". Asked which documents he wanted to receive, Vorcaro replied: "All of them, obviously".In one episode described by investigators, a document attributed to the MPF was used to find out who had hired a helicopter that allegedly flew over the former banker's house in Bahia state. The police say Mourão was paid R$ 1 million a month for work that included access to confidential information, coercion and the fabrication of dossiers, and place him in a unit called "A Turma", described in the report as an alleged militia set up to monitor and intimidate people seen as adversaries of the bank or connected to the inquiries. The report describes an "organized structure, with a functional division of tasks" aimed at "the repeated practice of unlawful conduct on several fronts".A brief timelineMaster, now in liquidation, is the target of Compliance Zero, a Federal Police operation investigating suspected fraud involving the bank. Mourão was arrested in that operation on March 4, hanged himself in his cell at the Federal Police superintendency in Minas Gerais the same day and was confirmed dead two days later, according to Folha. The Master investigations also run at the Supreme Court, where Mendonça ordered the partial release of the case files on Thursday.Vorcaro is an investigative target and has not been convicted. In testimony to the Federal Police, he denied obtaining privileged information from the Central Bank, according to CNN Brasil. Secrecy has been lifted from only part of the inquiry, and the release of further sections depends on the rapporteur's decision.

Brazil's Federal Police has detailed, in a document unsealed late on Thursday (10), the moves of former banker Daniel Vorcaro in the days before his arrest in Operation Compliance Zero, the core of the so-called case Master, an investigation into suspected financial fraud and money laundering at Banco Master. According to the force, Vorcaro knew about the police operation before he was detained, and it is "unlikely" that his trip abroad on the night before the warrants were executed "is mere coincidence".The material is part of Petition 15.556, the central proceeding of the inquiry, released by Justice André Mendonça, the case's rapporteur at Brazil's Supreme Court (STF), at the request of the court's president, Edson Fachin. In all, 14 proceedings tied to the case Master came out of secrecy, according to news site g1. Here is the case timeline:17 Nov 2025: Vorcaro is stopped at Guarulhos airport, outside São Paulo, as he prepared to board a private jet with a final destination of the United Arab Emirates.18 Nov 2025: the Federal Police officially launches Operation Compliance Zero, phase 1.Late Nov 2025: the TRF-1 federal appeals court orders the release of Vorcaro and four other Banco Master executives.27 Feb 2026: the Federal Police signs a new pretrial detention request for the banker based on the elements now public.March 2026: Vorcaro is arrested again.10 Sept 2026: the STF lifts the secrecy on the case Master's main files.What the document saysIn the police reconstruction, Vorcaro recorded on 21 October 2025, in his phone's Notes app, the names of Federal Police representatives who had attended a closed meeting with the Central Bank, which investigators read as evidence of early access to protected information. Two days before the operation, on 16 November, he noted a question about a possible closeness between a third party and federal judge Ricardo Soares Leite, the judge authorizing measures against him. Because the inquiry was under seal, the police say the note reinforces the suspicion of a leak.On 17 November, the eve of the operation, Vorcaro received urgent messages at 7:28 a.m. from his lawyer Walfrido Warde and changed his plans: at 8:48 a.m. he said he would book a flight out of Congonhas airport. From 7:41 a.m. he spoke with journalist Diego Escosteguy about a story in the works; after 11 a.m. he received the link to the article, which mentioned an inquiry before the 10th Federal Court of Brasília, and immediately passed it to Warde. That same day the lawyer filed a petition with the 10th Federal Court of the Federal District asking for access to the investigation and citing the news report as his source.The document also records that, from 6:34 a.m. that day, Vorcaro was in contact with Central Bank officials Paulo Sérgio and Belline, who considered it "essential" that he speak with the bank's director Ailton Aquino. The virtual meeting was set for 1:15 p.m., and afterward a report circulated on the sale of Banco Master to the Fictor group, news the officials themselves took without surprise, which the police read as a sign of prior alignment. The force also says Vorcaro himself had leaked to the press the Fictor group's interest in buying the bank.According to the Federal Police, "aware of the future and imminent police action", Vorcaro "uses Central Bank officials who are subordinate to him (due to the payment of improper advantages) to force a virtual meeting on the day immediately before the police operation". The conclusions come from the investigative stage and await judicial review; under Brazilian law, anyone under investigation is presumed innocent until a final conviction. In the document's closing assessment, the investigators wrote:"There are strong indicative elements of conduct by Daniel Vorcaro and associates aimed at protecting the leadership core of the criminal organization, through advance knowledge of procedural acts and coordination with interlocutors in oversight bodies, alongside logistical planning to leave the country in a window close to the launch of the measures, which, added to communications with authorities and the monitoring of internal procedures, makes up the picture of 'tentacles' in public and private structures."Court crisis and next stepsThe Federal Police used the material to support its new pretrial detention request signed on 27 February 2026, and Vorcaro was rearrested in March. In the TRF-1 ruling that ordered his release and that of the executives about ten days after the first arrest, one of the arguments in his favor was, according to the police, the content of the meeting he held with the Central Bank.The case Master has reached the Supreme Court in the middle of a crisis among its justices. A police report with messages between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, unsealed on 1 September, shows the banker asking on 15 November 2025: "Do you think I should be out of the country by Monday?" According to BBC News Brasil, the report points to indications that Vorcaro sought advice and exchanged information with Moraes, who responded by releasing police intelligence reports on conduct attributed to Mendonça. The next step is set for Tuesday (15), when the full court examines the validity of the police report on Moraes and the path of a possible investigation against the justice.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) published in the early hours of Friday (11) at least two contracts in full, drawn up by the law firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the wife of Justice Alexandre de Moraes, tied to the group that controls Banco Master. The release, on the court's website, came minutes after Justice André Mendonça, the justice overseeing the case, lifted the judicial secrecy that covered the inquiries. The main document provided for payments of R$ 131 million over three years for legal services to the bank.Signed in 2024, the contract covered the implementation and continuous improvement of a compliance program, plus "strategic advisory" work in proceedings before the Federal Police, state civil police forces, the central bank, the federal tax authority and Cade, Brazil's antitrust regulator, according to Folha de S.Paulo. It also granted the firm the right to represent the bank in court cases at every level. In the assessment of the Federal Police, cited by the newspaper, the document had been drafted by the justice himself.The second contract released by the court covers services to Viking Participações, another company of former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the Master owner. Payments would add up to R$ 50 million net, after taxes, over three years.In a statement released last week, when the Federal Police analysis became public, the Barci de Moraes firm said it followed its standard procedure. According to the statement, "due to the scope of the request for the contracting of legal services by Banco Master", the firm's compliance department sought information from the justice, "as the husband of the firm's managing partner".The statement adds that, since there was no provision for work before the STF and no legal impediment, given that the justice had never judged any case involving Banco Master, the contract was signed and the legal services were provided. No one involved has been convicted: Vorcaro is under investigation in Operation Compliance Zero and remains in jail; no formal accusation has been filed against Moraes at the court.How the case got hereThe Master case grew out of Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates an alleged scheme of financial fraud and money laundering at Vorcaro's bank and involves allegations against members of Congress and the justice himself, according to BBC News Brasil. The main steps, as reported by G1 and the BBC:November 17, 2025: Vorcaro is arrested at Guarulhos airport as he tries to board a private jet bound for the United Arab Emirates, on the eve of the launch of Compliance Zero; a federal appeals court orders his release about ten days later.March 2026: after a new request by the Federal Police, signed on February 27, the banker is arrested again.September 1: Mendonça lifts the secrecy of a Federal Police report with signs that Vorcaro had sought advice and exchanged information with Moraes; among the messages is "Do you think I should already be out by Monday?" (in Portuguese, "Acha que segunda já tenho que estar fora?"), sent two days before the arrest.September 3: Moraes strikes back and lifts the secrecy of Federal Police intelligence reports on alleged irregular conduct by Mendonça.September 9: STF President Edson Fachin takes the Fake News inquiry away from Moraes and schedules a full-court session on the Master case.September 10: at Fachin's request, Mendonça ends the secrecy of Petition 15.556, the original core of the operation, and of 14 related proceedings; the contracts go up on the STF website in the following hours.Next stepsOn Tuesday (15), the full STF will examine the validity of the Federal Police report produced at Mendonça's request, which pointed to a supposed relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro. The making of the document and the fallout of the investigation have caused an unprecedented internal crisis at the court, according to G1. The session could lead to the opening of an investigation against the justice, in the assessment of BBC News Brasil. Mendonça also said steps are being taken to send complete copies of the case files to the court's presidency and to every justice's chamber.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, asked Justice André Mendonça on Thursday (10) to lift the secrecy covering the Master Bank case records pending at the court. The request covers Pet 15.556, the petition file at the origin of the investigation, and all procedures derived from it. According to InfoMoney, only material that could compromise investigative steps needed for future operations on the case would stay sealed.At the STF, the justice assigned to a case, known as the relator, controls what stays under seal. Because Mendonça holds that role in the Master case, the move by the court's president takes the form of a request, as g1 reported. Fachin also asked that all files contained in or related to Pet 15.556 be sent, on a dedicated hard drive, to the presidency and to every justice's office. The measure prepares an extraordinary session scheduled for September 15, when the full bench is to weigh a Federal Police report on the case and a request by the Attorney General's Office (PGR) to void the document."Considering that Pet 16.662 was formed from Pet 15.556, I request that the distinguished Justice André Mendonça (rapporteur of Pet 15.556) send to this presidency and to the offices of the distinguished justices, on a dedicated hard drive, all procedures contained in or related to Pet 15.556, as well as lift the secrecy of Pet 15.556 (and of the procedures contained in or related to it), excepting only what concerns investigative steps whose secrecy is indispensable to carrying out the measure," Fachin wrote in an order quoted by g1 (translated from Portuguese).A timeline of the crisisThe Master case at the STF gathers the investigations into Banco Master, owned by jailed former banker Daniel Vorcaro, and an inquiry into payments for a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro's life. According to g1, tensions between Mendonça's office and the Federal Police leadership over the pace of the inquiry predated the report, and in August President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told the force's director general, Andrei Rodrigues, to meet with the rapporteur. The trigger of the current crisis was a Federal Police report, commissioned by Mendonça, that pointed to an alleged relationship between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes based on messages attributed to the banker.On Wednesday (9), Fachin removed Moraes as rapporteur of the fake news inquiry he had run for more than seven years, suspended conflicting orders by Mendonça and Justice Flávio Dino over control of the Federal Police, keeping Rodrigues in office, and called the extraordinary session for Tuesday (15). On Thursday, according to newspaper O Globo, the court presidency delivered to the justices' offices the complete case file containing the Federal Police report, whose seal Mendonça had already lifted.What each side saysJustices criticized Mendonça for commissioning an investigation into a member of the court itself without first submitting the matter to the full bench, and Attorney General Paulo Gonet asked that the report be voided. On Tuesday the bench is also set to discuss procedures for any eventual investigation involving Moraes, who currently faces no open investigation at the court. President Lula said on Wednesday that all secrecy in the case should be broken and complained about "selective leaks that affect the electoral race", a veiled reference to reports on the relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro, Folha de S.Paulo reported. The revelations have energized the Bolsonaro movement, the political force seeking to elect Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a presidential candidate ahead of October's vote.Behind the scenes, Fachin spent Thursday afternoon in internal consultations, receiving Justices Moraes, Mendonça, Dias Toffoli, Cristiano Zanin, Kassio Nunes Marques and Luiz Fux, as well as Attorney General Gonet. According to g1's reporting, six votes are considered firm: Gilmar Mendes, Flávio Dino and Cristiano Zanin are seen as aligned with Moraes, while Mendonça can count on Fux and Nunes Marques; the positions of Fachin and Cármen Lúcia remain uncertain. The immediate next step belongs to Mendonça, who must decide whether to grant the request and lift the secrecy. The extraordinary session follows on Tuesday, September 15, to rule on the Federal Police report. O Globo reported that a public statement by Moraes was expected on Monday (14), the eve of the session.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate, called the Federal Police operation launched on Thursday (10) to investigate suspected misuse of congressional earmarks tied to the film Dark Horse an "attempted coup" and a "sham". The film is a biopic of his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro. In his weekly YouTube broadcast, the candidate said "there are 24 days left until the election... they need to make something up against me" and announced that his defense will ask the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court, Justice Edson Fachin, to formally investigate Justice Flávio Dino over what he calls political scheming, according to news portal G1."The name of this operation should have been attempted coup. Here is a tip, Dino: attempted coup is the name of your operation."What the police are investigatingThe Federal Police served 49 search and seizure warrants issued by the STF in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceará and the Federal District, according to state news agency Agência Brasil. The targets include federal deputy Mário Frias (PL-SP), the film's screenwriter and executive producer, and producer Karina Ferreira da Gama, owner of Go UP Entertainment and of two entities named as recipients of the funds, the Instituto Conhecer Brasil and the Academia Nacional de Cultura. Earmarks are budget funds that lawmakers direct to projects of their choice. Police are investigating suspected criminal organization, embezzlement, money laundering, document fraud and bidding crimes; authorities put the suspected losses at hundreds of millions of reais. Dino authorized the operation and runs the case on the alleged diversion of earmarks. No one has been convicted, and those under investigation deny any wrongdoing.Frias, whose home was searched, called the operation a "smokescreen" in a video posted on social media. The deputy denied irregularities, said he will cooperate and hand over all requested documents, and said he expects the case to be dismissed, G1 reported. Agência Brasil said it sought comment from Frias and Karina and received no reply.The candidate's responseIn the broadcast, Flávio denied that public money financed the film. "With all calm in the world, once again: there is nothing wrong with Bolsonaro's film. It was all perfectly in order, private investment in a private film," he said, in remarks reported by Folha de S.Paulo. He said Dino and fellow Justice Alexandre de Moraes "tried to interfere in the elections" and claimed the operation was arranged after a meeting between Moraes and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, with whom he said he is disappointed. InfoMoney noted that the candidate accuses Dino of staging a "coup" against President Lula's opponents without presenting evidence.Flávio also suggested a favor exchange between Dino and Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues. According to Folha, Justice André Mendonça removed Andrei from the post on Tuesday (8) and Dino ordered his reinstatement, a decision the candidate called "a completely illegal stroke of the pen". He also claimed the operation's authorization, signed by Dino on September 3, coincides with a post he made on X about an alleged coup attempt in the elections, cited polls showing him in a statistical tie with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and said, according to InfoMoney, that producer Karina had been threatened to turn against him with testimony.How the case got hereThe case reached the STF in May, when the news site The Intercept published audio of a conversation from November last year in which Flávio asks Banco Master banker Daniel Vorcaro for money to fund the shooting of his father's biopic. The senator denied arranging any improper benefit and said the funds transferred to the film were entirely private. At the court, the matter runs on two parallel tracks: Dino is investigating earmark transfers to entities linked to Karina, and Mendonça is examining a transfer of 61 million reais from Vorcaro to the film, made at Flávio's request, as part of the Banco Master case.The next announced step is the defense request to Fachin for a formal investigation of Dino; no filing date was given. The inquiries remain open at the STF, and the first round of the presidential election is scheduled for October 4.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Edson Fachin, is under pressure to hold a closed session on Tuesday (15), when the full bench examines for the first time a request to open an investigation into Justice Alexandre de Moraes, whose sessions are normally broadcast live on television. According to CNN Brasil, the goal of the group pushing to shut the doors is to keep disagreements among the justices, above all between Moraes and André Mendonça, the rapporteur on the Banco Master inquiries and, in the words of Folha de S.Paulo, Moraes's main antagonist on the court, out of public view.Allies of Moraes argue, according to the channel, that a live broadcast could increase public pressure for votes in favor of the investigation, and they single out Justices Kassio Nunes Marques and Cármen Lúcia as more sensitive to public opinion. Fachin has not decided yet. He has signaled that closing the session could create the impression that the court resists transparency amid the crisis dividing it.Moraes's defense is still taking shape. Folha reported that he had prepared a statement for Thursday (10), announced by the court's press office at 7:40 a.m. and canceled at 8:45 a.m., after allied justices advised him to wait and let attention focus on the Federal Police operation over the film "Dark Horse", authorized by Justice Flávio Dino. One target was congressman Mario Frias (PL-SP), who is under investigation, denies wrongdoing and called the operation a "smokescreen". According to CNN Brasil, the statement is now planned for Monday (14), the eve of the session, when Moraes is expected to reaffirm that he never had personal involvement with banker Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master. Moraes denies the suspicions. A justice close to him told Folha that anything left unexplained could haunt him until Tuesday.How the case reached the plenaryA short timeline of the crisis, based on reporting by BBC News Brasil:May: the website The Intercept Brasil revealed that presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro had allegedly asked Vorcaro for US$ 24 million (about R$ 134 million) to finance a film about Jair Bolsonaro.September 1: Mendonça lifted the secrecy on the Federal Police report on the Master case, which set off the open crisis inside the court.September 3: Moraes asked for Mendonça to be included in the Fake News inquiry over an alleged "abuse of authority" in releasing the report.September 8: Mendonça tried to remove the Federal Police director-general and block intelligence reports on judges; the police itself accused him of interfering with evidence gathering.September 9: Fachin removed Moraes as rapporteur of the Fake News inquiry and canceled the plenary session.September 10: another session was canceled, and the Federal Police carried out the "Dark Horse" search warrants.According to BBC News Brasil, the Federal Police report recorded messages attributed to Moraes and Vorcaro in which the banker asked for advice, including on when to leave Brazil, and the exchanges became more frequent shortly before Vorcaro was arrested while trying to flee the country. The inquiry also references a multimillion-real contract between the bank and the law office of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife. Moraes denies any irregularity.Scenarios for TuesdayThe vote count for Tuesday is seen as inconclusive, according to CNN Brasil. The expectation inside the court is that Justice Dias Toffoli will declare himself barred from the case, since he has also been cited over suspected ties to Vorcaro. Another possibility raised within the STF is a "vista", a procedural request that lets a justice take a case for further study and push the ruling past this year's elections, as Gilmar Mendes did when the court weighed the removal of Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues.Fachin canceled both the Wednesday (9) and Thursday (10) sessions because, according to aides quoted by Folha, he judged there was a real risk they would be used to anticipate the debate planned for Tuesday. In the courtroom, Moraes and Mendonça sit side by side. The next step on the calendar is the statement expected on Monday (14), followed by Tuesday's session (15), open or closed, a decision that rests with the court's president.

The banker Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, stated in a proposed plea bargain, the cooperation agreement of Brazilian criminal procedure, that ACM Neto, a former mayor of Salvador and current vice president of União Brasil, and Antônio Rueda, the party's national president, received 10% of the deposits that public pension funds and state-owned companies made with the bank. UOL reported the document's contents on Thursday (10 September), in a column by journalists Cézar Feitoza, Fabio Serapião and Natália Portinari. Brazil's Federal Police and the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) had already rejected Vorcaro's plea proposals, and no court has ratified the claims.Under the rule as the document describes it, "each political group that captured the investment" would be entitled to 10% of the amount placed, or 1% a year for as long as the money stayed with Master. Vorcaro says the two politicians' work helped the bank raise about R$ 2 billion, which would imply a liability of up to R$ 200 million to the pair. The document does not say how much was actually paid, and Vorcaro does not explain how the calculation method was defined. The institutions named are the pension funds of Rio de Janeiro, Amapá and Amazonas states, plus Cedae, Rio's water and sewage utility.How the case got hereThe lifting of banking secrecy on Master identified R$ 6.4 million paid to offices linked to Rueda between 2022 and 2025, and R$ 5.4 million to ACM Neto's consultancy between 2023 and 2025.Vorcaro submitted plea bargain proposals; the Federal Police and the PGR rejected them, citing a lack of new information and the absence of guarantees that he would return money tied to the alleged frauds.Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes released a Federal Police intelligence report on the investigation, and the document began circulating again, according to Bahia Notícias.On Thursday (10), UOL published the excerpts naming ACM Neto and Rueda.What the informant describesIn the proposal, Vorcaro says payments to the two men were so frequent that the bank began tracking the amounts they were owed. One passage reads:"Because ACM Neto and Antônio de Rueda brokered several deals for Banco Master, such as Credcesta, fundraising from institutional investors and intermediation with BRB, always in exchange for improper payments, both came to hold a kind of managerial current account of receivables with Banco Master."Payments to ACM Neto would have come in cash, through companies and people tied to Augusto Lima and to Antônio Freixo, owner of Entre Investimentos e Participações, and through consulting contracts between A&M Consultoria and Master and Reag, along with contracts with B6 Capital, an asset manager linked to the former mayor. For Rueda, besides cash, the document cites contracts between Master conglomerate companies and the law firm Rueda & Rueda Advogados that could add up to about R$ 3 million a month. Vorcaro also said Rueda took him to a meeting in Brasília in June 2024 with Paulo Henrique Costa, then president of BRB, the Bank of Brasília, and that one improper payment was to be split three ways among Rueda, Paulo Henrique and ACM Neto.The figures do not match exactly. Vorcaro speaks of about R$ 2 billion raised with the politicians' help, but the four institutions cited invested about R$ 3.62 billion in total, according to banking records reported by Revista Fórum: Rioprevidência put in R$ 2.97 billion between 2023 and 2025; Amapá's Amprev, R$ 400 million; Cedae, R$ 200 million; and Amazonas's Amazonprev, R$ 50 million. The proposal does not explain the gap and does not name a specific act by either man inside the funds. Vorcaro says his account could be confirmed by João Carlos Mansur, owner of Reag, whose own plea deal includes an annex on ACM Neto recording an investment of R$ 7.9 million in a Reag-managed fund.Antônio Rueda said he had no access to the document and denied any wrongdoing, stating that the contracts his firm signed with institutions tied to the case are lawful and that the services were provided. ACM Neto called the accusations "absurd, completely fanciful and false", said the proposal was never accepted, signed or ratified, and questioned the origin and authenticity of the published excerpts. Both men said they held no public office during the period, as reported by ICL Notícias.The immediate future of the accusations depends on the plea deal itself. Rejected by the Federal Police and the PGR, it can only move forward through renewed talks, and Vorcaro is trying to reopen negotiations, according to ICL Notícias. In parallel, the full bench of the Supreme Federal Court, convened by Justice Edson Fachin, is scheduled to rule on 15 September on the inquiry into Moraes and Vorcaro, the backdrop against which the document resurfaced.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice André Mendonça on Wednesday ratified the plea bargain of businessman Antonio Carlos Freixo Junior, known as Mineiro, in the inquiry into transfers by former banker Daniel Vorcaro to the fund that bankrolled "Dark Horse", a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro. The ruling is under seal, according to news site G1. State news agency Agência Brasil and German broadcaster DW also confirmed the approval.A plea bargain, or delação premiada, lets someone under investigation trade cooperation for state benefits. Mineiro owns Entre Investimentos, the company identified as making the transfers to the Havengate fund in the United States on orders from Vorcaro, former controller of Banco Master; Agência Brasil describes him as a black-market money dealer. He signed the deal with the Attorney General's Office (PGR) on August 8, after about four months of talks. On Tuesday, he and his lawyers met an auxiliary judge from Mendonça's chambers, who asked whether he had joined voluntarily. He said yes, and voluntariness is one of the requirements for ratifying such agreements.What the informant claimsIn his account, Mineiro was the man who "generated" cash for Vorcaro's team. He says he moved about R$1.3 billion for the banker between 2020 and 2025 and describes deliveries in suitcases holding R$1 million to R$1.5 million, which he says paid bribes. Requests for cash reportedly came from Vorcaro himself, his partner Augusto Lima and later the banker's brother-in-law, Fabiano Zettel. The businessman also claims he made overseas payments through a company based in Nassau, the Bahamas, using invoices sent by Vorcaro, without detailing the recipients.On the film, the informant says he made seven transfers, booked as "quota subscriptions", to Havengate between January and September 2025, totaling US$12.333 million, about R$62.8 million at the exchange rate of the time. The original plan was to send about US$24 million by January 2026, but only the seven transactions were completed. According to the plea deal, the amounts were requested from Vorcaro by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, now a presidential candidate. The fund is managed by Paulo Calixto, a lawyer for former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro in the US; the informant gave the PGR transfer receipts and his email exchanges with Calixto. These are the informant's claims and no court ruling has confirmed them.TimelineJanuary to September 2025: seven transfers to the Havengate fund add up to US$12.333 million, according to the plea deal.January 2026: the second phase of Operation Compliance Zero targets asset manager Reag, part of the Banco Master case; the Central Bank orders its liquidation.August 8: Mineiro signs the plea deal with the PGR; the collaboration of João Carlos Mansur, owner of Reag, was struck within the same Master case inquiries.September 8: a hearing with an auxiliary judge confirms the deal is voluntary.September 9: Mendonça ratifies the plea deal, in a ruling kept under seal.Those named reject the suspicions. Flávio Bolsonaro says all of Vorcaro's money went to the film's production, a position he repeated to Agência Brasil. His office told G1 that information about the financing comes from producer Go Up, which presented the film's accounts. Go Up hired a private audit that in June found the accounts of "Dark Horse", starring Jim Caviezel as Bolsonaro, budgeted at R$75 million and funded by Havengate, to be in order, without releasing the documents. Eduardo Bolsonaro denies receiving money from Vorcaro. The informant's lawyer, Marco Petrelluzzi, declined to comment, citing the secrecy of the proceedings.With ratification, Mineiro's statements can now be used as evidence. The Federal Police is investigating whether all the money went into the film, as the senator and the producer maintain, or whether part of it paid for Eduardo Bolsonaro's stay in the US, where he has lived since February 2025. No date is set for the next step in the inquiry, which runs under seal. DW notes that Mendonça is under pressure to move the case forward amid an institutional crisis pitting him against fellow Justice Alexandre de Moraes, with fallout involving the PGR and the Federal Police.

The businessman João Carlos Mansur, founder and former owner of the asset manager Reag, has signed a plea deal with Brazil's federal prosecutors (PGR) in which he says investment funds run by the firm were used to hide bribe payments from Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master, to public officials. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the agreement was sent last week to Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the Master case at the STF, and awaits his approval.People familiar with the agreement told Folha that Mansur describes how the asset manager and its funds were used in the scheme under investigation, and identifies people who acted as front men for Vorcaro. Federal Police officers joined the early negotiations but did not pursue them. According to the news site O Brasilianista, the proposal delivered to the PGR in late August, with 17 annexes, traces the path of the money: funds left Banco Master for companies, which sent part of the money to Reag funds, using front men and offshore structures to hide where the money came from and where it ended up.How the case got hereSince last year, investigators have been examining suspected financial fraud involving Vorcaro and Reag in the so-called Master case, and Mansur's deal is the first plea agreement signed by the PGR within Operação Compliance Zero, one strand of the inquiry. Reag appears in core transactions: police are examining a triangle between Master, Reag and the Banco de Brasília (BRB), which bought 21.9 billion reais in credit portfolios from Master, of which 12.2 billion reais are considered fraudulent by investigators, according to O Brasilianista. Reag-linked funds, including Verbier, Cabreúva, Borneo and Delta, took a 23.5 percent stake in BRB. Mansur is described as one of the architects of those transactions, and the bank's former president, Paulo Henrique Costa, is also under investigation.Under the deal, Mansur must help locate and recover the diverted funds and pay a 40 million reais fine, a figure first reported by UOL. O Brasilianista says the amount matches what Mansur allegedly received from Reag while he ran the firm. Most of the diverted money sits abroad in offshore companies, investigators say, and the collaboration could allow those funds to return to Brazil without agreements with foreign authorities, sparing Brazil from having to share a cut of whatever is recovered, Folha reports. In such deals, a collaborator's statements must still be backed by other evidence. Vorcaro, who is under investigation, has also proposed his own cooperation, but investigators judged that his material added little new information, O Brasilianista reports.Defenses and next stepsVorcaro's lawyers said they had no access to the annexes of the plea deal and therefore cannot comment. Mansur's lawyers did not respond. The proposal that preceded the deal also mentioned political figures, including Senator Jaques Wagner of the Workers' Party and former Salvador mayor ACM Neto, according to O Brasilianista, which did not detail what was alleged about them. Vorcaro, Mansur and Costa are under investigation; Wagner and ACM Neto are named only in the proposal. The next step belongs to Mendonça, who must decide whether to ratify the agreement. No date has been set.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, on Wednesday (9) suspended an inquiry opened by the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR, the federal prosecutors' office) to determine whether there was "order or external interference" in the making of a Federal Police report that recorded messages between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. According to CNN Brasil, the suspension was issued in a new case file opened by the court's presidency to centralize the review of facts involving Justices André Mendonça and Moraes and the Federal Police itself, and it stands "until further deliberation" by the court.The inquiry had been opened on Friday (4) by Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet through a procedure of external control of police activity, the instrument Brazilian prosecutors use to oversee police work. Gonet ordered the Federal Police to explain how the report, requested by Mendonça, had been produced. In a message to Fachin, he said the PGR had not been informed in advance of Mendonça's order and could therefore not follow that stage of the investigation.The suspension was part of a package of decisions Fachin issued to contain the crisis at the court. In the same ruling, he suspended Mendonça's decision removing Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and Justice Flávio Dino's order reinstating him, and will decide separately, in a proceeding of the court's presidency, whether the officer keeps the job, G1 reported. Fachin also took over the so-called Fake News inquiry, previously held by Moraes, suspended "any and all" investigative proceedings against members of the court, and called a plenary session for September 15. The Attorney General's Office, which had asked for the removal to be struck down, said the ruling "restores public and administrative order".What each side allegesHours before Fachin stepped in, Dino had ordered Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada back to their posts, reversing their removal on Tuesday (8). In his ruling, Dino wrote that the alleged interference becomes "more serious" given reports that Mendonça met Vorcaro, who is jailed in the Banco Master fraud scheme, in a private meeting in March 2025 at the Iter Institute in São Paulo, an encounter absent from the justice's official calendar. "Can a party judge his own case and anticipate value judgments about Federal Police reports that mention him expressly?" Dino asked. He stressed he was making "no advance judgment" about the meeting, but called the situation "complex" and said it demands "moderation, balance and prudence", especially during the election campaign.Mendonça says he met the then-banker "only once", at Vorcaro's initiative, and merely listened to him. According to the justice, the conversation dealt with a court case on precatório credits, a form of Brazilian public debt, of interest to Master, and his later rulings went against Vorcaro's position. In removing the Federal Police commanders, Mendonça cited "monitoring and targeted collection" against him and Solicitor General Jorge Messias. On the other side, Moraes argues, based on a Federal Police report he commissioned, that Mendonça may "in theory" have committed administrative improbity, crimes of responsibility and abuse of authority, with "favoritism toward certain political groups". None of the mutual accusations has led to criminal charges, and none of the justices is a defendant.Timeline of the crisisSeptember 1: Mendonça, the justice handling the Master case, lifts the secrecy on a Federal Police report that registers messages and meetings between Moraes and Vorcaro.September 3: Moraes asks for an investigation of Mendonça, accusing him "in theory" of abuse of authority and use of classified information.September 4: Gonet opens the PGR inquiry into interference in the making of the report.September 8: Mendonça preventively removes Andrei Rodrigues and Leandro Almada.September 9: Dino reinstates the two officers; hours later, Fachin suspends both Mendonça's and Dino's decisions and the PGR inquiry.The next step belongs to the full court: the plenary session convened for Tuesday (15), when the justices are to discuss the Federal Police report that pointed to a supposed relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro. The suspension of the PGR inquiry stands until the court rules again, and Fachin still has to decide whether Andrei Rodrigues stays at the head of the Federal Police.

Brazil's Federal Police has summoned the president of the Central Bank, Gabriel Galípolo, his predecessor Roberto Campos Neto, the banker André Esteves, who controls BTG Pactual, and the bank's current head of supervision, Ailton de Aquino, to testify as witnesses in the inquiry into suspected fraud at Banco Master. The summons were issued in early August, according to an order seen by Folha de S.Paulo. The news was first reported by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo and confirmed by Folha.The four will be heard by videoconference, and the portion of the document seen by reporters does not show when the hearings will take place. As witnesses, they are not listed as suspects in this proceeding and are legally required to tell the truth. According to the Estadão, their names came up in testimony by Paulo Sérgio Souza, a former Central Bank director under investigation on suspicion of receiving benefits from the banker Daniel Vorcaro to favor Master. Souza denies any wrongdoing.The Master caseBanco Master, controlled by Vorcaro, was placed in liquidation in November 2025. The inquiry is part of Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates former Central Bank officials suspected of providing a form of informal advisory work to Vorcaro in exchange for financial benefits; Souza is among the main targets of this line. The Estadão reported that BTG identified a 32 billion reais fraud at Master after completing due diligence, a detailed review of the risks of an investment.Contacted by Folha, the Central Bank press office, Galípolo and Aquino had not responded by publication time. BTG said it would not comment on the matter.Lawyers for Campos Neto said in a statement that the defense was never notified and had no knowledge of the order."The defense of Roberto Campos Neto clarifies that it has never been notified and did not even know of the existence of the alleged August 3 order. If there is indeed a determination that Roberto Campos Neto be heard, it is regrettable that this information was leaked to the press. Without access to the document, the defense cannot confirm its existence, authenticity or content"No date has been disclosed for the videoconference hearings. In a separate strand of the case, the president of the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Edson Fachin, has called the full court to rule on September 15 on the inquiry into the alleged relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Vorcaro, according to G1.

A businessman who signed a plea agreement with Brazil's Prosecutor General's Office (PGR), Antonio Carlos Freixo Júnior, known as Mineiro, told prosecutors he made seven transfers to the US-based Havengate fund between January and September 2025, at the request of Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the now-defunct Banco Master. The transfers, booked as quota subscriptions, totaled US$ 12.333 million, about R$ 62.8 million at the September 2025 exchange rate, according to news site G1. Portal Poder360, drawing on a report by the newspaper O Globo, puts the same amount at roughly R$ 69 million. The details were published on Wednesday (9).According to G1, the payments had been requested from Vorcaro by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party, now a presidential candidate. The senator had said the banker's last payment came in May 2025; the plea statement records a US$ 1.666 million transfer that September. The account is part of a plea deal Mineiro signed with the PGR on August 8. It now sits with Justice André Mendonça of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), who oversees the Master case, for review.How the transfers workedMineiro, owner of investment firm Entre Investimentos, said he did not know the fund until Vorcaro contacted him on WhatsApp between late 2024 and early 2025. In January 2025 his company signed a "Letter of Agreement" with the fund's trustee, lawyer Paulo Calixto, who represents former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro in the United States. The document provided for more than ten subscriptions. Shortly before each operation, Vorcaro messaged him to formalize the subscription and make the payment, the businessman said, according to G1."Daniel Vorcaro's initial request was to send about US$ 24 million, to be carried out in more than ten subscriptions, between January 2025 and January 2026"Only seven transactions were completed. Vorcaro was first arrested in November 2025. Mineiro said he handed authorities proof of the transfers and his email exchange with Calixto, and stated that he did not know where the money ended up.In the same statement, the businessman said he made other payments abroad, also at Vorcaro's request, through Entre Investiments and Arbitrage Ltd., based in Nassau, the Bahamas. In those cases Vorcaro sent "invoices" to be paid; the beneficiaries were not detailed. The Federal Police is investigating whether all the money wired to Havengate went to Dark Horse, a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro, as Flávio and the production company Go Up maintain, or whether part of it bankrolled Eduardo Bolsonaro's stay in the US. Investigators are also checking whether funds parked in tax havens such as the Bahamas reached the fund or people connected to it.A timeline of the caseVorcaro was first arrested in November 2025, the same month the Central Bank placed Banco Master into extrajudicial liquidation. He remains in custody and is under Federal Police investigation on suspicion of financial system crimes and corruption. This year, the outlet Intercept Brasil published chats between Flávio and the banker suggesting a deal of about R$ 134 million to finance the film. The senator first denied any financing and later admitted raising R$ 61 million from Vorcaro. The magazine piauí reported an additional transfer eight days after the senator's conversation with the banker, bringing the total tallied to about R$ 65 million. In June, a private audit hired by Go Up said the film's books were in order, at a cost of R$ 75 million paid by Havengate, but it did not release the spending documents.Mineiro's lawyer, Marco Petrelluzzi, said he would not comment because of a court secrecy order. Flávio Bolsonaro's office said information about the financing comes from Go Up, which has already presented the film's accounts. Eduardo Bolsonaro denies receiving money from Vorcaro through the fund. Flávio says the money was used entirely on the production and that there is "absolutely nothing wrong" with the financing, as reported by Poder360.On Tuesday (8), Mineiro's defense attended a hearing with an auxiliary judge from Mendonça's chambers, a step that verifies the voluntariness, regularity and legality of the deal before the justice decides. Mendonça must now rule on whether to approve the plea agreement. No date has been set.

A decision by Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), made public on Tuesday (September 8, 2026), removed not only the director-general of the Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, but also the force's intelligence director, Leandro Almada. According to BBC News Brasil, Almada is nationally known for having served on the team of federal officers created to investigate the March 2018 killing of Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes, a case that shocked Brazil.The removals are the latest chapter of a crisis inside the court that began last week, when Mendonça lifted the secrecy on Federal Police reports about alleged message exchanges between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. The intelligence documents, cited in a dispatch by Moraes, analyzed among other points decisions taken by Mendonça himself in investigations he oversees and the conduct of the government's chief lawyer, Attorney General of the Union Jorge Messias.Who is Leandro AlmadaAlmada has headed the Directorate of Police Intelligence (DIP), the central body of the Federal Police intelligence system, since 2024. He previously ran the force's Rio de Janeiro office between 2023 and 2024, after commanding its offices in the states of Amazonas and Bahia. In Rio, the force carried out operations against organized crime under a Supreme Court ruling known as the ADPF das Favelas, and some of those operations reached former governor Cláudio Castro of the PL party.Two delegates told BBC News Brasil on condition of anonymity that Almada's work in Rio irritated the state government leadership. In December 2023, GloboNews journalist Andreia Sadi reported that Castro and allies had tried to remove Almada from command of the Federal Police in the state.What the decision saysIn the ruling, Mendonça links the removal to six intelligence reports drafted between August 3 and 31 which, in his assessment, exceeded the legal powers of the Federal Police. He called the production and release of the documents unlawful, said they had been used for "directed monitoring and collection" against him and Messias, and described the conduct as institutional snooping ("arapongagem institucional"), according to a review of the ruling by news outlet g1.As for Almada, the justice noted that the unit which produced the report cited by Moraes answers to the DIP. "That intelligence unit is subject to the DIP, and it is therefore the legal duty of its head to ensure compliance with the internal rules and legal commands that rule out entirely the possibility of producing and spreading these 'reports'," Mendonça wrote. The decision does not state, however, that Almada personally drafted the documents or ordered their production."In a preliminary assessment, there are strong signs not only of grave omission but also of participation in and knowledge of the drafting of these 'reports', with extremely damaging consequences, by the current holders of the highest posts in the Federal Police structure regarding its intelligence activities."Mendonça ordered the force's internal affairs office to investigate how the documents were produced and suspended this type of report on judges, government lawyers and federal officers. He said the removals aim to stop the two delegates from using "the prerogatives, the access, the systems, the institutional relations and the instruments inherent to the post to interfere in the ongoing investigations". Depending on the outcome of the inquiries, Rodrigues and Almada could face administrative proceedings that may end in their expulsion from the force.September 1: Mendonça lifts the seal on messages taken from Vorcaro's phone that mention Moraes.September 2: the Novo party asks the STF to consider the precautionary removal of Andrei Rodrigues.September 3: Moraes removes the secrecy of the Federal Police intelligence reports and asks STF President Edson Fachin to open an inquiry into Mendonça.September 8: Mendonça orders the precautionary removal of Rodrigues and Almada and orders the internal affairs inquiry.Mendonça then sent the case to the court's Second Chamber, a five-justice panel, which began voting on Tuesday morning in its virtual session on whether to uphold Rodrigues's removal. Two justices voted to keep the measure, forming a majority, but Justice Gilmar Mendes asked to review the case, suspending the judgment, according to Folha de S.Paulo and the BBC. Panel president Luiz Fux canceled the in-person session scheduled for the afternoon, and Justice Dias Toffoli has recused himself from cases tied to the Banco Master scandal. No date is set for the judgment to resume; it remains suspended until Gilmar Mendes finishes his review. In parallel, 11 Federal Police directors placed their posts at the disposal of the substitute director-general in a note of "total support" for Rodrigues, and Fachin met with the justice minister and the attorney general of the Union.

The presidents of 17 of the 27 state chapters of the OAB, Brazil's national bar association, have publicly demanded an investigation into the case involving Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Banco Master founder Daniel Vorcaro, according to a survey by Poder360 published on Tuesday (8). Positions range from the national OAB's call for a rigorous inquiry to demands that officials be suspended or declared conflicted. The allegations are still at the investigative stage.The crisis at the court began on September 1, when Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the Banco Master investigations, declassified a Federal Police report containing messages Vorcaro sent to Moraes. On the same day, the national OAB, led by Beto Simonetti, called for a "rigorous and impartial investigation of all the facts". In a video released on Monday (7), Simonetti pressed the court for quick answers:"Brazil is living a moment that demands serenity, transparency and answers. (...) When that trust is shaken, it is everyone's duty to work to restore it."What the chapters are askingSimonetti has called an extraordinary meeting for Wednesday (9) to discuss the crisis. Court president Luiz Edson Fachin canceled a meeting he had scheduled with OAB leaders for the same day, according to Poder360. Only the Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul chapters went further: Paraná called for Moraes to be suspended and for Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, also named in the messages, to be declared conflicted, while Rio Grande do Sul demanded Gonet's recusal and an investigation of Moraes. Mato Grosso do Sul called the facts "extremely serious", Ceará said they "undermine society's trust in the justice system" and Paraíba called for ending the STF's power to try criminal cases. Chapters in ten states, among them São Paulo and the Federal District, had not spoken as of publication, and Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte only republished the national note.The case so farThe report made public by Mendonça runs 218 pages and was built by the Federal Police from the contents of Vorcaro's phone. According to g1, it contains 52 messages Vorcaro sent to Moraes between October and November 2025, when Banco Master was already under investigation. Police analysts concluded the two arranged meetings and discussed the inquiries into the bank. The document also names Gonet and Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues. Gonet challenged the report's legality and asked for the inquiry to be annulled.Events then moved quickly. On Thursday (3), Moraes used the "fake news" inquiry he has led for seven years to request an investigation of Mendonça for abuse of authority, administrative improbity and misconduct in office. On Friday (4), Fachin pulled that request out of the inquiry and took the case into a procedure run by the court's presidency, promising a response that would be "firm, proportional and rigorous". On Sunday (6), Mendonça sent to the full bench the request to open an investigation against Moraes.Impeachment enters the campaignThe case has spilled into election season, in a year of general elections in Brazil. Four candidates for the Senate from Minas Gerais said at a g1 debate on Tuesday morning that the allegations tying STF justices to the Banco Master financial scheme must be investigated, and that the justices should be impeached if proven, Valor Econômico reported. Marcelo Aro (PP) said he is "100% in favor" of impeachment, claimed the court "crossed the line" and alleged a R$ 130 million contract between the office of Moraes's wife and Banco Master. Áurea Carolina (PSOL) said she would not refuse to take part in impeachment proceedings, but argued for a rigorous investigation within democratic rules. Carlin Moura (Avante) proposed fixed terms for justices and the suspension of officials while investigations last. Arcanjo Pimenta (MDB) said impeachment should proceed if there are constitutional grounds.A second round in the afternoon featured Aécio Neves (PSDB), Domingos Sávio (PL) and Manoel Carvalho (MDB); Marília Campos (PT) and Carlos Viana (PSD) declined their invitations. At the STF, the next step has a date: Friday (11) is the deadline Fachin set for Moraes, Mendonça, the Prosecutor-General's office and the Federal Police to submit their explanations. The court president will then decide when the full bench is convened and whether the session will be open or closed.

Thirteen retired justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) signed an open letter released on Monday (Sept. 7) urging the court's president, Justice Edson Fachin, to call an urgent public session of the full bench to order an "immediate and rigorous" investigation into what they call the sharpest crisis in the court's history. Signatories include Celso de Mello, Rosa Weber, Joaquim Barbosa, Ellen Gracie and Nelson Jobim. BBC News Brasil obtained the document, which demands that the investigation proceed "under due process of law".In the letter, the retired justices express "full confidence" in Fachin's "seriousness, discernment and firmness" and ask him to schedule, "with all urgency", a session of the full court held in public:"The retired justices and former presidents signing below express full confidence in the seriousness, discernment and firmness of Your Excellency in leading this Supreme Court in the most acute crisis of its history, and the absolute conviction that Your Excellency will designate, with all urgency, a public session so that the full court may determine an immediate and rigorous investigation, under due process of law, into the gravest facts whose disclosure has been compromising the prestige and authority of this Court, the people's trust and even the stability of democratic institutions."The letter is also signed by Néri da Silveira, Francisco Rezek, Sydney Sanches, Carlos Velloso, Ilmar Galvão, Cezar Peluso, Ayres Britto and Eros Grau. Justices who left the court more recently, among them Luís Roberto Barroso, Marco Aurélio Mello and Ricardo Lewandowski, who served as justice minister under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, did not sign. According to news portal g1, Barroso stayed out of the letter and has been seeking an internal way out of the crisis.How the crisis beganAccording to g1, the trigger was a decision by Justice André Mendonça to release a Federal Police report produced within the Master case, the investigation surrounding Banco Master, which brought to light messages and contacts involving members of the court, government officials and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. Justice Alexandre de Moraes then asked Fachin to open an investigation into Mendonça over the release. Fachin took over the case files, said the court's response must be guided by due process and stated that no member of the judiciary stands above the Constitution.On Tuesday (Sept. 8), Mendonça removed Andrei Rodrigues, the director-general of the Federal Police, and Leandro Almada, the head of the force's intelligence division, from their posts. When the case reached the court's Second Chamber, a majority endorsed the removals, with Justices Luiz Fux and Nunes Marques joining the rapporteur; Gilmar Mendes asked for a review period, a procedural step that suspends the vote, and Dias Toffoli did not take a position. Eleven Federal Police directors offered their resignations in support of Rodrigues, and the government's legal counsel, the Advocacia-Geral da União (AGU), asked Fachin to overturn the removals, arguing, according to g1, that Mendonça had encroached on powers that belong to the presidency.'Corrosive shadow of suspicion'Celso de Mello, who sat on the court from 1989 to 2020 and presided over it from 1997 to 1999, sent a separate statement to the press to expand on the letter. He said the collective text did not refer to "any specific episode" and wrote that "no authority is above the law, nor may it invoke the dignity of office to escape public scrutiny". In his view, eventual unlawful conduct, or ethically reproachable behavior, must not cast over the court "the corrosive shadow of suspicion": the STF, he wrote, "is greater than all and each of its Justices" and cannot be "converted into a protective shield for individual wrongdoing".The blog of journalist Ana Flor, at g1, reported how the letter came together: retired justices began exchanging ideas in the middle of last week, and between Friday (Sept. 4) and Saturday (Sept. 5) a search reached former colleagues, some of them outside Brazil. Three signatories told the blog they were "extremely" worried about the damage the disclosures and the court's internal fights were causing to the institution's credibility. The agreed demands include an open plenary session, to prevent further closed-door meetings such as the one that, according to g1, shelved Federal Police findings concerning Justice Dias Toffoli, and a broad investigation through a formal police inquiry. One signatory acknowledged concern about the succession of the STF presidency and the institutional risk of the next term going to Alexandre de Moraes before the evidence is examined.As of Tuesday night, Fachin had not scheduled the public session requested by the retired justices, and two requests remained pending before him: the AGU's bid to reinstate the Federal Police leadership and Moraes's request to investigate Mendonça. According to g1, a wing of the court argues that the Moraes-Mendonça conflict should be examined only after October's presidential election, and no date had been set for a plenary session.

A national task force, Operation Resgate VI, rescued 479 workers found in slavery-like conditions during inspections carried out across 19 Brazilian states in August. According to figures from the Labor Inspection Secretariat (SIT) of Brazil's Ministry of Labor and Employment, released on Wednesday and reported by g1, Globo's news portal, the teams carried out 231 enforcement actions between August 1 and 31. Of the workers rescued, 404 were men (84.4%) and 75 were women (15.6%). The operation also identified 15 children and teenagers in child labor, 13 of them also in slavery-like conditions, and 66 migrant workers from countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.The task force was coordinated by SIT labor auditors, with the Labor Prosecutor's Office (MPT), the Federal Prosecutor's Office (MPF), the Federal Public Defender's Office (DPU) and the Federal Police taking part. The count of 479 rescued workers was also reported by Folha, one of Brazil's leading newspapers, and the Federal Prosecutor's Office released its own report on the operation. In Brazil, subjecting a worker to slavery-like conditions, known as trabalho análogo à escravidão, is a crime under Article 149 of the Penal Code.Where the workers were foundMinas Gerais state accounted for the largest share of rescues, with 208 workers, or 43.4% of the total. It was followed by Sao Paulo, with 58; Amazonas, with 42; Piaui, with 40; and Rio Grande do Norte, with 37. The Southeast region concentrated 267 rescues, or 55.7%. Rural activities accounted for 61% of the inspections and 292 of the rescued workers, while urban activities accounted for 178. Construction led all sectors, with 85 workers freed, followed by coffee farming (53), onion growing (47) and potato growing (44). In domestic work, 14 employers were inspected and 9 workers were rescued.Legal consequences and next stepsEmployers caught in the inspections were ordered to halt their activities, terminate contracts and retroactively formalize employment ties. So far, 1.47 million reais in severance and labor entitlements have been paid, out of an estimated total of 3.29 million reais. The tally also counts 675,500 reais in individual moral damages and 455,500 reais in collective moral damages. Three conduct adjustment agreements were signed, and four public civil lawsuits are at the filing stage; no filing date has been disclosed. The rescued workers received special unemployment insurance for people freed from slavery-like conditions, worth six monthly payments of one minimum wage each.The inspections are also expected to produce about 1,836 infraction notices for problems such as child labor, missing formal work registrations and violations of health and safety rules. Authorities ordered 28 embargoes or interdictions of activities, and 1,192 workers were found without formal registration. The report includes no response from the employers inspected, and no criminal conviction has been announced so far.The Resgate operation has been held every year since 2021, bringing together public agencies to identify and stop slavery-like labor, protect victims and pursue labor, administrative, civil and criminal measures against those responsible. The 2026 edition was the third largest of the series, behind 2024, with 594 rescues, and 2023, with 532, and it came in 123% above the 2025 edition, which recorded 215. According to the survey, the total could have been higher if Brazil did not face a chronic shortage of labor auditors: about 2,800 are currently active.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Wednesday (9) called for the complete lifting of judicial secrecy over the investigations known as the Master case and demanded "more transparency and not selective leaks" in the proceedings. In a post on X, the president said Brazil needs "explanations and immediate measures" to confront what he described as an institutional crisis that has taken hold of the judiciary, and called the alleged scheme "the largest financial crime in Brazil's history"."It is urgent to fully lift the secrecy of the investigations of everyone involved in the Master case, whoever it may be, no matter whom it hurts. Brazil needs to know the truth," Lula wrote. According to news outlet G1, he cited the release of information from Operation Spoofing, a probe once led by then Supreme Court justice Ricardo Lewandowski, as an example of transparency. Folha de S.Paulo reports that the president complained of "selective leaks that impact the electoral race". Lula is running for reelection and seeking a fourth term.The Master case investigates an alleged scheme to artificially inflate the value of the now defunct Banco Master through assets and credit portfolios with no real backing. According to the Federal Police, the structure allowed the bank to appear financially solid, raise billions of reais from investors and carry out operations without matching guarantees. Among those under investigation is Daniel Vorcaro, the bank's former controlling owner.How the crisis reached the Supreme CourtAccording to G1, Lula's statement comes amid the worst internal crisis in years at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's highest court, triggered by disputes over the Master case and the work of the Federal Police. Timeline:Justice André Mendonça raised questions about the relationship between fellow justice Alexandre de Moraes and Vorcaro, who is under investigation.Moraes responded by ordering an inquiry into Mendonça's conduct in the case.Last week, court secrecy was lifted from Federal Police reports exposing the clash between the two justices.At the request of the Novo party, Mendonça ordered the preventive removal of Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada, and suspended intelligence reports.The Attorney General's Office (AGU), the federal government's legal counsel, appealed to the court, arguing the decision intruded on executive powers.On Wednesday morning, Justice Flávio Dino suspended the removals and ordered both officers reinstated.In the ruling that reinstated the officers, Dino said political parties lack standing to seek precautionary measures in criminal proceedings and argued that removals of this scale belong to the full bench, not to a single justice. He also said the measure was hurting urgent investigative steps under his responsibility, including a probe into congressional budget amendments tied to the film "Dark Horse". The AGU argues that Mendonça's order violated the constitutional prerogative of the president over the police command.Hours after Dino's injunction, Chief Justice Edson Fachin canceled the full bench session scheduled for 2 p.m. on Wednesday. The session, the first since the crisis escalated, was set to take up Brazil's internet framework law (Marco Civil da Internet) and the investigative powers of the Federal Police, and ministers were expected to address the standoff. No reason for the cancellation was given. The next step now belongs to Mendonça: Fachin has opened a 72-hour window for the justice to respond to the AGU appeal, a deadline still running. No new date has been announced for the court's session.

Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Wednesday ordered the immediate reinstatement of Federal Police director-general Andrei Augusto Passos Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada da Costa, with the full restoration of their duties. The ruling granted a request filed by the director-general himself and reversed a preventive removal ordered the day before by Justice André Mendonça, deepening a crisis between the court and the force. Dino also barred new personal precautionary measures against the two officers for acts carried out in the regular exercise of their duties.The crisis broke out on Tuesday, when Mendonça removed both men (both hold the rank of delegate, the officer rank that leads federal investigations), ordered criminal and administrative disciplinary proceedings against Rodrigues in the force's internal affairs office and banned the production and sharing of intelligence reports on judges, prosecutors and police officers. According to the justice, he and the solicitor general of the Union, Jorge Messias, were targets of "systematic" and illegal monitoring by police intelligence, a practice he called institutional arapongagem, a Brazilian term for illegal snooping on officials. The court's Second Chamber, a five-justice panel, had endorsed the removal by majority vote. As BBC News Brasil noted, the decision came five days after Justice Alexandre de Moraes asked the court to investigate Mendonça within the so-called Fake News inquiry, a probe into disinformation.Dino's argumentsIn granting the provisional remedy, Dino found that the Novo party, whose request had led to the removal, lacked standing, because criminal precautionary measures such as stripping a public official of office can only be sought by prosecutors or by police authorities. The justice also noted that the party has a candidate in the 2026 presidential race, former governor Romeu Zema, and that criminal proceedings cannot be instrumentalized in electoral disputes. "The active illegitimacy of the Novo party to request the precautionary measure is unequivocal," Dino wrote, in a passage quoted by G1, adding that the flaw "taints the entire judicial order determined".Dino also argued that the question of the Federal Police intelligence reports is already before Chief Justice Edson Fachin, who set a deadline for filings and referred the matter to the full court, which in his view barred a unilateral decision routed to the Second Chamber. "Can a party be a judge in its own case and anticipate value judgments about Federal Police reports that expressly mention it?" the justice asked, noting that Mendonça is cited in the very documents under review. Dino invoked the separation of powers as well, saying that appointing and dismissing the director-general is the president's exclusive prerogative, and recorded that Andrei was merely complying with judicial orders issued by Moraes.According to G1, Dino described the suspension of the intelligence directorate's work as undue interference in the force, harming investigations such as the murder of Marielle Franco and the congressional budget kickback case, on which he is the reporting justice. He mentioned the inquiry into the financing of "Dark Horse", a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro, saying developments in that probe had led Andrei to report damage to institutional work and to ask for the removal to be revoked. Dino also cited recent news about a meeting between Mendonça and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is under investigation in a billion-dollar fraud scheme, to argue that the moment demanded "prudence, moderation and republican balance" from the judiciary. The order stands until the Federal Police fully complies with the measures Dino determined in cases assigned to him, according to a passage transcribed by columnist Mônica Bergamo of Folha de S.Paulo:"This determination will remain in force until full compliance, by the Federal Police, with the measures determined by this reporting office in the cases assigned to me, without interruption resulting from external interference."The reinstatement immediately reached the presidential race. On social media, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL, a presidential candidate, said that "Brazil is without a president, it has turned into chaos" ("virou várzea", in the original) and called on Fachin to resolve the matter "immediately". Zema of the Novo party criticized the ruling: "This is the Brazil of the untouchables," he wrote, voicing support for Mendonça and saying the party "asked for this man's arrest" and will not back down. As of the publication of the reports, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, had not commented, according to G1.The two officers still face the proceedings opened by Mendonça and keep the presumption of innocence, as does everyone else named in the case files. The next institutional step is a review by the full court of the question of the Federal Police intelligence reports, the body Dino held to be competent to decide the matter, after the deadline for filings set by Fachin. None of the reports consulted gives a date for that judgment.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, on Tuesday (8) gave Justice André Mendonça 72 hours to respond to a request from the Attorney General's Office (AGU), the government's legal arm, to suspend the removal of Andrei Rodrigues as head of the Federal Police, the country's main federal investigative force. Rodrigues, the agency's director-general, and intelligence director Leandro Almada da Costa were preventively removed the same day in a ruling Mendonça issued on his own.In the filing, signed by the head of the AGU, Jorge Messias, the office argues there is "grave harm to public and administrative order" and that the removal infringes on the president's exclusive constitutional power to appoint and dismiss Federal Police leadership. The AGU asked for an emergency injunction to immediately suspend the removals, to be confirmed on the merits later. In a statement, it said the choice and dismissal of the director-general belong solely to the head of the executive branch and that the only legal requirement for the job is that it be held by a member of the special rank of the federal police delegate career. According to G1, the statement warns of a concrete risk:"The abrupt discontinuity in the agency's management compromises the functioning of judicial police activities and creates a risk of institutional disorganization."How the case got hereMendonça is the reporting justice for the Banco Master and INSS cases at the court. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the removals were prompted by an internal Federal Police report that Justice Alexandre de Moraes used to request an investigation of Mendonça himself for abuse of authority, administrative misconduct and crimes of responsibility in how he runs those cases. In his ruling, Mendonça cited the production of unsigned intelligence reports that monitored his work and that of Messias. He ordered the immediate opening of criminal and administrative disciplinary proceedings at the Federal Police's internal affairs office and suspended any intelligence reports analyzing the work of judges. The removal is preventive: Rodrigues and Almada are under investigation, and no conviction exists.At the court's Second Panel, a virtual vote to ratify the measure formed a 3-to-0 majority, with Mendonça, Luiz Fux and Nunes Marques, before the session was suspended when the most senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, asked for more time. According to Folha, Mendes argued the ruling may have tilted the electoral race and said the full court should hear the case. Until the panel resumes, Mendonça's individual decision stands. Meanwhile, Federal Police department heads published a note of "full support" for Rodrigues and put their posts at the disposal of his substitute, William Marcel Murad, and the national association of federal criminal experts asked that the case be sent urgently to the full court, which now has ten justices.The AGU filing arrives amid intense polarization inside the court, as G1 describes, and in the middle of this year's national election campaign. Rodrigues is one of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's closest allies and ran security for his 2022 campaign, Folha reports.If used in full, the 72-hour window ends on Friday (11). Once Mendonça responds, Fachin must decide on the suspension request. Separately, the Second Panel still has to resume its vote, with no date set.

Brazil's securities regulator, the CVM, unanimously ruled on Tuesday (8) that former banker Daniel Vorcaro and Banco Master took part in a fraudulent capital markets operation tied to a real estate investment fund. Vorcaro was fined R$ 20 million, and the bank, already under liquidation by the central bank, R$ 12.5 million. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the fraud fines imposed on all defendants in the case add up to R$ 201 million.The hearing began at 3 p.m. at the regulator's headquarters in downtown Rio de Janeiro and was open to the press and the public. Reporting director João Accioly voted to find the defendants liable and was followed by the rest of the board, according to news site G1. The ruling is administrative in nature, comparable to a sanction by the US Securities and Exchange Commission: in parallel criminal proceedings the defendants retain the presumption of innocence, and Daniel, Henrique and Felipe Vorcaro remain in preventive detention.The scheme, according to the regulatorThe case was opened in 2020 by the CVM's securities registration unit to examine the issuance and distribution of shares of the fund, called Brazil Realty by Folha and Brasil Real by G1. In the account of the CVM staff, the scheme inflated the value of properties and assets delivered to the fund through falsified or inconsistent appraisals and simulated liquidity for the shares in the secondary market to attract investors. The investigation focused on the fund's third share issuance, which raised R$ 139.1 million, most of it in physical assets with inflated values, the accusation says. Folha reports that Talent Construções, for one, subscribed R$ 28.6 million by delivering shares of Brasil Realty Empreendimentos to the fund.Penalties, defenses and what comes nextBeyond Daniel Vorcaro, another seven people and nine companies were found liable, Folha reports. His father, Henrique Vorcaro, was fined R$ 20 million, and his cousin Felipe Vorcaro R$ 5 million. Entre Investimentos was fined R$ 10 million, and its owner Antônio Freixo Junior R$ 5 million. Valor Econômico also lists Benjamin Botelho among those sanctioned, alongside 11 other defendants.In the case files, the defenses deny any wrongdoing and say all operations followed market rules. Vorcaro's defense says there was no individual proof of illegal conduct, while Entre Investimentos and Freixo told the CVM the accusation failed to show a fraudulent operation, trickery, inducement to error or illicit gain. Before the merits were examined, lawyers asked for the session to be postponed, a request the reporting director denied, and a settlement proposed by the defendants to end the case was rejected by the board. Henrique Vorcaro sent no lawyer, and Felipe's new counsel, who took over the case recently and only gained access to the files last week, asked for more time. Because the case took about six years from its opening to judgment, some defenses also argued the allegations should be declared time-barred.The defenses may challenge the administrative ruling in court, a step with no date set. In testimony to the Federal Police, Daniel Vorcaro denied irregularities in the running of the bank's business, according to G1, and the three Vorcaros remain in preventive detention while criminal proceedings continue.

Rio de Janeiro's Civil Police, the state's investigative force, have indicted 13 people over the death of cyclist Cláudio Rafael Landeiro Moreira, 37, who was beaten on the night of August 11-12 in Copacabana, the famous beach neighborhood in the city's South Zone, after being wrongly accused of stealing a bicycle. The case file, known in Brazil as an inquérito, was closed on Monday (September 7) by detective Angelo José Lages Machado, head of the 12th Police Precinct, and sent to state prosecutors. Five of those indicted face charges of triple-qualified homicide; four are in jail and one remains a fugitive.According to the investigation, Landeiro Moreira had stopped with his sister's bicycle in front of a toy store and a pharmacy on Barata Ribeiro Street. Police reviewed more than 12 hours of security camera footage and concluded that he was surrounded by private security guards who worked the area and beaten for about nine minutes, with punches, kicks and dozens of blows from a wooden object. The report says the victim "lay agonizing on the ground for more than 30 minutes" before help arrived. Taken to Miguel Couto Municipal Hospital, he died on August 12 of traumatic brain injury, internal bleeding and ruptured organs. He had psychiatric conditions and did not resist, and the detective said there was "not the slightest indication" that he had stolen the bicycle.The chargesIndicted for triple-qualified homicide (trivial motive, cruel means and a method that prevented the victim's defense) were street security guards Davi dos Santos Machado and Jorge Luiz Ricardo Dias, app delivery workers Felipe Eduardo dos Santos Dias and Ailton José da Silva, and Wellington Luiz Santos de Souza, who appears on camera kicking the victim's head at the end of the beating and is the only fugitive; a crime tips hotline posted a wanted notice for him on August 27. Others indicted include four people accused of illegally working as street security guards, four local business owners accused of bankrolling the scheme, a woman accused of handing over the wooden baton used in the beatings, and a man who watched the assault without calling police or firefighters, indicted for failure to render aid.The report also describes an informal security arrangement paid for by local merchants. "The payments were not made under a formal contract or a properly registered labor relationship. On the contrary, they were made informally, mostly in cash and without receipts," the document states, according to state news agency Agência Brasil, which had access to the file. In his conclusion, the detective wrote that "instead of calling the authorities, those involved chose to judge Cláudio and sentence him to successive beatings, which caused his death" (translations from Portuguese).What the suspects saidIn statements to police, reported by news site G1, security guard Davi dos Santos Machado changed his account. He first said he had thrown only one punch and blamed the delivery workers for the beating; later he admitted striking the victim with the baton and called the episode an "insane act", without explaining what led him to do it. He said there was no concrete information about a theft and that the victim obeyed the men's orders. Wellington, according to witness accounts, asked the delivery workers whether Cláudio was a "thief" and, after being told he was, kicked the victim's head, saying: "A thief has to die." A police indictment is an accusation, and all 13 people remain presumed innocent until convicted.The case now goes to Rio state prosecutors, who will review the investigation and decide whether to file formal charges in court. No date has been announced for that decision. If the charges are accepted, the indicted will become defendants and may present their defense at trial.

Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced former private banker Pierre Mirabaud, 77, to a suspended two-year prison term for bribing a public official and aggravated money laundering. A former partner of the Geneva bank Mirabaud & Cie and president of the Swiss Bankers Association from 2003 to 2009, he admitted paying US$ 101.7 million, about R$ 518.7 million, in bribes to a Kuwaiti government official, according to the Brazilian news site G1.Swiss federal prosecutors said Mirabaud made hundreds of payments to the official between 2000 and 2012. In return, the arrangement steered US$ 595.2 million, about R$ 3.035 billion, in managed assets to the bank. According to Bloomberg, whose report was republished by Brazil's InfoMoney, the recipient was Fahad Al Rajaan, who ran Kuwait's Public Institution for Social Security, the country's public pension fund, from 1984 to 2013. The court acquitted Mirabaud of a separate charge of document forgery.The trial in Bellinzona, the city that hosts the federal criminal court, lasted half a day. Mirabaud accepted a simplified procedure, admitting the irregularities in order to speed the case up and obtain a lighter sentence. Prosecutors had asked for 24 months, citing his age, his clean record and his cooperation with investigators. He was also ordered to pay 82,000 Swiss francs in court costs. Under Swiss law, corruption and money laundering carry a fine or up to five years in prison, and sentences are usually suspended when the offender is not expected to reoffend."Throughout this process, which began in 2012, Pierre Mirabaud cooperated fully with the judicial authorities. Today, he is taking responsibility for his actions, in line with the principles of individual responsibility," his lawyer, Saverio Lembo, said in a statement.How the case reached the courtAfter complaints about his management of the pension fund, Al Rajaan had his assets frozen and became the target of an Interpol arrest request. He was convicted in absentia in Kuwait in 2016 of corruption and embezzlement of public funds, and died in London in 2022. Bloomberg reports that the fund installed a new management team in 2017 and wound down more than US$ 20 billion in investments it considered suspicious. The case also went to trial at the High Court in London last year, and no ruling has been published yet.The bank and the regulatorMirabaud & Cie, founded in Geneva in 1819 and run by the seventh generation of the founding family, is not a party to the case and declined to comment on the conviction. In 2024, the Swiss financial regulator FINMA confiscated 12.7 million Swiss francs in profits it deemed illegally obtained by the bank, after finding breaches of market rules and anti-money-laundering obligations. The business relationships under review at times represented nearly 10 percent of all assets the bank managed.Because the sentence is suspended, Mirabaud will not go to prison as long as he meets the conditions of the two-year probation period. A breach could lead to the sentence being enforced. The next known step in the case is the London High Court ruling, for which no date has been announced.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) has changed his office and security routines after learning he was being monitored by the Federal Police, which produced at least six intelligence reports about him. According to a report by Poder360 on Tuesday (Sept 8, 2026), the justice now asks visitors to place their cellphones in a shielded box that blocks the devices' signals before private conversations, and keeps classical music playing on a sound system to hamper any eavesdropping.According to Poder360, the reports were produced by an intelligence unit tied to the Federal Police's coordination of investigations before the higher courts and reached the force's top command between August 3 and 31. The documents carry no letterhead, signature, drafting date or identification of the analysts, and describe themselves as "working documents" with no probative value. They analyzed Mendonça's rulings in Operation Sem Desconto, which investigates fraud at the INSS, Brazil's social security system, and Operation Compliance Zero, tied to the Banco Master financial scandal.How the case became publicThe crisis surfaced on September 1, when Mendonça lifted the seal on parts of the Banco Master investigation concerning the relationship between banker Daniel Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. At 6:45 p.m. that day, then Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues formally sent the reports to Moraes, who heads the court's so-called Fake News inquiry into online disinformation. Moraes said he had received "news of the existence" of the material and ordered the force to deliver it to his office. On September 3, he used the reports to ask court president Edson Fachin to investigate his colleague and include him in that inquiry.On Tuesday (8), Mendonça ordered the preventive removal of Andrei Rodrigues and of Leandro Almada da Costa, head of the Federal Police's intelligence directorate. The ruling opened proceedings before the force's internal affairs office to determine who ordered and drafted the reports and whether others exist, and suspended the production of reports on the acts of judges, government attorneys and federal police officers.What each side allegesIn his ruling, Mendonça said he had been subjected to "systematic monitoring" that also targeted the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias, called the practice unlawful and said it could amount to "institutional arapongagem", a Brazilian term for illegal snooping. He compared the situation to George Orwell's novel 1984. According to news site g1, the justice noted that the police document itself rated its own claims as having "low aggregate confidence" while still authorizing "targeted monitoring and collection", and he called "frivolous and abject" the reports' reference to a supposed "common religious matrix" linking him to Messias."This is unlawful monitoring of a Justice of the country's Supreme Court, which in itself reveals the gravity of the situation," Mendonça wrote in the ruling.In his request to Fachin, Moraes argued that the material indicates administrative improbity, abuse of authority, malfeasance in office and favoring of political groups in Mendonça's handling of the Master and INSS cases, according to g1. Moraes has not spoken publicly about the crisis. Nothing has been proven so far: Mendonça faces only a request for an investigation pending a court decision, and the removed officers are subject to disciplinary proceedings, with no indictment.On the political front, allies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized the order. Institutional Relations Minister José Guimarães called the measure "unfounded" and "an intrusion where it does not belong". Opposition leader Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ) told Folha de S.Paulo the case confirms that "Lula packed the Federal Police through Andrei to persecute opponents". Mendonça was appointed to the court by former president Jair Bolsonaro.The next steps have deadlines. By September 14, Mendonça, Moraes, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Andrei Rodrigues may comment on the Federal Police report on Vorcaro's messages to Moraes. The prosecutor general's office must then assess the legality of the intelligence material, and Mendonça has until September 21 to provide information. A wing of the court aligned with Moraes wants any decision on investigating the two justices to wait until after this year's elections.

A majority on the Second Panel of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) voted on Tuesday (8) to uphold the precautionary removal of Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada da Costa. The extraordinary virtual session was suspended when Justice Gilmar Mendes asked for more time to study the case, a request known in Brazil as a "pedido de vista", which prevents the panel from formally closing the judgment. According to news site G1 and newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Justices Luiz Fux and Kassio Nunes Marques cast early votes fully backing the case's rapporteur, André Mendonça.With three justices in favor on a five-member panel, the majority already exists. Folha reported that both votes were recorded less than ten minutes after the session opened. Gilmar's review request has a 90-day deadline, the newspaper said, and until he returns the case Mendonça's individual injunction stays in force: the two directors remain removed, and the Federal Police is barred from producing or sharing intelligence reports on the work of judges, government lawyers and judicial police.How the crisis beganPressure on the Federal Police command built up in early September. On September 2, the Novo party asked the STF to intervene, citing messages found on the phone of businessman Daniel Bueno Vorcaro, linked to Banco Master, that directly mentioned an "Andrei", identified by the police force itself as the director-general. The next day the party requested Rodrigues' preventive arrest, claiming there were indications of ties to an alleged criminal influence network. Justice Alexandre de Moraes then lifted the secrecy on six intelligence reports quietly produced by the police between August 3 and 31 within the court's so-called Fake News inquiry.Reviewing the documents, Mendonça concluded that he himself and the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias, had been targets of "systematic monitoring and directed data collection". He compared the setup inside the Federal Police to George Orwell's novel "1984", removed the two directors and ordered proceedings to investigate how the reports were produced. "The superlative gravity and illegality in the production of the 'intelligence reports' demands the adoption of immediate measures," he wrote, according to Folha.What each side saysIn Mendonça's reading, the reports are of doubtful authenticity, have no legal validity and were used to monitor officials. The removal is precautionary: Rodrigues and Almada have not been convicted and answer the proceedings under the presumption of innocence. On the other side, an internal police report was used by Moraes to request an investigation of Mendonça himself for abuse of authority, administrative improbity and responsibility crimes. According to Folha, the document argues that the justice had steered investigations against Moraes and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre "with a breach of judicial impartiality and favoring of certain political groups". Mendonça has also signaled he may ask the full court to open a formal investigation into his colleague.The director-general has support inside the force. Federal Police executive director William Marcel Murad said at an event on Tuesday, according to G1: "We will not be shaken by attacks". The government is also moving against the ruling: columnist Mônica Bergamo, of Folha, reported that the Attorney General's Office will appeal to the court. The next step before the panel is Gilmar's return of the case within his 90-day window, when the Second Panel can conclude the judgment. No date has been set.

A majority of Brazil's Second Panel of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) moved on Tuesday (8) to uphold the precautionary removal of Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and of the police intelligence director, Leandro Almada da Costa. The extraordinary virtual session was suspended before it could close, however, after Justice Gilmar Mendes asked for the case file, a review request that pauses the ruling.Within ten minutes of the session opening, Justices Luiz Fux and Kassio Nunes Marques voted to fully side with the rapporteur, André Mendonça, according to the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. Since the panel has five members, those three votes already secure a majority for keeping Mendonça's individual order in place.The review request does not change the practical effect of the ruling. Mendonça's injunction remains fully in force, and Gilmar has up to 90 days to return the file to the panel, Folha reports. The order also bars the Federal Police, Brazil's main federal investigative force, from producing or sharing intelligence reports on the work of judges, government attorneys and judicial police officers, according to news site G1.How the crisis beganThe confrontation started in early September, when Mendonça, who oversees the Banco Master and INSS inquiries, lifted a secrecy seal on a Federal Police report about the interactions between Banco Master owner Daniel Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to BBC Brasil, the exchanges show the banker demanding special attention to payments under a 131 million reais contract between the bank and the Barci de Moraes law firm, run by the justice's wife.Pressure on Andrei Rodrigues grew on September 2, when the Novo party took the case to the STF citing messages from Vorcaro's phone that mentioned the name "Andrei", and on September 3, when the party asked for his pretrial detention, alleging signs of ties to a supposed criminal influence network, G1 reports.Moraes answered with a filing in the Fake News inquiry, where he serves as rapporteur, presenting Federal Police intelligence reports that, in his telling, would indicate "in theory" administrative improbity, crimes of responsibility and abuse of authority by Mendonça, including a "police investigative measure for the illegal production of evidence" against Moraes himself. Court president Edson Fachin gave Moraes, Mendonça, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet and Andrei five days to address the crisis. On Friday (4), Fachin moved the review of the accusations against Mendonça out of the Fake News inquiry.In Tuesday's decision, Mendonça said Andrei had sent Moraes at least six "intelligence reports" produced secretly between August 3 and 31, with surveillance of a Supreme Court justice lasting more than 30 days. The material would also have covered the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias, according to G1, which also reports the justice's comparison of the structure to the dystopia of George Orwell's "1984". Mendonça ordered criminal and administrative proceedings against Andrei before the Federal Police's internal affairs office. The removal is precautionary, and no conviction exists at this stage."The superlative gravity and illegality in the production of the 'intelligence reports' demands immediate measures... This is illicit surveillance of a Justice of the country's Supreme Court, which by itself reveals the gravity of the situation", Mendonça wrote in the decision.On Tuesday morning, Federal Police executive director William Marcel Murad, second in the force's hierarchy, publicly defended Andrei at an event and said: "We will not be shaken by attacks", according to G1.What comes nextThe panel's judgment resumes only when Gilmar Mendes returns the file, within up to 90 days. In parallel, the Attorney General's Office (AGU), the government's legal counsel, has said it will appeal the removal to the STF, according to Folha's Mônica Bergamo column. The deadline Fachin set for the parties to explain the standoff between the court and the police leadership also remains open.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) has ordered the Federal Police to open criminal and administrative investigations into Andrei Rodrigues, the agency's director-general, who was suspended from the post this Tuesday (8 September). The order is part of the same ruling that also removed Rodrigues and the director of police intelligence, Leandro Almada da Costa, on a precautionary basis.According to InfoMoney, the force's internal affairs office, the Corregedoria, must report to the case's rapporteur any measures it considers necessary as the inquiries proceed. Mendonça wrote that the two officials had to leave their posts so that Supreme Court justices, the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias, and members of the Federal Police itself could work free of "unlawful constraints". Rodrigues and Almada are under investigation; the suspension is precautionary, does not amount to a conviction, and both men keep the presumption of innocence."The Federal Police, through its Corregedoria, shall promote the opening of criminal and administrative-disciplinary investigative proceedings aimed at clarifying the serious facts identified," the justice wrote.What the inquiries will examineAccording to the ruling, as reported by G1 and BBC News Brasil, the director-general had sent Justice Alexandre de Moraes at least six "intelligence reports", produced in secret between August 3 and 31, 2026, within the court's high-profile Fake News inquiry. Mendonça says he himself had been under illicit, systematic monitoring by police intelligence for more than 30 days, and that Messias was also a target of what the reports call "directed collection" of information."This is illicit monitoring of a Justice of the country's Supreme Court, which by itself reveals the gravity of the situation," Mendonça wrote, comparing the situation to George Orwell's novel 1984. He described the reports as apocryphal, with no letterhead, crest, signature or file number, a "legal nothing" at odds with Brazil's National Public Security Intelligence Doctrine. The ruling also points to a leak of classified material: the documents detailed ongoing investigations involving the politicians Antonio Rueda and ACM Neto, and their disclosure alerted potential targets to precautionary measures, "completely frustrating" their effectiveness.How the case reached the courtThe crisis grew out of the Banco Master investigation. Rodrigues was named in material found on the phone of banker Daniel Vorcaro, and messages on the device referred to "Andrei", which the Federal Police identified as the director-general. On September 2, the party Novo asked the STF to protect the independence of the investigations; the next day it requested Rodrigues's pretrial detention, citing indications of his role in an alleged criminal influence network led by Vorcaro. None of this has been proven. Also on September 3, GloboNews journalist Monica Waldvogel reported that Rodrigues himself had confirmed to her that the force had drawn up five or six intelligence reports for "internal use and record-keeping" on what it considered irregularities; her remarks are transcribed in the ruling.Professional associations reacted to the documents' release. The union of state intelligence professionals at Abin, Intelis, said state intelligence "is not to be confused with criminal investigation, nor with the drafting of documents intended to form an accusatory judgment". The president of the Federal Police delegates' association, ADPF, called the material's circulation outside the force "totally irregular".The next step in the case is set for this same Tuesday (8 September): Mendonça asked for an extraordinary virtual session of the court's Second Panel, a five-justice chamber, to ratify the removals and the opening of the investigations. The ruling also immediately suspended the production and sharing of intelligence reports aimed at assessing the conduct of judges, government lawyers or judicial police work.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) ordered on Tuesday (September 8) the preventive removal of Andrei Rodrigues as director-general of the Federal Police and, in the same ruling, of the force's police intelligence director, Leandro Almada da Costa. According to news portal G1, the ruling also requires the immediate opening of criminal and administrative-disciplinary proceedings before the force's internal affairs office to investigate the production of intelligence reports that monitored public officials.What the ruling saysThe filings show that the director-general had sent Justice Alexandre de Moraes at least six intelligence reports, produced in secret between August 3 and 31 within the court's long-running Fake News inquiry into disinformation. Moraes himself had been under systematic police intelligence monitoring for more than 30 days, a practice the ruling describes as unlawful. Attorney General of the Union Jorge Messias, who heads the federal government's legal office, was also monitored through what the documents called "directed collection" of information. The reports suggested that Messias's decision not to appeal court rulings in the "Sem Desconto" and "Compliance Zero" operations was meant to preserve a "political relationship with the rapporteur".Mendonça called it "surreal" and "abject" to argue that the conduct of the attorney general and of the rapporteur could be explained by a "common religious background" and by the backing of evangelical churches for their nominations to the court. The documents, he wrote, also engaged in what he described as "flagrant disciplinary-style judgment" of the court's decisions and of the work of other federal police delegates. In his reading, the reports were unsigned and bore no letterhead, seal or case number, which made them "a legal nothing" at odds with Brazil's National Public Security Intelligence Doctrine. The reports' own authors had flagged the analyses as "without evidentiary value" and of "low aggregated confidence". The ruling also notes that the material disclosed details of ongoing investigations involving politicians Antonio Rueda and ACM Neto, revealing potential precautionary measures to their targets and "completely frustrating" their effectiveness.Professional associations reacted the same day. Intelis, the union of state intelligence professionals at the Abin agency, said state intelligence "is not to be confused with criminal investigation, nor with the drafting of documents intended to form an accusatory judgment". The president of the Federal Police Delegates Association (ADPF) called the circulation of the documents outside the force "totally irregular" and said he found it odd that an intelligence unit would produce such analyses.How the crisis beganThe confrontation took shape in early September. On September 2, the Novo party asked the court to protect the independence of investigations involving the director-general. The next day the party requested his preventive arrest, arguing there were indications of his involvement in an alleged criminal influence network led by Daniel Bueno Vorcaro. Messages from Vorcaro's phone referred directly to the name "Andrei", which the Federal Police identified as the director-general, according to the ruling. It also cites a report by journalist Monica Waldvogel, aired on GloboNews on September 3, according to which Rodrigues himself confirmed to her that the force had produced about five or six intelligence reports "for its own use and records", later requested by Moraes and used to ground a criminal complaint. Rodrigues is under investigation and preserves the presumption of innocence.Beyond the removals, Mendonça suspended the production and sharing of intelligence reports aimed at analyzing the work of judges, government attorneys or judicial police activity. The case is the latest chapter in a standoff between the Supreme Court and the Federal Police, one that has already led Chief Justice Edson Fachin to demand explanations from Moraes and Mendonça and that Folha de S.Paulo frames within the so-called Caso Master. The next step is an extraordinary virtual session of the court's Second Chamber, a five-justice panel, requested by Mendonça to ratify the decision later on Tuesday (8), alongside the criminal and disciplinary investigations now open at the force's internal affairs office.

Two men broke into the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, a town on the French Riviera near Nice, in the early hours of Tuesday (September 8) and took four canvases by the Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir valued at €9 million (about 53 million reais), according to the town's mayor, Bryan Masson. The thieves dropped one of the paintings as they fled; the other three remain missing.How the robbery unfoldedAccording to the mayor, quoted by the news agency AFP, the museum alarm was triggered at 5:48 a.m. local time (12:48 a.m. in Brasília), and municipal police officers arrived five minutes later. They chased the two men, who dropped one of the canvases. "Identified by the town's security cameras, the two individuals fled, abandoning one of the stolen paintings," the mayor's office said in a statement. Photographs released by AFP show officers next to a hole cut in the museum's outer fence.The mayor did not identify the works. According to the French regional newspaper Nice-Matin, the targets were Portrait of Madame Pichon (1895), Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano (1910), Coco Lisant (1905) and Jeune fille au puits (1886), all by Renoir. It remains unclear which one was left behind.The museum opened in 1960 in the last home of Renoir (1841-1919), on a hill in Cagnes-sur-Mer, where the painter spent his final years and died. According to Reuters, the collection on display includes 13 paintings by the artist, about 40 sculptures, furniture and photographs; the house also preserves his easel and his wheelchair, according to AFP.A wave of museum robberies in FranceThe theft comes almost a year after the robbery at the Louvre, the world's most visited museum, in central Paris, when thieves carrying power tools snatched eight French Crown jewels in broad daylight and escaped on scooters; the jewels are still missing, according to AFP. In early July, thieves stole jewelry worth more than €4.5 million from the Lalique Museum north of Strasbourg. Later that month, a gold necklace from the Celtic-era Vix Treasure was taken in broad daylight from a museum in Burgundy. Europol, the European police agency, said last month that art thefts in Europe are becoming more violent. In July, France's Culture Ministry presented a plan of 33 measures and recommended that museums temporarily remove the most vulnerable pieces from their display cases. "The aim is to keep the most vulnerable objects safe until the security of their display can be guaranteed," the ministry said in a statement."Since this morning, both the municipal and the national police have been mobilized at the site. The perpetrators are being actively sought, and the investigation is under way," Mayor Bryan Masson said.As of the publication of the reports consulted, no arrests had been announced and no one had been formally identified as responsible for the robbery. No date has been set for the next step in the inquiry, which is in the hands of the French police; any charges would depend on the outcome of the investigation.

The fight over the Master case has turned into a battle for control of the investigation inside Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's highest court. Allies of Justice André Mendonça speak of a deliberate attempt to build a "smoke screen" around the case and of a cover-up operation to stall the inquiry. On the other side, the camp of Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Justice Flávio Dino and the leadership of the Federal Police reads Mendonça's offensive as a move that could reach the police command, Moraes himself and the Prosecutor General, Paulo Gonet. According to a report by Andréia Sadi's blog at G1, published on Monday (7), figures on opposing sides agree that the crisis is far from over.Sources close to Mendonça told G1 that the Federal Police report that became known on Monday (31) is only "a small sample" of what may still surface. In their reading, there was a deliberate attempt to build a smoke screen around the Master case and to slow down the investigations.Allies of Moraes and Dino and members of the Federal Police command see Mendonça's offensive as part of a dispute that now reaches the force itself, Moraes and the Prosecutor General's office. Inside the police, G1 reports, there is a reading that Mendonça wants to investigate director-general Andrei Rodrigues, which would raise the temperature of a crisis that is no longer just a disagreement among justices. Moraes has also acted in writing: on Thursday (3), he sent the court's president a decision pointing to "strong indications" of administrative improbity, abuse of authority and crime of responsibility in Mendonça's conduct, based on Federal Police intelligence reports, according to CNN Brasil.How the case got hereTuesday, September 1: Mendonça, the justice in charge of the Banco Master inquiry, lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report with messages and records of contacts between the bank's founder, Daniel Vorcaro, and Moraes. The material suggested the businessman was seeking a channel to the justice as the investigation into Banco Master advanced. Mendonça said the new elements should be examined by the full court. The Prosecutor General's office questioned how the inquiry had been conducted and asked for the case to be closed.Thursday, September 3: the president of the STF, Edson Fachin, gave Moraes, Mendonça, Gonet and Rodrigues five days to provide clarifications. Hours later, Moraes sent Fachin the decision against Mendonça, covering the Compliance Zero operation, linked to Master, and Sem Desconto, which examines fraud at the INSS social security system. According to CNN Brasil, Moraes accused his colleague of interfering with investigations, taking part irregularly in plea bargain negotiations and steering inquiries for personal and political reasons.Friday, September 4: Fachin removed Moraes' decision from the fake news inquiry and gathered the complaints from both sides into a single case under the STF presidency, which is not under seal.What Fachin wants to know, and what comes nextFachin wants to establish, among other points, whether the Federal Police respected the rules of the Organic Law of the Judiciary when it came across information involving officials who can be tried only by the Supreme Court, whether private documents were accessed and whether information protected by judicial secrecy was disclosed, CNN Brasil reports. He also asked for details on a search ordered by Mendonça to identify people mentioned in the police material and on the steps taken by the Prosecutor General's office in overseeing police work. Fachin stressed that the requests only complete the record and carry no prior conclusion on the validity of Moraes' request, the regularity of the procedure or the merits of the accusations.Justices heard by G1 point to a central legal question: under normal conditions, a Supreme Court investigation opens with a request from the Prosecutor General's office, or with its endorsement of a Federal Police initiative, because prosecutors hold the power to bring criminal charges. What exists now is a request to annul the material Mendonça declassified. Mendonça's interlocutors describe the referral of his report to the court's presidency as routine in nature, saying it happened only after the deadline for the information Fachin requested had expired. The next battle is to define what exactly can be taken to the full court, and under what conditions. Deadlines are already running: the Prosecutor General's office has five business days from Friday's (4) decision to file an opinion on the admissibility and regularity of the procedure adopted by Moraes and, if it deems it relevant, on the substance of the accusations. Mendonça then has another five business days to respond.At the presidential palace, G1 reports, aides to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva believe the constant exposure of Moraes ends up helping the opposition candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, because opponents link the justice directly to the president. Some in that group believe the effect could hurt Lula more than the damage from the "Lulinha" case. Justice Cristiano Zanin has tried to keep channels open with the different groups, the same report says. One source described the coming weeks as a "bloody September," with new reports, requests, rulings and revelations expected. Both sides agree on one point: what has surfaced so far does not end the crisis. It opens its next phase.

Glaidson Acácio dos Santos, the Brazilian businessman known as the "Pharaoh of Bitcoins", told a federal court that he alone knows the password to a device holding the digital keys to a fortune in cryptocurrencies, now locked in a safe at the Federal Police. The statement appears in testimony by him and by his wife and business partner, Venezuelan Mirelis Diaz Zerpa, to which Fantástico, Globo television's Sunday news program, gained exclusive access and aired on Sunday (Sept. 6). Both are defendants and have not been convicted: they answer for criminal organization and financial system crimes, including offering irregular investments, running a financial institution without authorization and fraudulent management. Asked by the judge how much the wallet held, Glaidson invoked his right to silence."Could you state the amount?" the judge asked. "No, Your Honor, because... My integrity... my physical integrity."According to the report, the device is the size of a pen drive and stores the keys to an unknown share of the money. Glaidson argued that the fortune, if unlocked, could pay the scheme's creditors, and what will happen to the crypto assets remains the central question of the investigation, five years after his arrest.How the scheme worked, in the defendant's wordsIn testimony, Glaidson described how G.A.S. Consultoria e Tecnologia, the company he founded in Cabo Frio, in Rio de Janeiro state, promised thousands of investors a 10% monthly return. He said the money raised turned him into a "whale", crypto market slang for a holder large enough to sway prices. "As a 'whale', I can manipulate other cryptocurrencies," he said, describing deals with other large holders to crash prices. At one point he stated: "It's not 10 million, or 50 million. It's 200, 300 million dollars in a...". Asked by federal prosecutors whether there was anything illegal in it, he replied: "No, it's not illegal, right? It's a lack of ethics."The Federal Police calculates that the informal investment network moved R$ 38.2 billion. Glaidson said employees flew by helicopter to São Paulo carrying clients' cash, which was then converted into the company's digital wallet, and he confirmed his control of the firm: "Idealizer of the company, founder of the company, president of the company, manager of the company, responsible for the company."From the 2021 arrest to the testimonyGlaidson was arrested in the Federal Police's Operation Kryptos in 2021 and his bank accounts were frozen. Even so, according to federal prosecutors, the G.A.S. business continued: in August of that year a computer was accessed in Kissimmee, Florida, where Mirelis was living, and 4,500 bitcoins, then worth more than R$ 1.06 billion, left the account. Considered a fugitive by Brazilian justice, she was arrested in Chicago in 2024 and deported to Brazil a year later. Prosecutors contend she was part of the scheme's command alongside her husband; she also answers for criminal organization and financial system crimes.In her testimony the Venezuelan denied the charges and said she worked as if she were Glaidson's employee: "Exactly." On controlling client deposits, she said: "I never handled the administration of that." Asked about withdrawals after the police operation, she answered: "With my own money, yes. No, not from the company. I never took money out of the company." About the case, she said: "With all due respect, to me it was like reading a science fiction book." The criminal case is still running in federal court, neither defendant has been convicted, and the report disclosed no date for a next procedural step.

A judge at Brazil's electoral court for Minas Gerais state, the TRE-MG, ordered the news site ICL Notícias on Sunday (Sept. 6) to take down, within 24 hours, six posts claiming that federal lawmaker Nikolas Ferreira, a prominent conservative of the PL party running for reelection, called former banker Daniel Vorcaro "lindão" (Portuguese for "handsome") in an audio message. The preliminary injunction partly grants a right-of-reply request filed by the congressman himself. On the same day, three lawmakers from the Workers Party (PT) filed a complaint with the PGE, Brazil's electoral prosecution office, asking that Nikolas be declared ineligible for eight years over the spread of a fake document attributed to the Federal Police.According to Poder360, the order by auxiliary judge Jair Francisco dos Santos also binds Meta, the company behind Instagram and Facebook. After examining the audio, recorded in March 2025, the judge concluded that "in none" of its passages does the lawmaker call Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, "lindão". The ICL report had said the recording shows Nikolas calling the banker "Dani" and signing off with "Um abraço, lindão". The judge found that the term in the farewell had been altered, which he said caused a "violation of the health and integrity of the information system", and noted that the risk of the content spreading was greater with elections approaching.Part of the coverage stays online. Nikolas's reply request also challenged the claim that he had asked Vorcaro for the release of a mining asset, but the judge found no manifestly false information on that point in a preliminary review. In the decision, the audio shows the lawmaker approached Vorcaro to connect him with a friend who had pending issues involving a mining asset, an episode that "opens space for political debate". Other contested videos also remain up, including one in which a journalist mentions "lindão" while analyzing the facts. CNN Brasil, which confirmed the audio is authentic, reports that Nikolas acknowledged his contacts with Vorcaro, denied being close to him and said the attempt to help his friend went nowhere.How the case beganThe dispute started on Sept. 3, when ICL Notícias published stories about messages and audios exchanged between Nikolas and Vorcaro, who is under investigation in the Compliance Zero operation. One piece was headlined "Em áudio, Nikolas chama Vorcaro de 'lindão' e pede liberação de ativo de minério". Hours later, the lawmaker shared on his official Instagram and X accounts, with a combined audience of more than 27 million followers, a document that, according to the lawmakers' complaint, mimicked a Federal Police conclusion that there were no signs of crimes involving the two men. According to Metrópoles, the Federal Police denied producing the material. Nikolas later said he did not know the document was false, said he had shared content published by others and deleted the post.Reactions and next stepsNikolas celebrated the ruling in a video. "Why is this a victory? They obviously put it falsely in the headline to suggest a relationship I never had with Vorcaro", he said, adding that "whoever lies during a campaign answers in court". Reporter Juliana Dal Piva, who wrote the ICL story, said in a social media post that she had been "censored" by the decision and recalled that in 2022 she faced a censorship request from Flávio Bolsonaro over her reporting on his 51 properties. "Who censors whom?", she wrote. Poder360 says it sought comment from ICL Notícias and the reporter and had received no reply by publication time.The complaint to the PGE (Procuradoria-Geral Eleitoral, the electoral arm of federal prosecution) was signed by lawmakers Rogério Correia, Lindbergh Farias and Alencar Santana. They argue the case may amount to improper use of social media and abuse of political power, and they ask for the cancellation of Nikolas's registration or diploma and for an investigation of possible electoral crimes tied to the forging and use of the document. A report attached to the complaint lists differences in content, dates, structure and identification compared with a 218-page Federal Police report, along with the absence of a signature, a civil servant's registration number, a case number and a verification code.In the Minas Gerais electoral court, ICL Notícias has one day to file its defense; the electoral prosecutors' office then has the same period to weigh in, and the injunction itself will still be reviewed on the merits. The PGE must now decide whether to open the electoral investigation requested by the lawmakers and whether to take the case to the TSE, Brazil's top electoral court. No dates are set for those steps.

The ammunition found in the pistol attributed to a lawyer killed by officers of Rota, the elite unit of São Paulo state's Military Police, in Itaquaquecetuba, in the São Paulo metropolitan area, comes from two lots the force bought in 2005 and 2007 that have been feeding crimes for 14 years, according to a survey. The finding is from the Instituto Sou da Paz, a São Paulo-based public security think tank, based on data from a federal prosecutors' investigation, and was reported by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo on Sunday.Cartridges stamped with the codes AAE67 and BAY18 were in the magazine of a 9 mm Glock pistol that Military Police officers presented at the police station and attributed to Carlos Alves Vieira, 48, known as Ferrugem. The codes appear in a report by the Instituto de Criminalística, the state forensics institute, and Sou da Paz confirmed the ammunition's origin after a query from Folha, which obtained both the forensics report and the case file. The pistol's serial number had been altered, according to the newspaper.The lots were huge: AAE67 held 438,000 9 mm rounds, and BAY18 another 320,000 of the same caliber plus 1.4 million .40 rounds. Both broke a 2004 Brazilian Army rule that caps each ammunition lot code at 10,000 rounds. Casings from the same lots have been used in mass killings in greater São Paulo, in an attack that left 11 dead in Londrina, in Paraná state, and in a double homicide in São Gonçalo, in Rio de Janeiro state, the survey found.A timeline of the case:2004: an Army rule caps ammunition lot codes at 10,000 rounds each.2005 and 2007: São Paulo's Military Police buys lots AAE67 and BAY18, a combined 758,000 9 mm rounds and 1.4 million .40 rounds.Past 14 years: casings from the lots appear in mass killings in greater São Paulo, the attack that killed 11 in Londrina and a double homicide in São Gonçalo.November 28, 2025: Vieira is killed by Rota officers in Itaquaquecetuba; the case is registered as a death resulting from police intervention.December 5, 2025: the police ombudsman's office contests the identification of the dead man and asks for the officers' body camera footage.September 6, 2026: Folha publishes the Sou da Paz cross-check linking the ammunition in the case to the police lots.The killing in ItaquaquecetubaVieira was killed on November 28, 2025. The Military Police presented him as Ferrugem, a member of the Sintonia Final leadership circle of the PCC, Brazil's largest criminal faction, and the state Public Security Secretariat (SSP-SP) said he was carrying bricks of marijuana and two pistols and fired first when officers approached his car on Rua Carmo da Mata. The police ombudsman's office, the Ouvidoria da Polícia, received complaints saying he was in fact a lawyer registered with the São Paulo bar association (OAB-SP), the owner of a cardboard packaging company, married, a father of ten and grandfather of two from a traditional family in Poá; according to the office, Ferrugem was a childhood nickname that merely resembled that of the man actually sought by police. The ombudsman asked the Military Police's internal affairs division for the officers' body camera footage, requested from the Civil Police the surveillance images from around the scene and called for the investigation to be moved to the state capital."Given these apparent discrepancies, a swift and accurate investigation of the facts is imperative, so that yet another family does not pay with disgrace and the lives of its pillars for unjustified and suspicious acts...", the ombudsman's office said in December.In a statement, Rota denied any mix-up: it said Vieira was identified through intelligence work, that drugs and two guns were found in his car, and that "another 400 suspects with the same alias Ferrugem are also monitored and appear in the corporation's criminal databases". The SSP-SP maintained that his ties to the PCC were confirmed by its intelligence division, citing 2022 drug trafficking leads from the Denarc police unit in the Alto Tietê region and a prior record for qualified theft. None of those allegations is known to have led to a conviction, and the competing accounts remain under investigation.The case is being investigated under seal by the homicide unit in Mogi das Cruzes. The Military Police internal affairs inquiry was concluded and sent to the military court, which referred it to the ordinary courts, where it is pending. When asked, the secretariat of the government of Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos) said the Civil Police "continues to investigate the November 2025 occurrence in Itaquaquecetuba, including the ammunition used". The next steps are the conclusion of the Civil Police inquiry and the progress of the case in the ordinary courts; no date has been set.

A new group has entered the standoff between two justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça. In a public note released on Saturday (Sept. 5), Intelis, the association of state intelligence professionals at the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin), criticized an intelligence report attributed to the Federal Police that Moraes cited in a decision alleging a "political bias" by his colleague in the way investigations are being run.The group said the material released "does not present characteristics compatible with the methodological parameters established by the Intelligence Activity Doctrine," which guides how knowledge is produced within Brazil's intelligence system. Intelis does not name Moraes or Mendonça and does not take a position on the investigations themselves. Its statement addresses how intelligence reports are written and used: state intelligence work "cannot be confused with criminal investigation" or with the drafting of accusatory documents, and such reports must follow procedures of collection, evaluation, analysis and validation to ensure objectivity, consistency and impartiality. "It is not an instrument meant to replace investigative procedures or to establish elements of authorship and materiality proper to criminal prosecution," the text reads.The document drew attention after Moraes reproduced it in a decision questioning the investigations under Mendonça's responsibility. Among the excerpts cited by the justice are assessments about an alleged steering of the inquiries and an alleged "political bias" of the reporting justice, according to CNN Brasil. On Friday (Sept. 3), Moraes added Mendonça to the fake news inquiry, an investigation the STF opened in 2019 that remains without conclusion, according to Poder360.Intelis said the episode exposes the risks of unclear limits for intelligence work. The group warned that the absence of comprehensive legislation can create a "dangerous confusion" between intelligence activity, police work and criminal prosecution. It called on the National Congress to take up Bill 6.423/2025, which would set a legal framework for intelligence activity, defining powers, limits and oversight mechanisms.Timeline of the conflictThe dispute became public on Tuesday (Sept. 1), when Mendonça lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report exposing messages between Daniel Vorcaro, founder of Banco Master, and Moraes. The exchanges suggest the justice discussed with the banker the possibility of a police operation targeting him, G1 reported. Mendonça asked the full court to review the material. Attorney General Paulo Gonet, Brazil's top prosecutor, said the investigation was null and opened an external control procedure to examine possible interference in the drafting of the report Mendonça had ordered.On Friday (Sept. 4), court President Edson Fachin removed Mendonça from the fake news inquiry and gave prosecutors five business days to say whether Moraes' request is warranted; Mendonça then has five more business days to respond. On Saturday, alongside Intelis, the national association of Federal Police delegates (ADPF) asked Gonet to recuse himself from proceedings that mention him, citing Article 258 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which extends to prosecutors the rules on conflict of interest that apply to judges.What comes nextIn the Banco Master case, Fachin set Friday (Sept. 11) as the deadline for statements from Mendonça, Moraes, Gonet and Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues, a timetable that pushes the full court's review past Sept. 14, Poder360 reported. The request filed by Moraes against Mendonça is only expected to reach the bench after Sept. 22, twelve days before the first round of Brazil's presidential election, scheduled for Oct. 4.

A Brazilian federal court on Friday (September 4) ordered the suspension of all environmental licenses held by Sigma Mineração, the operating subsidiary of Sigma Lithium Corp., and the full halt of mining at the Grota do Cirilo lithium project in Araçuaí and Itinga, in the Jequitinhonha Valley of Minas Gerais state. Judge Antonio Lucio Tulio de Oliveira Barbosa, of the Federal Regional Court of the 6th Region (TRF-6), the federal appeals court that covers Minas Gerais, granted the emergency injunction at the request of the Federation of Quilombola Communities of the State of Minas Gerais, known as N'Golo.Beyond stopping the extraction, the order immediately suspends the effects of every license issued to the company and bars the Minas Gerais government from issuing any conclusive technical opinion or new environmental license, "including additions, expansions or corrective licenses", for the complex. According to the local news site O Fator, the ruling in practice suspends the conduct adjustment agreement (TAC) signed between the state government and the company at the end of August.The order stands until Sigma produces, and the federal land agency Incra approves, a dedicated Quilombola Component Study (ECQ), a Quilombola Environmental Basic Project (PBAQ) and a Final Execution Report (REF). The company must also hold a free, prior and informed consultation with the Quilombola Community of Baú, in Araçuaí. Quilombolas are traditional Afro-Brazilian communities descended from people who escaped slavery, and their territories carry special protection under Brazilian law. The lawsuit was filed by N'Golo in May, asking for the licenses to be annulled until the consultation takes place.According to Folha de S.Paulo, which published a Bloomberg report, the federation argues that the miner overstated the distance between the project and the traditional territory. The decision holds that the mine sits within the community's direct area of influence and therefore requires impact studies dedicated to quilombola communities. Sigma told the court, as recorded in the ruling, that the project lies outside the presumed 8-kilometer impact zone, defended the legality of the state licensing and argued that the absence of definitive property titles blocks the application of the protection procedure."The risk of damage stems from the fact that the mining complex operates continuously, extracting resources and carrying out constant blasting and earthmoving a few kilometers from the traditional territory."the judge wrote, to justify the urgency of the measure.Timeline of the disputeIn late May, inspectors from the state environmental foundation Feam visited the complex and recorded interventions in four watercourses and their permanent preservation areas, illegal vegetation clearing and illegal groundwater extraction, according to a 73-page technical opinion obtained by O Fator. Based on satellite imagery, the agency also concluded that ore extraction in the North and South pits had begun before the state environmental council Copam issued the license. In July, Feam suspended operating licenses 4078/2022 and 144/2023, covering the two pits, and the company had to stop production. Sigma denied any irregularity.At the end of August, the miner signed a TAC with the Minas Gerais government and said it was authorized to resume operations. N'Golo had already asked the court, in the same May lawsuit, to halt the negotiations around that agreement. Friday's injunction suspends both the effects of the licenses and the TAC until the quilombola requirements are met.Impact and next stepsGrota do Cirilo lies in the area known as Brazil's Lithium Valley, and Folha describes it as one of the world's largest hard-rock lithium deposits, with an adjacent processing plant. O Fator calls Sigma the country's largest lithium miner and reported that the July embargo cooled talks on a loan of nearly 500 million reais from the state development bank BNDES.Feam and Sigma did not reply to O Fator before publication on whether they will appeal. The injunction sets no dates: the suspension remains in force until Incra approves the studies and the consultation with the Quilombola Community of Baú is held, and the parties may challenge the measure within the same federal case.

The AGU (Advocacia-Geral da União), the legal office that represents Brazil's federal government, said on Friday (Sept 4) that it had no "constitutional or legal authority" to act on Federal Police requests to appeal to the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's top court, against decisions by Justice André Mendonça in two investigations, Operation Sem Desconto and Operation Compliance Zero. In a statement, the office described what the police wanted as "procedural intervention" and said there is no precedent for action of that nature in its history.The statement responds to Federal Police intelligence reports released on Thursday (Sept 3) and attached to a decision by Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to Poder360, the documents indicate that the AGU "chose not to file the appeals" against acts by Mendonça and raise the hypothesis that the refusal stemmed from the "preservation of a political relationship" between Solicitor General Jorge Messias and the justice. The note rejects any institutional inertia."The AGU has no constitutional or legal authority to act on matters of criminal prosecution in the terms sought by the corporation. This did not, however, amount to institutional inertia. As the interlocutor before the STF, the attorney general of the Union worked concretely in search of an institutional solution", the statement says.The AGU adds that its refusal was the "result of technical and legal analysis" by lawyers with formal authority to review the matter, and that an intervention of the kind the police sought "could generate legal and institutional risks for the very investigations underway at the STF", according to Folha de S.Paulo.How the crisis reached this pointSem Desconto looks into fraud at the INSS, Brazil's social security institute, and Compliance Zero into Banco Master; both inquiries run at the Supreme Court under Mendonça, in petitions 15041 and 15556. On Tuesday (Sept 1), the justice lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report exposing messages and meetings between banker Daniel Vorcaro, jailed in Compliance Zero, and Moraes. On Thursday (Sept 3), Moraes cited police reports to ask court president Edson Fachin to act against his colleague, pointing to "strong indications" of administrative improbity, abuse of authority and malfeasance in office. In Moraes's reading, Mendonça "usurped" control of the inquiries and ran them with slanted intent. The allegations have not yet been examined on the merits.What each side saysIn its reports, the Federal Police says it asked the AGU to appeal to the Supreme Court against decisions of an "atypical profile" by Mendonça, and lists four hypotheses for the office's refusal, as reported by Poder360:"preservation of a political relationship" between Messias and Mendonça, citing the justice's "public gestures of support" for the solicitor general's nomination to the STF, later rejected, and the "common religious background" shared by the two;legal conviction that an appeal would not be admissible, since the unit judged the material "unconvincing from a technical standpoint";caution about the cost of litigating against a Supreme Court justice, as a way to "avoid formal confrontation with a member of the court";an assessment of political opportunity by the executive branch, since the investigation could reach Lulinha, a son of President Lula, and an AGU appeal "would produce a public reading of executive intervention in favor of the person under investigation".In its statement, the AGU says Messias sought dialogue with Mendonça and with Fachin "with the purpose of contributing to an environment of dialogue able to resolve differences and avoid aggravating a sensitive institutional situation", and closes by saying it remains "at the disposal of the Federal Police and the other institutions of the state". According to Folha de S.Paulo, the office had been arguing that the Federal Police proposed measures with the potential to void the Banco Master and INSS fraud investigations, and that the friction began when the force started demanding that the AGU act before the Supreme Court to curb the control that Justice Dias Toffoli held over inquiries he reported.Next stepsFachin ordered Moraes, Mendonça, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police Director General Andrei Rodrigues to respond within five days, a deadline that falls next week. Gonet also informed the court's president that he opened an external control procedure over police activity to investigate possible interference in the drafting of the report that linked Moraes to Vorcaro. The case, once reported by Mendonça, is now under Fachin's control.

Brazil's Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet has told the president of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, that he will examine whether external interference shaped a Federal Police report that pointed to messages and contacts between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, the former Banco Master president jailed in the Compliance Zero operation. According to O Globo, the filing amounts to a request for authorization to investigate Justice André Mendonça, who ordered the report. Folha de S.Paulo and G1 reported the move on Friday night (Sept. 4).In his message to Fachin, Gonet wrote that he "determined the opening of a Police Activity External Control Procedure", the instrument federal prosecutors in Brazil use to oversee police work, and said the outcome "will be reported to the Court at the appropriate time". According to G1, the Federal Police must clarify any "possible occurrence of an order or external interference" in the report's drafting that "tainted its content".The prosecution says it was shut out of the proceedings that produced the report: "the ruling issued in Petition no. 15,556/DF was concealed from the Prosecution Office, which was thus prevented from carrying out the necessary external control of police activity, an essential stage of any investigation", the PGR said. Gonet's filing does not name Mendonça, but Folha reports that it refers to the justice's conduct. Gonet himself is cited in the police report, and the superior council of the federal prosecution service has opened a review of his own conduct, Folha reports.How the case got hereThe report came out of the inquiry into Banco Master. On Tuesday (Sept. 1), Mendonça, then the case's reporting justice, lifted the secrecy of the document, which compiles messages from Vorcaro's seized phone and indicates meetings between him and a contact attributed to Moraes from March 2024 to August 2025, at private homes in Brasília, in the Campos do Jordão region of São Paulo state and at events including the London Legal Forum, sponsored by the bank. Mendonça suggested the full bench weigh the material and asked the prosecution for a formal opinion. The same day, Gonet declared the investigation null because, in his view, it ran without a request from prosecutors or the police itself."It is not for a judge to accuse, still less for a judge to run pre-trial investigations. He may not use the judicial police as his longa manus for activities that were not assigned to him."The words come from the opinion in which Gonet asked for the report to be voided, quoted by Folha. The document also suggests, according to G1, that Moraes discussed with Vorcaro the possibility of a Federal Police operation targeting the banker. Moraes denies the ties: in March, the court's press office said, at his office's request, that a technical analysis found Vorcaro's messages "do not match the contacts of Justice Alexandre de Moraes in the seized files". BBC News Brasil, which examined the phone number at the center of the report, notes that the police never said it confirmed with the carrier that the line was used by the justice. Moraes has separately asked Fachin to investigate Mendonça for abuse of authority, Folha reported. None of the people cited has been charged or convicted, and all inquiries remain preliminary.What comes nextThe case, once handled by Mendonça, now sits with Fachin, who ordered the prosecution to provide information. The Federal Police will be summoned to explain how the report was produced, and the findings will reach the court "at the appropriate time", with no set date. Formally investigating an STF justice requires the court's own approval: according to Folha, the path runs through the court president and depends on the bench agreeing, or not, to the probe. Fachin's decision on the authorization is the next step.

Brazil's Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) told the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, on Friday (4) that it has opened an external oversight procedure into the Federal Police's conduct in producing the report that pointed to a relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes, one of the court's 11 justices, and banker Daniel Vorcaro, jailed in Operation Compliance Zero. The communication was reported by G1. Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet is himself cited in the document."I inform Your Excellency that, under the order I am forwarding, I determined the opening of an External Control Procedure on Police Activity," Gonet wrote to Fachin, adding that the result will be reported to the court "in due time". External control of police work is a duty of Brazil's federal prosecutors, and the move follows a demand for explanations from the STF president. According to the PGR, the Federal Police will have to clarify, among other points, the "possible occurrence of an external order or interference" in the drafting of the report that may have "tainted its content".The prosecutors' office also said it was never notified of the decision that ordered the investigation to be deepened, issued by the case's then-rapporteur, Justice André Mendonça. "The decision issued in Petition no. 15,556/DF was hidden from the Public Prosecutor's Office, which was thus prevented from carrying out the necessary external control of police activity, an essential step in any investigation," the PGR said, in a passage reported by G1. The case was reported by Mendonça and now sits with Fachin. Poder360 reports that the procedure aims to determine whether there were irregularities in the Banco Master investigations.Timeline of the caseMarch: the congressional inquiry into INSS benefit fraud (CPMI do INSS) found, in Vorcaro's phone records, a number linked to the STF that interacted with the banker, without identifying which official used it, according to BBC News Brasil. In a statement, the court denied that messages found in seized material had been sent to Moraes.September 1: Mendonça ordered the report's secrecy lifted. It was produced in Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates suspected fraud at Banco Master.Later on September 1: the PGR asked for the investigation that found the messages to be voided, arguing that deepening a probe into Moraes required authorization from the court's full bench.September 4: the PGR informed Fachin of the opening of external control proceedings over the Federal Police's conduct.What the report says and what each side arguesAccording to BBC News Brasil, the document treats the exchanges as possible interactions between Vorcaro and a contact saved on the banker's phone under the justice's name. The messages reportedly dealt with payments under the R$ 131 million contract between Banco Master and the Barci de Moraes law office, run by Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife, and with matters of Compliance Zero itself. The Federal Police does not state that it confirmed with the phone carrier that the line was used by Moraes; only Vorcaro's phone was seized.No formal accusation has been brought against Moraes. In March, the STF's communications office said, at the justice's request, that a technical analysis found that messages sent by Vorcaro "do not match the contacts of Justice Alexandre de Moraes in the seized files". The PGR, for its part, argues the investigation was flawed from the start. In a filing on September 1, reported by Agência Brasil, Gonet stated:"The order given to the police authority to investigate specific individuals, without a request from the Public Prosecutor's Office and without initiative by the police authority, is void, as it exceeds the limits of the magistrate's competence in the pre-trial phase."The next step is the conclusion of the external oversight procedure, with no set deadline. Its result will be reported to the STF, and the case remains with Fachin, who ordered the information that prompted the PGR's response.

Federal deputy Duda Salabert (PSOL-MG), 45, and her aide, Felipe Correia de Souza Pereira Gomes, 44, were attacked in the early hours of Friday (September 4) while documenting a suspected illegal ore extraction site near the border between Belo Horizonte and Nova Lima, in the metropolitan area of the capital of Minas Gerais state. According to the police report seen by G1, the two were at the site to record images when they noticed unidentified men approaching. In an account reported by CartaCapital, the congresswoman described the episode as attempted murder.According to the report filed with the Military Police, Salabert began recording the site on her phone. After passing through the area, the men reportedly turned back toward the two. Fearing a confrontation, the deputy and her aide tried to escape down a slope, fell and were caught. One man held Felipe while another grabbed his phone and threw it; the aide was then beaten with kicks to the head and other parts of his body. Salabert was also approached and attacked, and the phone she was using was thrown nearby. After the attacks, the men fled.The two managed to reach a Copasa water utility facility, where they asked for help and called the Military Police. The congresswoman was treated at a hospital in Nova Lima and, according to the medical assessment recorded in the report, had scrapes and a dislocated right shoulder; Diário do Poder reports she was discharged. Felipe later returned to the scene and found both phones damaged. The Military Police searched the area but did not locate the suspects. The police report classifies the case as bodily injury, according to the newspaper O Tempo, cited by CartaCapital.The congresswoman's account and reactionsIn the version released by the deputy, as reported by Diário do Poder, three men, one of them armed, surprised the group as they recorded images, and the men allegedly tried to take them into the mining area. Salabert said she jumped down a slope to reach the avenue and call for help. The outlet places the start of the inspection on Thursday night (September 3). Salabert, a member of the left-wing PSOL party known for environmental legislation, is running for reelection in October's general election, and Felipe Gomes is a candidate for the Minas Gerais state assembly, according to CartaCapital.PSOL's Minas Gerais branch issued a statement on the case:"PSOL Minas Gerais demands that the competent authorities and the Military Police conduct a transparent investigation, able to clarify the circumstances of the attack and hold its authors accountable. We know that in Minas Gerais the work of mining companies is based on intimidation, especially when extraction ignores the requirements of the law. We reaffirm our solidarity with Duda Salabert and Felipe Gomes. Guaranteeing the safety of congresswomen while they work is essential to our democracy."InvestigationThe case is under investigation by the Civil Police of Minas Gerais (PCMG). No arrests have been made and the suspects remain unidentified. The legal classification of the crime depends on the inquiry: the initial record lists bodily injury, while the deputy maintains it was attempted murder. G1 said it had contacted the PCMG, the Chamber of Deputies and the congresswoman's office, and was awaiting a response when its report was published. The next step is the progress of the PCMG inquiry, which has not disclosed a timeline or planned investigative measures.

A federal appeals court in Brazil convicted the mining company Samarco and three of its former managers on Thursday (Sept. 3) for the collapse of the Fundão tailings dam in Mariana, in Minas Gerais state, which killed 19 people on November 5, 2015. The unanimous decision by the 2nd Criminal Chamber of the TRF-6, the federal appeals court for Minas Gerais, partially reversed a November 2024 lower-court ruling that had acquitted all defendants. According to Folha de S.Paulo, it is the first criminal conviction in a case widely described as Brazil's worst environmental disaster. The chamber granted appeals filed by federal prosecutors and by relatives of victims.The three men were held responsible for the crime of causing a flood that resulted in death, and for environmental crimes. Germano Silva Lopes, former manager of structural projects, and Daviély Rodrigues Silva, former manager of geotechnics, were sentenced to 8 years and 9 months in prison in an initially closed regime, plus 192 day-fines. Wagner Milagres Alves, former manager of mine operations, received 7 years, 3 months and 14 days in an initially semi-open regime plus 160 day-fines, according to the Federal Prosecutor's Office. Folha reported his sentence as 7 years, 3 months and 15 days. Each day-fine equals 1/30 of the monthly minimum wage.Samarco must pay a criminal fine of more than 6 million reais, transfer 1 million reais to the National Environment Fund and is barred from government contracts for ten years. According to the ruling described by prosecutors, the company knew about the risk of the dam breaking but adopted conduct that contributed to the disaster by ignoring technical warnings in order to increase profits.Regional federal prosecutor Darlan Airton Dias, who argued for the convictions, defended the reversal:"The acquittal ruling called the legitimate exercise of public criminal prosecution an 'obtuse search for the guilty'. Today the Second Chamber of the TRF-6 restored the truth and, in a strictly technical judgment, delivered justice, applying the due criminal response to those who caused this tragedy."Acquittals upheldThe court upheld the acquittals of the companies Vale, BHP Billiton Brasil and VOGBR Recursos Hídricos e Geotecnia, and of three other defendants: Ricardo Vescovi de Aragão, then chief executive of Samarco; Kleber Luiz de Mendonça Terra, then director of operations and infrastructure at the miner; and Samuel Santana Paes Loures, a senior engineer at VOGBR. The Federal Prosecutor's Office said it still holds the company's decision-making leadership responsible and will examine whether to appeal the acquittals that were upheld.Background and next stepsThe Fundão collapse sent mining waste down the entire Doce River basin to the Atlantic Ocean at Linhares, in Espírito Santo, contaminating water sources, soil and air. It damaged the regional economy and destroyed farming, cattle ranching, commerce, services and fishing across the basin, according to prosecutors. The criminal case covered Samarco, Vale, BHP Billiton Brasil and VOGBR, along with executives and technical staff. At first instance, in November 2024, all of the accused were acquitted.This week's convictions are not final. The three former managers can still appeal to Brazil's higher courts, such as the Superior Court of Justice. The law firm Maurício Campos & Brasileiro, which represents the three men, was contacted by Folha and had not responded by the time the newspaper published. The regional prosecutor's office told the newspaper it is reviewing the full text of the decision before deciding whether to appeal.

The dean of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Gilmar Mendes, told President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a private meeting that the Federal Police should push back on orders from fellow Justice André Mendonça whenever officers consider them excessive or unlawful. The meeting took place on the morning of September 1 at the Planalto palace, according to the political column of the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, and was meant to advise the president on the crisis between the court and the federal force.In Gilmar's assessment, shared with Lula, the government failed by never demanding a brake, since the start, on André Mendonça's measures. Mendonça is the rapporteur justice for the Master Bank and INSS cases, the latter including investigations that reach the president's son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, who is under investigation and entitled to the presumption of innocence. The column reports the same criticism was aimed at the Justice Ministry and at the Federal Police itself. To illustrate the standoff, the justice cited a ruling that kept federal investigators from part of the case material and an order sending all actions and proceedings to the rapporteur's chambers.Gilmar laid out a firm position for the force's leadership. In his reading, director-general Andrei Rodrigues may declare that unlawful orders will not be carried out and go directly to the courts to have the determination suspended. In an extreme situation, the force could even seek a writ of mandamus against Mendonça's decisions, a step the justice said he sees no need to reach. His main recommendation is an institutional solution, either a joint move by the justice minister and STF President Edson Fachin, or direct talks between Andrei Rodrigues and Fachin. To justify such a reaction, Gilmar pointed to the Federal Police reports rejected by the Prosecutor General's Office and to the testimony of former banker Daniel Vorcaro, in which Andrei Rodrigues is mentioned.Behind the meeting with LulaA report by Folha journalist Catia Seabra, republished by Estado de Minas, confirms the meeting and adds that Gilmar sought Lula right after a coffee attended by STF justices and the police director-general. According to accounts heard by the paper, the dean said that when a Supreme Court justice unduly interferes with police work, the problem stops belonging to the court alone and becomes the government's as well. Reached for comment, Gilmar declined to speak.The conversation came after Estadão revealed that Vorcaro, arrested in the Compliance Zero operation and under investigation in the Master case, testified before Mendonça with prosecutors present and no Federal Police representative in the room. In that testimony he said he intended to sign a plea deal against members of Lula's government and made accusations against Andrei Rodrigues. The standoff with the executive branch has earlier roots: in July, Rodrigues asked Attorney General of the Union Jorge Messias, the federal government's top lawyer, to challenge Mendonça's decisions, and Messias refused, arguing that his office acting in a criminal case would be unprecedented and could be read as attempted obstruction of justice. According to Folha, Gilmar also described dysfunctional relations between the police and the two ministries that oversee it, led by Jorge Messias and Justice Minister Wellington César Lima e Silva.Timeline of the crisis and next stepsThe crisis sped up after Mendonça ordered the Federal Police to produce a report exposing message exchanges between Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the court's vice president, and Vorcaro, based on material found on the former banker's phone. On September 1, the same day Gilmar met Lula, Mendonça lifted the secrecy on the case and suggested the full bench review it. Lula also spoke with Fachin that day."Given the content of the information presented by the police authority, regardless of whatever position the Prosecutor General's Office may take, the inevitable path of these proceedings leads to the plenary of this Supreme Federal Court, the sovereign body to analyze, in a technical and strictly legal manner, the new elements brought by the police authority," Mendonça wrote.Moraes responded by asking Fachin to open an investigation of Mendonça for administrative improbity, abuse of authority, malfeasance in office and favoritism toward political groups, based on what he calls strong indications in his handling of the Master and INSS cases. Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet said the police inquiry is null and could not have been carried out without a request from prosecutors or from the force itself.On Thursday (3), Fachin ordered Mendonça, Moraes, Gonet and Andrei Rodrigues to explain, within five business days, the events behind the crisis. He asked for information on whether the Federal Police followed the rules of the judiciary's organic law when dealing with officials who can only be tried at the Supreme Court, and on indications that institutional access credentials were used to examine a strictly private document. On Friday (4), speaking at the Planalto, Fachin also defended closing the "fake news" inquiry, opened in 2019 under Moraes, as a way to ease tensions at the court.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, on Friday (Sept 4) removed from the court's fake news inquiry a request by Justice Alexandre de Moraes to open an investigation into fellow justice André Mendonça. The request will now be examined by the court's presidency and was joined, according to Folha de S.Paulo, to a case Fachin had opened over a Federal Police report on messages allegedly sent by former Banco Master owner Daniel Vorcaro to Moraes.In the order, Fachin gave the Attorney General's Office (PGR, the federal prosecution service) five business days to file an opinion on the admissibility and regularity of the procedure Moraes adopted and, if it deems it pertinent, on the accusations against Mendonça, who oversees the Banco Master and INSS cases at the court. INSS is Brazil's federal pension system. After the PGR responds, Mendonça may formally reply within five days. According to G1, the two matters involving the justices are now handled by the court presidency."Considering the need for adequate instruction of the case in order to assess the admissibility and regularity of the procedure adopted by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and, if applicable, the allegations set out in it, I order the completion of the instruction as follows", Fachin wrote, as reported by Folha.Fachin also wrote that the measures "are intended exclusively for the instruction of the case, without anticipatory judgment on admissibility, the regularity of the procedure or the merits of the allegations". He will define the next steps, including whether the matters go to the court's full bench.What Moraes allegesOn Thursday night, Moraes sent Fachin the request to investigate Mendonça. In the filing, he cited "strong evidence" of administrative improbity, abuse of authority, crime of responsibility and favoritism toward certain political groups in Mendonça's handling of the Master and INSS cases. According to G1, Moraes argues that his colleague took over police duties in directing the investigations, improperly handled negotiations over a possible plea deal and steered probes, for "personal and political reasons", toward targets including Moraes himself and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre. Moraes says the Federal Police report points to measures taken by Mendonça with "flagrant loss of impartiality". None of the allegations has been admitted or weighed by the court so far.How the crisis reached the court presidencyThe clash between the two justices grew on Tuesday (Sept 1), when Mendonça lifted the seal on a Federal Police report, produced at his order, exposing messages and contacts between Vorcaro and Moraes, and suggested the full bench review the material. Attorney General Paulo Gonet, named in the reports Mendonça released, called the investigation null because it was carried out without a request from prosecutors or from the police itself. Folha also reported that the PF document Moraes relied on is unsigned by any police delegate and carries a caveat that it must not be used to "support proceedings of any nature". Earlier in the week, Fachin had already given Moraes, Mendonça, Gonet and Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues five business days to address the developments tied to the Master case.The next step is the PGR opinion, due within five business days. Once the filings are in, Fachin will rule on admissibility and regularity before any review of the merits, and he will decide whether the matter goes to the full bench, as Moraes requested by citing the Constitution and the court's rules, under which a collegiate body must examine any common crime attributed to a judge.

Brazil's former prosecutor general Claudio Fonteles, who led the federal prosecution service from 2003 to 2005 during President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's first term, told BBC News Brasil that the current prosecutor general (PGR), Paulo Gonet, should step aside from the Banco Master investigation and hand the case to his deputy, Hindenburgo Chateaubriand Filho. In the interview, published Thursday, he also called for an investigation into Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes and described the standoff between the justice and the inquiries' rapporteur, Andre Mendonca, as the biggest crisis in the court's history.The recusal request rests on messages pulled from the phone of banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the now defunct Banco Master, that mention Gonet. According to a Federal Police report unsealed on Tuesday by Mendonça, lawyer Ciro Soares, a former counsel for the bank, acted as a go-between for Vorcaro and the prosecutor general. In March 2025, Soares allegedly worked to have Vorcaro include Pedro Gonet, the prosecutor's son, on a Master-funded trip to London. Days earlier, the lawyer had sent Vorcaro a photo of himself beside Gonet, saying he was with the PGR, and the two then traded calls. As of publication, Gonet had not addressed the revelations. "The prosecutor general of the republic has to explain this," Fonteles said. In his view, the trip episode is "the most delicate" one, though it does not necessarily amount to a criminal offense, and stepping aside would be "a guarantee for himself".A short timeline for newcomersBanco Master is the target of STF inquiries into billions of reais in alleged fraud. Among the messages the Federal Police attributes to Vorcaro and Moraes is a supposed request, dated October 30, 2025, for the justice to intervene on the banker's behalf with Gonet and Federal Police director general Andrei Rodrigues. On November 15, Vorcaro asked the justice whether he should leave Brazil; he was arrested two days later as he tried to fly to Dubai, and the central bank liquidated Master the next day. Investigators also found that the law office of Moraes's wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, held a 131 million reais contract with Master, a document Moraes at one point edited. Once the report was unsealed, the case produced a wave of stories and leaks also touching Mendonça, the prosecutor general's office and figures such as Flavio Bolsonaro and lawmaker Nikolas Ferreira, as the Folha daily's morning podcast noted. None of those named has been charged or convicted; the allegations remain under investigation.The fight over the reportOn Monday, Mendonça ordered the prosecutor general's office to review the report and state its position on opening an investigation of Moraes. Gonet asked instead for the case to be voided, arguing Mendonça could not commission a Federal Police report on a fellow justice directly and should have taken the question to the full court before ordering that initial inquiry. "It is not for a judge to accuse, still less for a judge to carry out pre-trial investigations," Gonet argued in a filing quoted by the BBC.Fonteles disagrees. He says there was no illegality, because Law 13,964 of 2019, the anticrime package that created the judge of guarantees, widened what judges may do in criminal investigations, including requesting documents, reports and information from police. He also argues the full court already has enough to open an inquiry into Moraes's conduct."Faced with these facts involving Justice Alexandre de Moraes, I believe, without any doubt, that he must be investigated. First, by the fact that he even took part in hiring his wife's law firm. That alone is a fact that needs to be investigated."Fonteles also cited the message in which the banker asked the justice "should I leave Brazil, should I stay in Brazil": "These facts are objectively on the table. There is no doubt whatsoever, they must be investigated," he said.The next move belongs to STF President Edson Fachin, who ordered Moraes, Mendonça, the prosecutor general's office and the Federal Police to explain the crisis within five days. The full court will then decide whether to open an investigation of Moraes and whether to accept Gonet's request to void the report.

Brazil's Federal Police produced intelligence reports totaling 50 pages that analyzed the conduct of Supreme Federal Court Justice André Mendonça in investigations assigned to him, and that conclude there was "asymmetry by political spectrum" in his rulings. According to Poder360, which obtained the material, the officers assessed that Mendonça applied a different standard in the cases of businessman Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the eldest son of President Lula, and ACM Neto, a candidate for governor of Bahia. The document was sent to Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who folded it into the so-called fake news inquiry and relied on it in a decision issued on Thursday (September 3, 2026), in which he cited "strong indications" that his colleague committed administrative improbity, abuse of authority and a crime of responsibility.The reports were drawn up under Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and focus on Operation Sem Desconto, which investigates fraud in benefit discounts at the INSS, Brazil's social security agency, and Operation Compliance Zero, which examines suspicions tied to Banco Master. Both inquiries report to Mendonça. The officers examined the evidentiary standard he adopted, how long he took to rule on measures requested by the police, and his ties to fellow justices and political figures, and they raised hypotheses about possible motives. O Globo, which quoted passages of the text, reported that the police found that the "factual situation investigated" in the two cases "bears a relevant similarity", and concluded that the justice's perception changed "depending on the political spectrum of the person involved". Folha de S.Paulo reported that the document records an August 13 meeting in which Mendonça allegedly voiced the perception that ACM Neto was engaged in a representation activity.Alcolumbre as a "probable strategic target"The material also weighs in on Senate President Davi Alcolumbre of the União Brasil party. In the officers' reading, he is a "probable strategic target" because of his political weight, his favored position to keep the Senate presidency and his control of the chamber's agenda, above all the handling of impeachment requests against Supreme Court justices. In his Thursday decision, Moraes accused his colleague of steering investigations at targets for "personal and political reasons", wrote that probes were steered against Alcolumbre with a "political bias" and said he himself had been targeted by the same practice. The report argues that Mendonça might see Antônio Rueda, the president of União Brasil, as a route to reach the senator, "with whom he had a well-known falling out at the time of his own nomination to the Court, under the previous government, when that lawmaker posed a major obstacle to the nomination".According to O Globo, the officers recorded that Mendonça allegedly pushed, in an in-person meeting, to separate the investigations of ACM Neto and Rueda despite the apparent connection between their conduct."Note the asymmetry of treatment: separation is suggested where the unit identifies a connection, whereas in the July 2026 episode the rapporteur's objection fell on a split ordered by the unit precisely where no connection existed."The document itself is contested ground. It is printed on paper without Federal Police letterhead, it is unsigned and it gives no exact date of delivery to Moraes. The reports also flag their own limits, as Poder360 summarized: they are intelligence analyses built on incomplete information, they work with hypotheses and confidence ratings, and they are not pieces of case evidence and carry no probative value. Mendonça's office did not respond to a request for comment from Poder360 before publication. The justice has not been convicted of any of the crimes cited.How the document reached the courtThe reports were produced before Mendonça's decision on Tuesday (September 1) to unseal pieces of the Master investigation showing a relationship between the bank's founder, Daniel Vorcaro, and Moraes. After that ruling, Moraes said he had learned the intelligence report existed and ordered the Federal Police to send it to his chambers through case 4.781, the fake news inquiry, a long-running Supreme Court probe into online disinformation. On Thursday (September 3), he used the material in the decision citing "strong indications", added Mendonça to the inquiry, unsealed the documents, ordered that the Prosecutor General's office be informed and asked court president Edson Fachin to take action. Fachin opened a new proceeding.The next step is set: Fachin gave five business days for Moraes, Mendonça, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and police chief Andrei Rodrigues to submit information. No date has been set for a final ruling.

Federal Police intelligence reports say that André Mendonça, a justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), may have interfered in investigations known as Operation Sem Desconto and Operation Compliance Zero. The findings appear in documents disclosed in a decision by Justice Alexandre de Moraes released on Thursday (Sept. 3), according to the Mônica Bergamo column of Folha de S.Paulo. Drawing on the reports, Moraes asked court president Edson Fachin to open an investigation into his colleague within the STF's long-running inquiry into disinformation networks, known as the fake news inquiry.In the filing, Moraes wrote that there are "strong indications" of administrative improbity, abuse of authority, impeachable offenses and favoritism toward political groups in Mendonça's conduct as reporting justice for the Banco Master and INSS cases, inquiries into a major Brazilian bank and the federal pension system. Moraes said Mendonça had taken the direction of investigations away from police authorities, handled plea bargain negotiations improperly and steered targets "for personal and political reasons," with prior designation of precautionary measures to be requested by the Federal Police. The targets cited include Moraes himself and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre.What the reports sayPassages quoted in the decision detail the suspicions. One report says Mendonça ordered, on his own initiative, an investigative measure to produce evidence against Moraes without signing a judicial decision and without informing the Prosecutor General's office. Another points to "asymmetry by political spectrum": the justice would have taken "very different" positions on wrongdoing attributed to fellow justices Dias Toffoli and Nunes Marques. A third assesses that Alcolumbre would be the target of a strategy to reshape the balance of power within the court."It is assessed that Davi Alcolumbre is a probable strategic target, given his political strength, his favored position to remain president of the Senate and the resulting control of the chamber's agenda, notably regarding the processing of impeachment requests against Supreme Court justices," says the passage cited by Moraes.The documents also record statements attributed to Mendonça about Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet. According to the police, the justice considered Rodrigues untrustworthy because of supposed "inadequate" closeness to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and mentioned a precautionary removal. On Gonet, he allegedly argued that closeness to Justice Gilmar Mendes "would make him unworthy of trust" and weighed calling him as a witness. The report stresses that no concrete facts of irregular conduct by the police chief were presented.TimelineSept. 1: Mendonça orders the declassification of a Federal Police report, produced at his request, that exposed messages and contacts between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master. The Prosecutor General's office asks for the investigation to be declared null.Sept. 3: Moraes sends Fachin the request to investigate Mendonça, based on the intelligence reports. On the same day, Fachin orders Moraes, Mendonça, the Prosecutor General's office and the Federal Police to provide information within five days.Mendonça had not publicly commented on the reports as of Thursday night, according to g1, Globo's news portal. In earlier statements on the crisis, the justice said he had met Vorcaro only once, to discuss court-ordered government debts known as precatórios. He is the subject of a request for investigation; there is no formal charge or conviction, and the conclusions reported by the police have not yet been tested in an adversarial proceeding.The next procedural step is the five-day deadline set by Fachin, counted from Thursday, for Moraes, Mendonça, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and police director-general Andrei Rodrigues to explain the crisis and their contacts with Vorcaro. In the decision, Moraes recalled that under the Constitution and the court's rules, a collegiate body must examine any common crime allegedly committed by justices.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) asked the court's president, Edson Fachin, on Thursday (3) to open a formal inquiry into fellow justice André Mendonça. Filed within the so-called fake news inquiry, the petition cites "strong indications" of administrative improbity, abuse of authority, crime of responsibility and favoring of political groups in Mendonça's handling of the Banco Master and INSS fraud cases.According to G1, Moraes built the request on three alleged acts: taking over the direction of police investigations with measures that broke the chain of custody of evidence; improperly conducting talks over possible plea deals, including contacts with lawyers of would-be collaborators and offers of benefits not provided by law; and steering the investigation toward chosen targets for "personal and political reasons". The targets, he says, included Moraes himself and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre. The column of Mônica Bergamo in Folha de S.Paulo reports the ruling was signed in Inquiry 4.781, opened in 2019 to investigate threats and disinformation campaigns against the court's justices.One passage of a Federal Police intelligence report quoted in the ruling says Mendonça ordered, on his own motion, an investigative step to produce evidence against Moraes outside legal procedure:"Justice André Mendonça determined - DE OFÍCIO [on his own motion] - a police investigative measure for the illegal production of evidence against Justice Alexandre de Moraes (...) without having signed the judicial decision and without communicating it through the legal procedural channels, as well as keeping the matter from the Attorney General's Office."Moraes also said the report shows different treatment of authorities in equal situations, with "very different stances" toward justices Dias Toffoli and Nunes Marques, and describes a "judge acting as investigator". The claims are indications raised in a petition: Mendonça has not been charged or convicted, and the request now rests with the court's leadership. He had not commented publicly as of publication.How the crisis developedThe clash between the two justices escalated within days. On Tuesday (1), Mendonça lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report, commissioned by himself, that exposed messages and contacts between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master. On the same day, the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) asked for the investigation ordered by Mendonça to be declared null. G1 reports the disclosed messages also show closeness between Vorcaro and Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet.In the ruling, Moraes cited the Constitution and the court's internal rules, under which any suspected common crime by a judge must be examined by a panel, not a single justice. Fachin now decides whether to open the proceeding and refer it to a collegiate body, taking the measures he deems necessary, as InfoMoney highlighted. No deadline has been set.

Former banker Daniel Vorcaro, jailed in the Banco Master scandal, said in plea-bargain proposals rejected by the Federal Police and by the Attorney General's Office (PGR) that the R$ 5 million donated in 2022 to the campaigns of then president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos), now governor of São Paulo, were bribes arranged with Gilberto Kassab, president of the PSD. The account was revealed by UOL on Thursday and confirmed by Folha de S.Paulo. Because all three proposals were rejected for lack of new facts, no cooperation deal was ever signed, and the version remains the banker's own, untested account.According to the reporting, the transfers were made by Fabiano Zettel, Vorcaro's brother-in-law, who is also under investigation in Operação Compliance Zero, and are described as "financial counterparts" arising from an "improper arrangement with Gilberto Kassab" to keep Credcesta, a payroll-linked credit card run by PKL One Participações, a company tied to Master, operating in São Paulo state. The business reportedly began under governor João Doria (then in the PSDB). According to Vorcaro, once Tarcísio became the likely winner of the 2022 election, Augusto Lima, the banker's former partner in charge of expanding the product, moved to secure its continuation under the incoming administration."With the 2022 election in São Paulo and the rise of Tarcísio de Freitas as the likely winner, Augusto Lima, who was responsible for the negotiations to expand Credcesta, sought to guarantee the continuity of the business with the São Paulo state government," reads the proposal, as quoted by Folha.The alleged arrangement, according to the account, provided for payments of 5% of Credcesta's net results in São Paulo and for money to fund campaigns of parties in Kassab's political group. Kassab is now the vice presidential running mate of Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) in October's election. Vorcaro also described planned informal payments of about R$ 10 million in cash, delivered by Thiago Botelho, known as Papel, for PSD campaigns. The election donation was initially to be paid fully in cash, the proposal says, but was converted into official transfers because partner parties would only accept official donations. Vorcaro claims the promised counterparts were honored and that Credcesta stayed linked to the state government for more than a year.How the account became publicThe material appears in three plea proposals, all refused by the Federal Police and the PGR. The last one was rejected in late August, after testimony given on August 27 at the Papudinha penitentiary to João Azambuja, an auxiliary judge on the staff of Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça, who oversees Operação Compliance Zero at the court; lawyers for the banker and a member of the prosecution service attended, according to Metrópoles. On how the R$ 5 million was split, the reports diverge: Folha records R$ 2 million to Bolsonaro and R$ 3 million to Tarcísio; the UOL account, as relayed by Metrópoles and Brasil de Fato, puts R$ 3 million with the former president and R$ 2 million with the governor.The case so farMay 2022: PKL One, the company behind Credcesta, is accredited as a payroll credit provider by the São Paulo state government, still under the Doria administration, according to Tarcísio's office.October 2022: Zettel donates R$ 5 million in officially declared contributions to the Bolsonaro and Tarcísio campaigns.January 2023: Tarcísio takes office as governor and Kassab becomes his Government Secretary.2026: Vorcaro, imprisoned in the Master scandal, submits three plea proposals; the third is rejected in late August.September 3: UOL publishes the account, confirmed by Folha; Kassab and Tarcísio deny the allegations.Bolsonaro did not respond to Folha before publication, and Augusto Lima did not comment, according to Metrópoles. Kassab called the account "absolutely fanciful" and said he refutes it "with vehemence". "I never dealt with donations with Augusto Lima or Daniel Vorcaro. In fact, I have no relationship with Daniel Vorcaro, I have never spoken to him, in person or by phone," he said in a statement. "I did not take part in or receive any donation from Vorcaro, Lima or Botelho. I have never received values in cash."In a statement, Tarcísio's office said the 2022 campaign "had more than 600 donors and was conducted in strict observance of electoral law", that the governor has no ties to the cited donor, and that the campaign accounts were properly filed and approved by the electoral court. The note also says the accreditation of PKL One is not a contract with the state and involves no public money.No new deposition is scheduled, and the PGR has not announced a fresh review of the material. Any cooperation deal would require the acceptance of the Federal Police and of prosecutors, who have already rejected the account three times for lack of new facts.

Brazil's Federal Police say Cláudio Castro, former governor of Rio de Janeiro state, received direct benefits from a money laundering scheme tied to the Refit group, the former Manguinhos refinery. The findings appear in a decision from the second phase of Operation Sem Refino, unsealed on Thursday (3) by Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court. The alleged benefits include 10,500 reais in caviar paid by a third party's company, de facto use of a mansion in Petrópolis, a mountain town north of Rio, and a below-market rent for the penthouse where he lives in Barra da Tijuca. Castro is under investigation, has not been convicted, and his lawyers deny any wrongdoing.The inquiry describes an asset-concealment structure built on front men, known in Brazil as "laranjas", and third-party companies used to pay the former governor's expenses and hide luxury assets. Refit is controlled by businessman Ricardo Magro, described by G1 as one of Brazil's largest tax debtors. The court ordered his pretrial detention in May, in the operation's first phase; he is now a fugitive listed on an Interpol red notice. Data taken from seized phones also suggests that Castro and his secretaries kept direct channels to speed up environmental licenses and pursue competitor companies.The caviar episodeMessages quoted in the decision show that Castro personally negotiated the purchase of different types and weights of caviar with a supplier and asked that part of the order be delivered to a suite at the Hotel Emiliano in São Paulo, where he was staying on April 24, 2026. The final price, after discounts, came to 10,500 reais. He told the seller he would send PIX payment proof (PIX is Brazil's instant transfer system), but bank records showed the money came from the account of AC Santos Participações e Empreendimentos, a company owned by lawyer Antonio Carlos da Conceição Santos, known as "Pipo", whom police call the central laundering operator of the group. Investigators see the case as objective proof that third parties covered spending incompatible with the former governor's lawful income.A mansion in the mountains and a penthouse in RioIn Petrópolis, police say Castro enjoyed de facto possession of a luxury property in the Locanda Residenze condominium, registered in the name of Concrecasa Construções Inteligentes. The company's administrator, Carolina Gonçalves Xavier Pereira, has corporate ties to businessman Luiz Fernando Gomes, whose Enge Prat Engenharia e Serviços signed 11 contracts with the state government during Castro's term, worth a combined 355.2 million reais, including 49.6 million reais without competitive bidding. According to the decision, Castro behaved like the true owner of the house: he ran security routines, received the property's electricity bills on his phone and coordinated renovations he called "my work", including a climate-controlled wine cellar budgeted at 245,000 reais whose PDF file carried the metadata title "AP Adega Claudio Castro". O Globo reported that between January 2024 and early this year Castro used the state government's official helicopter at least 24 times for weekend trips to Petrópolis.In Barra da Tijuca, the former governor lives under a contract of 10,000 reais a month with a company called J3 Real Estate, below the market average estimated by police at between 25,000 and 29,000 reais. J3 was created 50 days before buying the penthouse for 3.48 million reais, lists the property as its only asset and only opened its first bank account three years after the purchase. Seized messages also showed Castro and his wife coordinating renovation details, such as the glass railing around the pool, months before they moved in, which investigators say contradicts the defense's version that he took no part in the work.Timeline and the defenseThe first phase of Sem Refino was launched in May, when Moraes authorized searches targeting Castro and other suspects and ordered Magro's arrest. The second phase came on August 14, with 16 search and seizure warrants issued by the Supreme Court; targets included former state environment secretary Bernardo Rossi and former digital transformation secretary José Mauro Farias Junior. At the time, police said the operation investigated fraud in the granting of environmental licenses for the refinery, in defiance of the guidelines of technical agencies, along with money laundering. Days earlier, the National Petroleum Agency (ANP), Brazil's oil regulator, had revoked Refit's operating authorization.The defense tells a different story. Lawyer Carlo Luchione told O Globo the Barra penthouse is rented and denied it underwent a major renovation. On the Petrópolis house, the defense says the property has no remaining ties to Castro, who says he occupied it from October 2023 to early this year under a regular lease. G1 reported it was seeking comment from Castro and had received no reply by publication time.The next steps belong to the Supreme Court. The inquiry remains with Moraes, police are still analyzing the seized material, and any formal charges would require an indictment filed by the Prosecutor General's Office before the STF. No date has been set.

Brazil's Attorney General's Office (PGR) asked the Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Wednesday (2) to shelve the complaints filed by former banker Daniel Vorcaro in testimony given to the office of Justice André Mendonça. Vorcaro, jailed in Brasília as part of the investigation into Banco Master, said he had suffered threats in prison. Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet concluded there is no concrete fact that would justify investigative action.Urgent, sealed testimonyAccording to a statement from Mendonça's office, Vorcaro testified on an urgent basis last Thursday (27) before an auxiliary judge who follows the case. The hearing was requested by his defense, which reported "grave intimidation", and took place without the Federal Police present. The contents remain under seal. Mendonça then sent the matter to the PGR to assess whether the testimony warranted new measures, CNN Brasil reported.In its filing, the PGR ruled out opening an investigation based on the account."A careful examination of the terms of the testimony shows that the declarant reported no concrete or legally defined fact capable of prompting its own investigative measures, nor did he lend even minimal verisimilitude to the assertions made," the office said.Case timelineVorcaro is held in connection with the Banco Master inquiry, in which the Federal Police cited indications that he ran a structure to monitor and intimidate opponents, with risks of evidence destruction, continued money laundering and interference in the investigation. Before the testimony, his defense had submitted two delação premiada proposals, Brazil's version of a plea bargain, and both were rejected by the PGR and the Federal Police. In the second rejection, prosecutors said the offer carried no effective commitment to return money and added nothing new, and in some points clashed with findings already gathered by investigators.In Wednesday's filing, the PGR also refused to reopen negotiations. "The petitioner failed to change the factual premise that led to the earlier denial, and there is no sign of evidentiary potential or defect of will that would justify renewing the negotiated proposal," the document says. The office called continuing the petition "futile" and of no practical use, according to CNN Brasil.The next step belongs to Mendonça. As the justice assigned to the petition, he will decide whether to grant the archiving request. No date has been set for that ruling.

Brazil's Attorney General's Office (PGR) has sent the Supreme Federal Court (STF) a plea agreement signed by João Carlos Mansur, founder and former board chairman of asset manager Reag. The filing went to Justice André Mendonça on Wednesday (2), and he faces no deadline to respond, according to G1.The deal includes 17 annexes describing how the firm's investment funds were allegedly set up to launder money, and Mansur points the way to R$ 20 billion in assets tied to Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master and a target of a Federal Police investigation. Both men are under investigation and neither has been convicted; the claims are the collaborator's account and will be examined by the court. According to G1, Mansur signed a confidentiality term months ago with the Federal Police and the PGR, the first step before handing over documents, and talks advanced only with prosecutors.How the case got hereMansur founded Reag in 2012 as a fund administrator, and at its peak the firm managed R$ 340 billion, making it Brazil's largest independent asset manager, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The Federal Police first hit the group in August 2025 with Operation Carbono Oculto (Hidden Carbon), which investigates money laundering for organized crime. In January, Mansur was targeted in the second phase of Operation Compliance Zero, which looks into an alleged fraud scheme at Banco Master. The same day, the Central Bank placed Reag into extrajudicial liquidation.Folha reported that the Central Bank identified at least six Reag funds linked to Master and Vorcaro, named Astralo 95, Reag Growth 95, Hans 95, Olaf 95, Maia 95 and Anna, with combined equity of R$ 102.4 billion. At least four showed signs of ties to organized crime. People who followed Mansur's work and spoke to Folha on condition of anonymity said he handled personally the main transactions involving Vorcaro's interests, and that his account can serve as a shortcut for investigators by detailing transaction counts, each participant's role, and the origin and destination of the money.What comes nextThe deal lands at a delicate moment. Vorcaro told Mendonça's office last week that he suffered threats and psychological pressure in prison to keep him from signing a cooperation deal, according to G1 and Folha, and the PGR asked on Wednesday for that complaint to be shelved. The Banco Master case has also fed a standoff between the Supreme Court and the Federal Police after the release of messages exchanged between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Folha's column Painel S.A. reported that Mansur gathered his family last month, told his three children about the deal and said he had taken steps to shield them from its consequences.The next step belongs to Mendonça: he must decide whether to ratify the agreement, with no set date. Under Brazilian law, a plea deal only takes effect after judicial approval. In exchange for cooperation, the collaborator may receive legal benefits and waives the right to remain silent in the testimony he gives. Until the justice rules, the contents of the agreement remain sealed.

Daniel Vorcaro, the Banco Master banker jailed since March in an investigation into suspected fraud at the bank, told the office of Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça that he suffered psychological torture, mistreatment and veiled threats in prison to keep him from reporting facts involving the Federal Police in a possible plea deal. The account was reported by columnist Mônica Bergamo of Folha de S.Paulo. The testimony was taken last week by an auxiliary judge and recorded on video, with a federal prosecutor present and no Federal Police agents.In the deposition, Vorcaro named Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues. According to Folha's reporting, the banker said the force had no interest in hearing him because it wanted to prevent facts involving the agency from surfacing. In his view, the alleged intimidation was among the reasons the Federal Police never accepted the plea deal he has tried to negotiate since his arrest. Associates of Rodrigues denied to the newspaper any close relationship with Vorcaro and said the two met only once, by chance, in London, at a legal seminar organized by the Voto group, an event sponsored by Banco Master without that link being disclosed at the time.Officers heard by Folha also said Vorcaro could have gone directly to the federal prosecutors' office (PGR) to try to formalize a plea deal without the Federal Police. The hearing took place in the office of Mendonça, who oversees the Banco Master investigation at the STF, Brazil's top court. The contents of the deposition remain under seal.What Mendonça's office saysOn Wednesday, Mendonça's office confirmed the hearing, which according to G1 was first revealed by the newspaper O Globo, and said in a statement that it took place at the express request of the defense. The statement says the presence of a prosecutor is a legal requirement that was met, and that the absence of Federal Police agents followed rules of the CNJ, the council that oversees Brazil's judiciary, which require the police team running an investigation to be kept away when a deponent reports intimidation. The office said the measure protected the witness and was not a choice of convenience by the minister's staff. It also said the relationship between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes was not mentioned in the testimony."The testimony was carried out at the express request of the deponent's defense, which reported that he was suffering serious intimidation and asked to be heard urgently. It is a regular procedural act, conducted by an auxiliary judge," the statement reads.Timeline of the caseMarch 2025: Mendonça meets Vorcaro once, to discuss a case on precatórios, court-ordered debt payments pending at the STF, according to his office.February 2026: Mendonça becomes the justice in charge of the Master case at the court.March 2026: Vorcaro is arrested in the investigation into suspected fraud at Banco Master.Tuesday, Sept. 1: a Federal Police report becomes public showing messages from Vorcaro to a number attributed to Moraes, with offers of contracts worth millions and a trip to London, and eight meetings between the two.Wednesday, Sept. 2: Mendonça's office confirms the urgent testimony and Folha reveals what Vorcaro said in it.Supreme Court President Edson Fachin said he will examine the facts and promised to announce measures in the coming days. The PGR has asked for the investigation opened by Mendonça into the messages to be voided, but, according to G1, the justice intends to press for the full court to examine the case anyway.

The office of Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) confirmed on Wednesday (2) that banker Daniel Vorcaro gave urgent testimony last week to an auxiliary judge who follows the Banco Master inquiry. Vorcaro, who is under investigation in the case, was heard without the Federal Police present and at the request of his own lawyers. The newspaper O Globo first reported the deposition, and the justice's office later detailed it in a statement."The testimony was given at the express request of the deponent's defense, which reported that he was suffering serious intimidation and asked to be heard urgently. It was a regular procedural act, conducted by an auxiliary judge," the office said.On the absence of the Federal Police, the office said a prosecutor was present, as the law requires for hearings of this kind, and that the police team running the investigation was kept away in line with rules of the National Council of Justice (CNJ), the body that oversees Brazil's courts. "CNJ rules establish, as a guarantee of the deponent's physical and psychological integrity, the removal of the police team responsible for the investigation from acts in which he is heard," the statement said. Because the deposition was prompted by a "report of serious intimidation," the office argued that not summoning officers followed a rule meant to protect the deponent.The content of the testimony remains sealed. Mendonça's team said, however, that the relationship between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes was not mentioned. Earlier on Wednesday, the office also said Mendonça met Vorcaro only once, in March 2025, to discuss a case on precatórios, Brazil's court-ordered federal debt payments, months before he became the rapporteur of the Master case in February 2026.The case so farVorcaro is the former controller of Banco Master, the target of an inquiry into fraud the Federal Police estimates at around 12 billion reais. He was first arrested on November 17, 2025, at Guarulhos airport, in São Paulo. On Tuesday (1), the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo published messages taken from Vorcaro's phone and exchanged with a contact saved under the name of Alexandre de Moraes. According to the police, the exchanges include demands about payments under a 131-million-real contract between the bank and the law firm of the justice's wife, records of meetings between the two men, which the police counts at eight, and messages in which Vorcaro asked about his own arrest two days before it happened.On Tuesday night, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet asked the Supreme Court to void the inquiry Mendonça opened into the messages, whose secrecy Mendonça himself had lifted. The Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) argues the investigation exceeded what a judge may do in the pre-trial phase.Court President Edson Fachin said in an official note on Wednesday that he would examine the facts and announce "the appropriate and necessary measures" in the coming days. Criminal lawyers heard by BBC News Brasil expect the full court to rule both on the request to void Mendonça's actions and on a possible investigation of Moraes, in a session Fachin must schedule.

Brazil's Federal Police (PF) and state civil police forces launched a nationwide operation on Wednesday (September 2) against crimes of child sexual abuse, with warrants served in all states and the Federal District. At least 44 people were arrested: 31 caught in the act and 13 under pre-trial detention warrants issued by courts. Three teenagers were apprehended and two victims of abuse were identified and rescued.The operation, named Proteção Integral V (Full Protection V), served 153 search and seizure warrants and mobilized 755 officers, 480 federal and 275 state, according to Folha de S.Paulo. Those targeted are under investigation for storing, sharing, selling or producing material depicting the sexual abuse of children and adolescents. The PF coordinated the action, with direct participation of civil police from 20 of Brazil's state-level units, including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Bahia.Neither of the reports consulted published the names of the detainees. Those caught in the act were arrested during the raids, and the others were targets of warrants issued by judges. All are investigated suspects and, under Brazilian law, are presumed innocent unless convicted. The three teenagers were apprehended rather than arrested because minors in Brazil fall under the Statute of the Child and the Adolescent (ECA), the country's juvenile justice law.Timeline of the operationsProteção Integral V follows earlier national operations: phases one through four were launched by the PF and state forces between 2025 and 2026. In March this year the PF also ran Operation Guardião Digital, focused on sexual crimes against children and adolescents in online environments. From January to August 2026, according to the PF, at least 980 arrest warrants were served against fugitives wanted for sexual crimes, a figure that spans several areas of the force's work and is not limited to the Proteção Integral phases.The PF advised parents and guardians to monitor children's online activity and to talk about the risks of social media, games and apps. The force urged attention to warning signs such as sudden isolation and unusual secrecy around phones and computers.What comes nextUnder Brazil's criminal procedure rules, anyone arrested in the act must be brought before a judge in a custody hearing within 24 hours, when the legality of the arrest and the need to keep the person jailed are reviewed. The 13 people arrested under pre-trial warrants remain at the disposal of the courts that issued the orders. The PF has not announced a date for further phases of the operation.

Brazil's top federal prosecutor asked on Tuesday (September 1) for the country's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) to nullify an investigation ordered by Justice André Mendonça into the ties between fellow Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master. In his filing, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet argues that the order Mendonça issued to open the inquiry exceeded what a judge may do before formal charges exist.The inquiry rests on messages that the Federal Police extracted from Vorcaro's phone, including exchanges with an interlocutor identified as Moraes. According to G1, one exchange suggests the justice discussed with the former banker the possibility of a Federal Police operation that would target Vorcaro. The material is part of a police report sent to the STF, whose secrecy Mendonça lifted that same Tuesday. The day before, he had given the Prosecutor-General's Office (PGR) five days to review the report and weigh in on opening an investigation into his colleague. Folha de S.Paulo reports that Gonet himself is mentioned in the report."An order given to the police authority to investigate specific individuals, without a request from prosecutors and without the police having acted on its own, is void, because it exceeds the limits of a judge's authority in the pre-trial phase"Gonet also wrote that "it is not for a judge to prosecute, much less to carry out pre-trial investigations". His filing adds a second ground for nullity under Brazil's judicial organization law, the Loman: when evidence of a crime by a judge surfaces, the material must be sent to the body empowered to try that judge, and for an STF justice that body is the full Court. "Paradigmatic decisions of the Supreme Federal Tribunal leave no doubt that a judge taking on functions that are not his is a cause of nullity," the document says.How the case got hereVorcaro was first arrested on November 17, 2025 at Guarulhos airport, near São Paulo, as he tried to board a private jet bound ultimately for Dubai. The next day the Central Bank placed the Master group into extrajudicial liquidation, citing severe financial deterioration and insolvency risk. Released by a federal appeals court, he was preventively re-arrested on March 4, 2026 on Mendonça's order, after the analysis of phones seized in the first arrest suggested a risk of evidence destruction. He is under investigation for fraudulent management, money laundering and criminal organization, and has not been convicted.Beyond the conversation about a possible police operation, the released documents cover a contract of about R$ 131 million between Master and the law office of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife, and a second proposal worth R$ 50 million to be paid with shares of a private jet and a helicopter, Folha reports. The material also records Vorcaro's requests that Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and Gonet himself be engaged.What each side saysIn the decision lifting the secrecy, Mendonça said the matter must go to the full Court, "the sovereign instance to examine, in a technical and strictly legal manner, the new elements brought by the police". The Barci de Moraes law office said in a statement that it consulted the justice about possible legal bars before signing the contract, because he is married to a partner in the firm, and that Alexandre de Moraes "never judged any case involving Banco Master". Moraes has not been charged, and everyone named in the report is presumed innocent.The next move belongs to Mendonça, who must decide whether to accept the nullity request or keep the inquiry alive. Should the case proceed, he wrote that the deliberation must take place in an in-person session of the full Court, "on a date to be set" by STF President Edson Fachin. BBC News Brasil reports that the session is expected to be scheduled after the PGR's filing, which came on Tuesday. No date has been set so far.

A Federal Police report made public on Tuesday (September 1) says Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, negotiated handing over ownership shares in a business jet and a helicopter as payment for a second contract worth R$50 million with the law firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, wife of Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The report was built from data extracted from one of the banker's cellphones, and Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the court's inquiry into fraud at the bank, lifted its confidentiality.According to Folha de S.Paulo, the draft contract foresaw settling R$40 million through the transfer of the shares in the two aircraft, with the remaining R$10 million to be paid as reimbursement for flight expenses. Investigators found the drafts in messages from May 2025. In one exchange, debating with a lawyer whether the "assets" should pass to the firm immediately or only when the contract ended, Vorcaro replied: "os ativos são deles já" (the assets are already theirs).The flightsThe messages indicate the aircraft were already serving the couple. On July 9, 2025, Moraes entered the executive terminal in Brasília at 10:34 p.m., and the Legacy 650 jet, registration PP-NLR, took off for the executive airport of São Roque, in São Paulo state, news site g1 reported. The aircraft belongs to Prime, an aviation company in which Vorcaro was a partner, referred to by Folha as Prime Aviation. In messages that month, a partner of his at the company, identified by Folha as Marcos Mata, confirmed that the justice and his wife "had already used planes and helicopters" and spoke of the "final adjustments of the 2 P1 quotas for them".The report also includes a screenshot of a chat between that partner and Viviane. He asked whether they were enjoying "the use of your quotas"; she replied that they were enjoying it very much and that everyone who served them "was always polite and attentive". In another exchange, when a Prime employee mentioned a trip Viviane had booked for August, Vorcaro answered: "Não deixa de atender Barci" (do not fail to serve Barci).Timeline and responsesThe case grows out of a Federal Police operation investigating fraud at Banco Master, a bank now in liquidation that Vorcaro controlled. The main dates:February 2024: on the 8th, Vorcaro sends his brother-in-law proof of a R$3.4 million transfer to the Barci de Moraes law firm, the first payment under the original contract of about R$130 million.March 2024: on the 15th, former communications minister Fábio Faria, who the Federal Police says made the first contact between Moraes and Vorcaro, presses on the delay with the words "O careca não pode atrasar" (the bald one cannot be late). Vorcaro tells partner Angelo Silva that "they did not pay Barci de Moraes", calls the contract "the most important we have" and instructs staff to pay it monthly even without an invoice.April 2025: Vorcaro asks that no one at the bank be allowed to see the contract.May 2025: drafts of the second contract, worth R$50 million and payable in aircraft shares, appear in the messages.July 2025: Moraes flies on the Legacy 650 PP-NLR and the parties discuss the "final adjustments" of the shares.September 1, 2026: Mendonça unseals the report and sends it to the Attorney General's office.In a statement, the law firm said it signed only the first contract, of about R$130 million, and denies any "transfer or substitution of the contract". It said Vorcaro's proposal was not accepted and that "nothing was signed and the original contract was extinguished with the liquidation of the bank, which ended any link with the institution". Vorcaro is under investigation and, according to g1, was arrested in the police operation. The report's findings must still be reviewed by prosecutors and by the court, and none of the people named has been convicted.The file now goes to the PGR, the office of Brazil's chief federal prosecutor, for a formal position. Mendonça wrote in the decision that released the document:"Given the content of the information presented by the police authority, regardless of the position expressed by the Attorney General's Office, the inevitable path of these proceedings leads to the plenary of this Supreme Federal Court, the sovereign body to analyze, in a technical and strictly legal manner, the new elements brought by the police authority"Mendonça also said any decision by the full bench should come in a public, in-person session, and that court President Edson Fachin is to set a date. None has been announced so far.

A Federal Police report based on messages extracted from the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, records a series of meetings said to have taken place between the banker and Alexandre de Moraes, a justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF). According to G1, the WhatsApp exchanges, which run from March 2024 to August 2025, involve interlocutors including former communications minister Fábio Faria, Vorcaro's partner, relatives, aides and employees. The document became public on Tuesday (Sept 1) after Justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur of the Master case at the STF, lifted its confidentiality.The records sit in a chapter titled "other meetings between DANIEL VORCARO and ALEXANDRE DE MORAES", part of a police inquiry investigating the banker's relationships and activities. The conversations point to personal commitments, meetings at private homes and events in Brazil and abroad. The phone was seized in the Compliance Zero operation.What the report registersMarch 13, 2024: Faria and Vorcaro arrange a chat over whisky with "Alex" in the early evening; the meeting is rescheduled because of Vorcaro's calendar.April 17, 2024: Faria asks for the address of Vorcaro's home in Lago Sul, Brasília, to pass along to "Alex", and says he will delete the messages afterwards.July 17, 2024: messages from Faria confirm a meeting with "Alexandre", also called "Careca", around 7:30 pm.Nov 5, 2024: in a chat with his daughter, Vorcaro writes: "I'm with alexandre moraes".Feb 26, 2025: a driver of Vorcaro's in Brasília messages that "Min Alexandre has arrived" at the residence.March 19 and 20, 2025: Vorcaro tells his girlfriend and a Central Bank director he is meeting the justice; according to the Federal Police, the gathering ran into the early hours of March 20 as lawmakers and political leaders arrived at the residence.April 19, 2025: a meeting during a holiday at a place near Vorcaro's home, in the Campos do Jordão region of São Paulo state.April 29 and May 21, 2025: Vorcaro tells his girlfriend he is with "alexandre"; in May he says he is at home with "Ciro and alexandre".Aug 8, 2025: Vorcaro says he will skip travel that day because he is "with alexandre", ahead of a meeting with Ciro.A separate section of the same material describes a group visit to a hotel in Campos do Jordão on Dec 30, 2023. In the messages, Vorcaro tells staff to prepare a "complete experience" for "ultra VIP" guests, with nine people and four bodyguards, a singer and horses. During the visit, an employee reports that Vorcaro's personal chef took a photo with "the minister" and exchanged phone numbers with him; Vorcaro objects at first, then writes: "But if the minister asked for it, that's fine". Days earlier, according to the report, Fábio Faria had shared with Vorcaro a number saved in his contacts as "Alexandre de Moraes BRASÍLIA", also listed as "STF TSE NOVO" and "Eu STF". The Federal Police attributes the reference to the justice after analyzing the interactions between the two men.The report also covers the organization of international events, above all the London Legal Forum held in April 2024 and sponsored by Banco Master. In the conversations, aides discuss invitations to authorities, panel programming and transport logistics for STF justices. Folha de S.Paulo reports that, according to the messages, Moraes suggested changes and vetoed guests of the forum. A 2025 edition was cancelled.How the case reached this pointVorcaro was arrested by the Federal Police on Nov 17, 2025, in the Compliance Zero operation, as he prepared to board a private jet bound for Malta. The seized phone produced the report now before the STF and the Attorney General's Office (PGR), the federal prosecution service. Messages revealed by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo and also obtained by Folha show Vorcaro seeking meetings with Moraes in the days before his arrest. On Nov 15, two days before the detention, he wrote: "Do you think I have to be out of the country by Monday?". The next day he sent: "I'm already on my flight, I'll land at 14:20 and will go straight there, ok?".Vorcaro is an investigated party, and the meetings described in the report do not by themselves amount to a court finding on anyone's conduct. The next steps rest with the STF and the PGR. The material was sent to prosecutors for their position. On Tuesday, Mendonça asked the court's president, Justice Edson Fachin, to schedule an in-person plenary session to debate the evidence, a session he called "the inevitable path" and "the sovereign body to analyze, in a technical and strictly legal manner" the Federal Police material. Fachin sets the date, and no deadline has been announced.

Messages obtained by Brazil's Federal Police in the Banco Master investigation indicate that Alexandre de Moraes, a justice of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, took part in decisions on the guest list and the program of a legal forum the bank organized in London. According to a report by G1 on Tuesday, the chats record vetoes attributed to the justice and show that names of participants were submitted to him for approval. The material is part of the police investigation file on Daniel Vorcaro, the bank's owner, who is under investigation.In one exchange, from July 2025, Vorcaro's marketing employee, Ana Matos, suggested Antônio Rueda, national president of the União Brasil party, as a moderator at the second edition of the London Brasil de Ideias legal forum, an edition that ended up cancelled. Vorcaro rejected the idea: "Rueda, no, right? No way. Alexandre dies if you do that. Actually, he kills us." Ana replied: "He orders an ankle monitor." Already in February 2025, according to the police report, the banker had said he needed "to approve it with alexandre", referring to the guest list.The first edition of the forum took place in London between April 24 and 27, 2024. The police report describes a conversation on April 18 of that year between Vorcaro and Fábio Faria, a former communications minister under Bolsonaro, about a veto attributed to Moraes. "But I think Alexandre likes him to know that he vetoed it. His ego," Faria wrote. Vorcaro replied: "In the end he did veto it, it was clear." The report does not say who was vetoed.Event program and travel costsOn July 21, 2025, Vorcaro wrote to Ana Matos that "Alexandre complained A LOT about the event" and, asked what had happened, answered "everything". He then pointed to one specific annoyance: "That we put Tarcísio in the spotlight." The investigation does not identify which Tarcísio they meant. The next day, Ana said she had spent the day with the justice's wife, Viviane de Moraes, and with Moraes himself: "I spent the day here with Vivi Moraes and the minister closing the program. They changed quite a lot, but it's getting good."Other messages detail travel costs linked to the forum. According to G1, Vorcaro authorized payment of expenses for Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and his son, Pedro Gonet, and the arrangement of a formal invitation, with costs paid by the organizers, to Andrei Passos, the head of the Federal Police. The columnist Mônica Bergamo, of Folha de S.Paulo, adds that on March 19, 2025, Vorcaro told Paulo Sérgio Neves de Souza, then the Central Bank's supervision director, that Moraes "will call Paulo to apply pressure". According to the column, investigations by the police and by the Central Bank itself found that Neves de Souza worked as an informal paid adviser to Vorcaro.Vorcaro was arrested by the Federal Police on November 17, 2025, as he prepared to board a private jet to Malta, according to Folha. Neither G1 nor Folha reported any response from Moraes to the messages or any comment from Vorcaro's defense on this point, and the chats are part of an ongoing investigation. On Tuesday, STF Justice André Mendonça asked the court's president, Edson Fachin, to schedule an in-person session of the full bench to debate the messages between Moraes and Vorcaro. Mendonça called the plenary "the inevitable path" and the "sovereign body" to examine the police evidence. Fachin has yet to set a date.

A report by Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence council, indicates that former banker Daniel Vorcaro, founder of the defunct Banco Master, sent more money, over a longer period, to the US fund that financed the film "Dark Horse" than Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate, has admitted. The document records a US$ 1.6 million installment, exactly US$ 1,666,667, sent on September 16, 2025 to the Havengate Development Fund, the American fund Flávio indicated to finance a biopic of his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro. The revelation came from the magazine piauí on Tuesday and was confirmed by Valor Econômico with sources linked to the investigation.According to the report, the transfer came eight days after the senator messaged Vorcaro demanding overdue installments. With the payment, until now unknown, the total sent to the fund rose from US$ 10.6 million to US$ 12.3 million, more than 65 million reais at the exchange rate of the time. The deal between the senator and the banker, revealed by the website Intercept Brasil in May 2025, provided for US$ 24 million in 14 installments.The September payment contradicts the version Flávio gave in an interview to GloboNews after his conversations with Vorcaro became public. "Look, the last payment he made was in May 2025," the senator said at the time.There are signs of an even later transfer. piauí had access to messages exchanged on October 22, 2025 between Vorcaro and advertising executive Thiago Miranda, who helped raise money for the film. Miranda asks whether the banker can "release the film's installments", because otherwise "everything will stop". Vorcaro replies: "Yes. I released one more today." Miranda then writes that he will inform the others and that "Flávio said he would call you"; the banker asks him to apologize to the senator for the delays. The value of that possible eighth installment was not disclosed. If the October payment did happen, the total disbursed reaches US$ 14 million, about 72 million reais. Less than a month later, on November 18, 2025, Vorcaro was arrested for the first time, according to Valor.How the case got hereEarly 2025: Flávio negotiates with Vorcaro a US$ 24 million contribution to "Dark Horse", in 14 installments, according to audio recordings and messages revealed by Intercept Brasil.February to May 2025: US$ 10.6 million is sent to the Havengate Development Fund in the United States.May 2025: after the revelations, Flávio tells GloboNews the last payment had been made that month.September 16 and October 22, 2025: Coaf records a new US$ 1.6 million installment, and messages suggest an additional transfer.November 18, 2025: Vorcaro is arrested for the first time.September 1, 2026: piauí publishes the Coaf report, already added to the Supreme Federal Court inquiry investigating the transfers abroad.Reaction and the investigationFlávio declined to detail the transfers. Arriving at the Senate on Tuesday, he told journalists: "I have no way of knowing this information, because I don't handle that. You have to ask the producer," referring to Go Up, the company behind the film. His office had already told piauí that questions about other payments should go to the producer. According to a report by UOL, the candidate also said Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes "should resign" because of his earlier professional relationship with Vorcaro; Estadão/Broadcast published messages in which the banker asked the justice to intervene with the Federal Police and the Prosecutor General's Office to stall investigations into the bank.Coaf said in a statement that it does not comment on specific cases. Vorcaro's defense was contacted by Valor and did not respond. The Federal Police is investigating suspected illegal remittance of money abroad, known in Brazil as evasão de divisas, and the possible use of fund money to cover expenses of former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro in the United States. According to Poder360, Havengate is registered in the name of lawyer Paulo Calixto, who is close to Eduardo. The former congressman denies receiving money from Vorcaro through the fund, and Flávio maintains the money was used "entirely" on the film.The Coaf report with the September installment has been added to the inquiry pending at the Supreme Federal Court, Brazil's top court, which is investigating the transfers abroad. No date has been disclosed for the end of the investigation, and no one involved has been convicted: the suspicions remain under investigation.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Monday (31) sent the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) a request to respond within five days to a Federal Police report on messages seized from Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, who is jailed in the Compliance Zero operation. In the messages, the banker would have asked an unidentified interlocutor to enlist "Andrei" and "Paulo" on his behalf. Investigators read those references as Andrei Rodrigues, head of the Federal Police, and Paulo Gonet, Brazil's prosecutor general.The news was first reported by the website Metrópoles and confirmed by TV Globo and the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. According to g1, Globo's news portal, the Federal Police found the note on one of Vorcaro's phones in late October 2025. The recipient is not identified in the records because the banker reportedly had a habit of saving notes, taking screenshots of conversations and sending the image back as a one-time view message. Federal Police investigators have not ruled out that the message was a protection request addressed to Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the STF. Mendonça is the reporting justice for the investigation into financial fraud at Master.What the report saysAccording to the document produced by the investigators, Vorcaro described the bank's situation and the problems he faced. He said he had received confidential information from Central Bank officials that "G", read as a reference to bank president Gabriel Galípolo, and the other directors were under strong pressure to take action against the institution because of intense demands from the Federal Police and the federal prosecutors' office. In the banker's account, both agencies claimed they would take steps against him."Daniel Vorcaro also said it was important for the interlocutor to press Andrei (probably Andrei Augusto Rodrigues, Director General of the Federal Police) and Paulo (probably Paulo Gonet Branco, Prosecutor General of the Republic) on the need to prevent subordinates within the hierarchies of the Federal Police and the federal prosecutors' office from playing 'a dirty trick', because, in his words, 'it all goes down the drain'."The passage comes from the Federal Police report as transcribed by g1; the quote is translated from Portuguese. The report itself describes the identifications of Andrei and Paulo as probable, and the recipient of the message has not been confirmed. The PGR did not respond to requests for comment from g1. Folha said it contacted the offices of Andrei, Gonet and Moraes on Tuesday (1) and had received no reply by publication time.How the case got hereMaster became the target of fraud investigations and Vorcaro was jailed in Compliance Zero. The case took on political weight with the release of audio recordings in which Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, now a presidential candidate, asks Vorcaro for 61 million reais to finish "Dark Horse", a film about Jair Bolsonaro, according to Folha. In an interview with Globo on Friday (28), Bolsonaro said it is "never too much" to explain his relationship with Vorcaro and called the matter "more than clarified". The timeline:September 2025: the Central Bank rejects the sale of Master to BRB, with suspicions about the bank already public;Late October 2025: the Federal Police finds the note mentioning Andrei and Paulo on one of Vorcaro's phones;July 2026: Mendonça authorizes a Federal Police inquiry into transfers tied to the film, after Gonet found sufficient grounds;August 31, 2026: the justice sends the document to the PGR and sets the five-day deadline.The next step belongs to the PGR, which has five days from Monday (31) to respond. As of the publication of the reports on Tuesday, none of the officials named in the document had spoken publicly about the content of the messages.

Judicial collection of private debts in Brazil reached its highest level on record in 2025: 1,239,537 new enforcement lawsuits over non-tax extrajudicial titles were filed in the country's courts, according to a survey by news outlet g1 based on the statistics panel of the National Council of Justice (CNJ), the body that oversees Brazil's judiciary. The figure is about 60% higher than in 2020, when 772,645 cases were filed. Between January and March 2026, another 295,541 were distributed.These are enforcement actions on extrajudicial titles: the document filed by the creditor already proves the debt, such as a loan contract, vehicle or real estate financing, unpaid rent, a bounced check or an unpaid invoice, so the judge is asked to order payment, without first weighing the merits. The cases can involve consumers and companies alike. The CNJ series climbs every year: 838,701 new cases in 2021, 994,098 in 2022, 1,131,730 in 2023 and 1,194,184 in 2024, before the 2025 record.The record came in a year of peak demand on Brazilian courts. The CNJ's Justiça em Números 2026 report, released in June, counted 40.9 million new cases in 2025, the largest volume since the series began in 2009. The surge in debt lawsuits also tracks record household debt: in March 2026, 80.4% of Brazilian households reported being in debt, the highest share in the consumer debt survey (Peic) of the National Confederation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC), up from 77.1% a year earlier.Why debts end up in courtFor Fernando Corrêa, who coordinates the legal metrics lab at the Brazilian Jurimetrics Association (ABJ), enforcement tends to appear after other collection attempts have failed. "Enforcement is fairly ineffective, because it is hard to seize the parties' assets. It is not that creditors are discovering this option as a better way to satisfy debts. It is kind of a last resort," he says. The g1 report also lists easy credit, sports betting apps (known in Brazil as bets) and the habit of refinancing old debt with new loans among the causes cited by specialists.Judge Káren Rick Danilevicz Bertoncello, of the Rio Grande do Sul Court of Justice, ties the caseload to the absence of an entrenched culture of renegotiating out of court before disputes reach the judiciary. "In Brazil, we still do not have a solidified culture of voluntary extrajudicial renegotiation," she says. She points to excessive lending as a central driver of over-indebtedness and argues that bank-run debt fairs "end up hurting the budget, because the consumer cannot take a global view to distribute his payment capacity among all his creditors." Brazil's Overindebtedness Law, she notes, now requires banks and lenders to assess a consumer's real repayment capacity before granting credit, placing on the creditor the duty to know who it is contracting with.In Rio Grande do Sul, the state court runs an over-indebtedness management program covering 31,075 cases, more than 20,000 of them still active and 13,657 involving elderly people; 6,273 settlements have been approved by judges. Nationwide, the CNJ report shows conciliation resolved 28% of non-tax extrajudicial title enforcement cases in state courts in 2025.The government's responseIn recent years the federal government has launched programs such as Desenrola Brasil to help defaulters settle debts and clear their names. In April, g1 reported that President Lula's administration was studying a new plan to merge credit card, personal loan and other debts into a single loan, with lower interest rates and discounts on the principal of up to 80% in some cases. Also in 2026, the government regulated the use of part of the FGTS, the worker severance fund, as collateral in payroll-deducted loans for formally employed workers. Specialists heard by g1 say refinancing eases household budgets in the short term but solves nothing if it comes with fresh credit granted without a real assessment of repayment capacity. No date has been set for announcing the debt consolidation plan, and first-quarter figures show new lawsuits still arriving at a high pace.

Justice Dias Toffoli of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) has pulled the review of Renan Santos's presidential candidacy from the court's docket, citing "signs of irregularities" in how his ticket reported its social media accounts. In an order signed on Saturday, Aug. 29, Toffoli, the justice assigned to report on the case, removed the matter just before the court's virtual plenary was set to begin judging it on Monday, Aug. 31.Toffoli noted that Santos and his running mate, Aroldo Medina, informed the court on Aug. 19 of a total of 18 social media profiles, as a supplement to the candidacy filing submitted on Aug. 7. In his reading, this suggests a breach of rules that require candidates to declare, at the moment of registration, the electronic addresses they will use for campaign advertising. Registration is the step that validates a candidacy before votes can be cast for it."It is found that, in petitions filed on 8/19/2026, the candidates on the ticket, Renan Antônio Ferreira dos Santos and Aroldo Medina, reported a total of 18 social media profiles, as a supplement to the registration information submitted to the Electoral Court on 8/7/2026. Given that there are, in the candidates' registration, signs of irregularities (...), I order the removal of the case from the judgment docket"The order cites Article 57-B of Law 9.504/1997, Brazil's Elections Law, and two TSE resolutions: 23.609/2019, which governs candidacy registration, and 23.610/2019, on internet campaign advertising. Under those rules, profiles created before the campaign that were not declared at registration can only be used in electoral advertising 48 hours after they are reported to electoral authorities. The removal from the docket is a procedural step: it postpones judgment so the alleged signs can be examined, and it is not a ruling on the merits of the candidacy.BackgroundSantos, 42, is a businessman and activist making his first run for president. He leads the Free Brazil Movement (MBL), which he helped found in 2014 during the protests that pushed for the impeachment of then president Dilma Rousseff. His party, Missão, was created in 2025. His platform includes replacing Brazil's consolidated labor code with direct negotiation between employers and workers, abolishing the labor courts and a constitutional amendment for radical spending cuts, according to news site G1.The case file moved quickly: the registration request was filed with the TSE on Aug. 7; the supplement listing the 18 profiles arrived on Aug. 19; on Saturday, Aug. 29, Toffoli signed the order removing the case from the docket, two days before the judgment was set to start. Neither G1 nor Metrópoles reported a public response from the campaign by publication time, and no new date for the judgment has been announced. The registration remains pending, and at this stage there is no finding of wrongdoing: the court is weighing indications, not a conviction.

The São Paulo Public Prosecutor's Office (MP-SP), through its special organized crime unit Gaeco, launched Operation Merx on Friday morning (28) with support from the Civil Police Internal Affairs Division and the Department of Strategic Operations (Dope), targeting a group suspected of extorting electronics smugglers. Courts issued seven pre-trial arrest warrants, four of them against civil police officers, along with 18 search and seizure warrants across three states, according to G1 and O Globo.The four civil police officers facing pre-trial detention are Jonathan Vieira, Bruno Moreno, José Nishi and Sidiclei Almeida. As of the latest updates, four of the seven suspects had been arrested; one of the wanted men was reportedly in Paraguay and two others had not been located. All remain under investigation and are presumed innocent unless convicted. G1 is seeking comment from the suspects' defense lawyers.What the investigation foundAccording to the MP-SP, the officers intercepted shipments of cell phones and other electronics brought irregularly into Brazil and, instead of seizing the goods in full, demanded payments equal to roughly 70% of the cargo's value to release it, in whole or in part. In at least four documented episodes since 2024, the group allegedly collected around R$ 2.35 million (roughly US$ 430,000) in bribes.A lawyer is accused of acting as the scheme's intermediary: he negotiated with the officers, indicated bank accounts for the payments, advised which values should be declared to authorities and took part in returning the merchandise. In messages reviewed by investigators, he referred to the cash as the "caixinha da alegria", Portuguese for "little box of joy". Two other people are suspected of running the smuggling operation and funding the payments. Prosecutors say the Civil Police's own structure was used to monitor cargo, and that members of the group used police premises to store goods and stage partial seizures to give their actions a veneer of legality. The investigation targets passive corruption, active corruption, money laundering and criminal organization.Searches at police stations and asset freezesAmong the 18 addresses searched were three Civil Police units in Greater São Paulo: the Santana de Parnaíba police station, the Embu das Artes police station and Cotia's 2nd Police District. Warrants were served in Barueri, Taboão da Serra, Diadema, Cotia, Santana de Parnaíba, Embu das Artes, São Sebastião and the city of São Paulo, as well as Londrina and Foz do Iguaçu in Paraná state and São Luís de Montes Belos in Goiás. Courts also authorized lifting the suspects' banking and communications secrecy and ordered the freezing of up to R$ 4 million in assets. A fifth civil police officer, a first-class investigator, was removed from duty, had his system credentials revoked and was barred from contacting suspects and witnesses.The case now moves forward with the Gaeco investigation, as three suspects remain at large, and with the expected presentation of the defendants' legal responses. The MP-SP has not given a date for further warrants or for the conclusion of the probe.

Brazil's Federal Police carried out 22 search and seizure warrants and two preventive arrest warrants on Friday (28) against an organization under investigation for buying and selling gold of illicit origin. The operation, coordinated by the Federal Police station in Cáceres, in the state of Mato Grosso, had targets in São José do Rio Preto and Mirassolândia, in São Paulo state, and in Poconé, Cuiabá, Várzea Grande and Pontes e Lacerda, in Mato Grosso, as well as Campo Grande, in Mato Grosso do Sul, according to G1 and CNN Brasil.According to the police, investigators identified the trading of roughly 17.3 kilograms of gold and financial movements of more than R$ 5.2 million (about US$ 1 million) linked to the transactions under scrutiny. Friday's searches aim to locate and seize gold, cash, documents and electronic devices that could clarify how the group operated and identify other people involved.How the scheme worked, according to investigatorsThe scheme allegedly began in Poconé, where the gold was bought from suppliers tied to garimpo, the Portuguese term for wildcat mining, which in this case police say was illegal. Payments were made by the organization's financial arm, including through third-party bank accounts. After the purchase, the ore was transported to Rio Preto, where it was received at a warehouse used for storage and then sold. CNN Brasil reported that the analysis of financial movements pointed to a structure split among suppliers, financial operators, intermediaries, transporters and buyers.To hide and disguise the proceeds, the group allegedly used third-party accounts, shell companies and digital payment firms. Part of the money, police say, was dispersed through electronic transfers and large cash withdrawals, making it harder to trace the origin of the funds and their beneficiaries.Those under investigation may face charges, in theory, of usurpation of raw material belonging to the federal government, money laundering and criminal association. The names of the targets were not disclosed, and all are considered suspects, with no convictions so far.The case so far: the investigation was led by the Cáceres Federal Police station and resulted in the warrants issued by a federal court and executed on Friday. The next procedural step is the analysis of the material seized in the searches, along with custody hearings for the two suspects under preventive arrest, which under Brazilian law must take place in the coming days. The police gave no deadline for concluding the inquiry.

The Sao Paulo State Prosecutor's Office (MPSP) and the internal affairs division of the Civil Police, the state force in charge of criminal investigations, launched Operation Merx on Friday (28) to look into suspicions that officers used police stations and the force's own systems in a scheme to extort bribes from electronics smugglers in Greater Sao Paulo. According to the investigation, reported by G1 and also carried by Metrópoles, the group allegedly demanded about R$ 2.35 million in at least four documented episodes since 2024. Everyone named is under investigation and is presumed innocent.The probe is led by Gaeco, the prosecutor's special unit for organized crime, with support from internal affairs and the Civil Police's strategic operations department (Dope). Investigators say the officers used police resources to track shipments of cell phones and other irregular electronics before they were intercepted. Instead of seizing the goods in full, the suspects allegedly demanded cash from the people responsible for the cargo to release part or all of it, charging up to about 70% of the shipment's value. Police facilities were also allegedly used to store merchandise and to register the seizure of only part of the goods, giving the operations an appearance of legality.Raids on three police stationsOn Friday morning, agents served 18 search and seizure warrants, including at three Civil Police units: the precinct in Santana de Parnaiba, the one in Embu das Artes and the 2nd police district of Cotia. A court ordered seven preventive detentions: four against civil police officers Jonathan Vieira, Bruno Moreno, José Nishi and Sidiclei Almeida, one against a lawyer identified as the scheme's intermediary and two against men suspected of running the smuggling. By the latest update from G1, four of the seven targets had been arrested. One of those sought was reportedly in Paraguay and two others had not been located.A fifth civil police officer, first class, was not ordered arrested but was removed from his public duties. The court ordered the seizure of his credentials for police systems and barred him from contacting other suspects and witnesses. Judges also authorized the lifting of banking and communications secrecy and the freezing of up to R$ 4 million in assets belonging to the suspects.What each side saysFor prosecutors and internal affairs, the facts could in theory amount to passive corruption, active corruption, money laundering and criminal organization. The case timeline starts in 2024, the year of the first documented episodes. After gathering evidence on at least four cases, Gaeco requested the court measures carried out on Friday. G1 says it is trying to reach the suspects' defense lawyers and that space remains open for their response. So far, none of the lawyers has commented publicly on the case.The next procedural step is the continued search for the three targets still at large, one of them reportedly in Paraguay, which may require international cooperation. Once the warrant phase is complete, it will be up to Gaeco to conclude the investigation and decide whether to file formal charges in court. No date has been announced for that stage.

Brazil's Supreme Court (STF) postponed on Thursday (27) the resumption of a trial set to define whether app drivers and delivery workers have a formal employment relationship with digital platforms, a dispute known in Brazil as "uberização". According to the newspaper Correio do Povo, the full bench gave priority to the start of a trial on a provision of the Marco Civil da Internet, Brazil's internet framework law, and the app cases were left for a future session to be scheduled by the court's presidency.The ruling will guide courts across the country and may affect about 1.7 million workers linked to service platforms and apps, according to G1. More than 10,000 lawsuits are pending while they wait for the court's position. At stake is whether companies such as Uber, 99 and iFood must register drivers and couriers under the CLT, Brazil's consolidated labor code.Case timelineOctober 1, 2025: the trial opens in the full bench with oral arguments from the parties and is suspended before any votes are cast, according to Agência Brasil.May 29, 2026: STF president Edson Fachin schedules the resumption for June 24, as reported by Correio do Povo.June 24, 2026: the session is postponed after a request by the Labor Prosecutor's Office (MPT) and the Federal Public Defender's Office (DPU).August 26, 2026: the legal news site Migalhas reports that Fachin changed the docket and that the app employment cases would not open Thursday's session.August 27, 2026: the full bench starts the internet framework trial and postpones the "uberização" case once again.On the docket are two appeals by platforms against Labor Court rulings that recognized employment ties. The first was filed by Uber against an understanding of the Superior Labor Court (TST) and is reported by Fachin. The second, by Rappi, challenges a decision of the Regional Labor Court of the 3rd Region, in Minas Gerais state, which recognized the employment tie of a motorcycle courier; that case is reported by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, according to Agência Brasil.What each side allegesWorkers say platforms exercise supervision and that they follow the algorithm's commands, which set price, route, ranking and account blocking, a situation they argue amounts to an employment relationship. Labor courts have held that transport and delivery apps carry out the core activity of transport or logistics companies.The companies say they only intermediate the provision of services and that there is no subordination to the platform, since workers choose their own hours and rides. Uber told the court it is a technology company, not a transport business, and that recognizing the employment tie would change the purpose of the business and violate the constitutional principle of free enterprise, according to Agência Brasil. Rappi argued that the labor rulings disregarded the Supreme Court's own precedents against a formal employment relationship with couriers.The Prosecutor-General's Office (PGR) filed an opinion against recognizing the tie. The Attorney-General's Office (AGU), which represents the federal government, defended contractual protection for workers within an environment of technological innovation, and the MPT asked for a case-by-case analysis of the tie along with a minimum floor of rights, according to G1.Outcomes under discussionBehind the scenes, G1 reports, public statements and individual decisions by the justices point to a majority willing to reject the employment tie. The justices are also discussing an intermediate thesis recognizing minimum protections, such as a pay floor, a daily limit on connected hours, social security contributions and life insurance. Fachin has said the court needs to answer the question given its social impact and build a balanced and sensitive solution that protects workers while acknowledging new forms of work.The debate includes the recently approved Convention 193 of the International Labour Organization (ILO), described as the first global pact on digital platforms. The norm sets minimum parameters such as freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, safe and healthy working conditions and pay compatible with each country's minimum standards.With the postponement, the next procedural step is the inclusion of the cases in a new full-bench session, to be scheduled by the STF presidency; as of Thursday night, no new date had been announced. When the trial resumes, the first vote will come from the rapporteur, Edson Fachin, and the other justices may follow him, dissent or request more time to review the case.

Nine residents of Bahia, a state in northeastern Brazil, say they were victims of human trafficking in an international scheme that took them first to Cambodia, in Southeast Asia, and later to Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa. According to a G1 report published on Friday (28), they belong to a group of about 20 Brazilians, including people from Rio de Janeiro, Alagoas, Sergipe and Minas Gerais, lured by job offers paid in dollars. Upon arriving in Cambodia, they say their passports were confiscated, they suffered beatings and were forced to run internet scams targeting Brazilians.According to lawyer Queila Veloso, who represents one of the victims, the woman from Bahia received the job offer in October 2025 through a friend who, without her knowledge, had also fallen into the scheme. The offer promised about one year of work in the Asian country, a salary of US$ 1,500 a month and airfare paid by the hiring company. Unemployed in Brazil, she accepted.The reality described by the victims was different. According to the lawyer, the Brazilians were held in a fortified compound, barred from leaving their lodgings, and anyone who refused to work in the fraudulent telemarketing operation was beaten, threatened and burdened with debts reaching into the millions."Many tried to escape, they were beaten, we were constantly humiliated every single day", one of the victims, who asked not to be identified, told G1.The accounts indicate that, after police raids on the compounds in Cambodia, the group was transferred to Madagascar. One victim said the fines imposed by the exploiters left her a full month without pay and that she fell ill on African soil but was forced to keep working: "I caught a disease here in Madagascar, I went to work sick, vomiting, with diarrhea, I almost fainted".Timeline of the caseOctober 2025: an unemployed woman from Bahia receives the job offer for Cambodia through a friend.Following months: the group of about 20 Brazilians has its passports confiscated and is forced to run internet scams, according to their accounts.After police raids in Cambodia: the Brazilians are transferred to Madagascar.August 19, 2026: another police operation, this time in Madagascar, detains the group, which had no documents.About three days later: the Brazilians are released and taken in by the NGO Exodus Road Brasil.The director of Exodus Road Brasil, Cintia Meirelles, told G1 that the group is sheltered in a church, with the location kept secret for safety, and is being supported by local organizations and missionaries. She said the Brazilians have so far received no support from the federal government.In a statement, Itamaraty, Brazil's foreign ministry, said it received requests to investigate the case with Madagascar's authorities. The Bahia State Secretariat for Justice and Human Rights (SJDH) said it is monitoring the situation and that diplomatic measures for the group's return are being taken. The case was also reported by other Bahia outlets, including the newspaper Correio and the portal Aratu On.No date has been set for repatriation. The next step, according to the SJDH, depends on diplomatic procedures between Brazil and Madagascar to issue travel documents and bring the group home. The victims' identities are being protected, and authorities are treating the Brazilians as possible victims of human trafficking, a crime under Article 149-A of the Brazilian Penal Code.

A federal judge in the United States ruled on Thursday (27) that the Trump administration acted illegally when it designated artificial intelligence startup Anthropic a national security risk and barred federal agencies and defense contractors from using its AI models. Judge Rita Lin, of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, concluded in a 59-page ruling that the government unlawfully retaliated against the company "for constitutionally protected speech activity", after Anthropic spoke publicly about how its technology should be used. "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against critics of the government," the judge wrote. Timeline of the case Early 2026: Anthropic and the Pentagon negotiate a US$ 200 million contract to supply AI technology to the military. The company sought assurances that its models would not be used in fully autonomous weapons or in domestic mass surveillance. The Department of Defense demanded unfettered access to the Claude model for all lawful purposes, according to CNBC. The talks collapsed. March 2026: the Pentagon designates Anthropic a supply chain risk, the first American company to be publicly named as such. The move blocked the startup's technology from use by government agencies and by companies working for the Defense Department. March 9, 2026: Anthropic files two lawsuits against the government, one in federal court in San Francisco and another in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Two fronts were needed because the Pentagon relied on two distinct designations to justify the punishment. August 27, 2026: Judge Rita Lin rules in Anthropic's favor in the California case. What each side alleges In her ruling, Lin quoted the government's argument that, given Anthropic's "increasingly hostile manner through the press" and its criticism of the Department of War's views on AI use, the defendants "cannot trust Anthropic to ensure the integrity of its models". The judge answered that "neither the Constitution nor the federal statute invoked by Defendants allows them to impose sweeping penalties based principally on Anthropic's critique of the Administration's views", as reported by CNBC. Although the government is owed deference on national security matters, she wrote, its actions had no "articulable basis" and reflected "a desire to make a public example" of the company. In a statement, Anthropic welcomed the outcome: "We welcome the court's ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful. We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology." The Trump administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The New York Times, whose reporting was published in Portuguese by Folha de S.Paulo. Next steps The ruling closes the first of the two lawsuits, but Anthropic formally remains a supply chain risk until the case before the D.C. Circuit is decided, and no date has been set. The government may appeal Lin's decision or wait for the outcome of the second lawsuit before acting, according to a person familiar with the matter cited by the NYT. The outcome also matters to markets: the company is heading toward what could be the largest IPO in history, and restoring ties with the Pentagon would reopen a line of business that is currently blocked.

Brazil's Federal Police and the Federal Prosecutor's Office (MPF) carried out search and seizure warrants on Thursday morning (27) against the speaker of the city council of Bariri, in the interior of Sao Paulo state, Ricardo Prearo (PSD), a businessman and councilman, as part of an investigation into suspected smuggling and money laundering. Besides the councilman's home, agents searched companies linked to him and addresses in Foz do Iguacu, in Parana state, on the border with Paraguay, according to g1.According to Jornal Candeia, a local news outlet, four warrants were served at residential and commercial addresses in Bariri. One of the searches took place at a house in the Jardim Beltrame neighborhood, and another at a company in the town's rural area. Residents and passers-by were called in to witness the procedures, and electronic devices were reportedly seized. The Federal Police press office in Foz do Iguacu confirmed to the newspaper that the investigation concerns smuggling and money laundering, with targets in Parana and in the interior of Sao Paulo, but said it would not provide further details.The sequence of events so far is short. The warrants were executed simultaneously in Bariri and Foz do Iguacu on Thursday morning (27). Later that day, Prearo issued a statement confirming he had been targeted by the searches. On Friday (28), the operation gained wider attention with coverage by TV TEM, Globo's regional affiliate, which contacted the Bariri city council's press office and had received no reply by the time its report was last updated.What the defense saysIn a statement, the councilman said he appears in the proceedings only as a person mentioned and that he cooperated with the authorities:"I clarify that I was the target of a procedure by the competent authorities, in which I appear as someone mentioned. I stress, however, that all the information requested was duly provided and clarified to the authorities," Prearo said, adding that he remains available for any further clarification.So far there is no record of arrest requests in the operation, which remains at the search and seizure stage. The next step in the inquiry is the analysis of the seized material by the Federal Police, with no date announced by the authorities. Prearo faces the investigation as a free man and, like anyone under investigation in Brazil, is presumed innocent: no charges have been filed by the MPF at this point.

São Paulo state prosecutors have charged four military police officers accused of belonging to a criminal organization that provided irregular private security to directors of Transwolff, a São Paulo bus company under investigation for allegedly laundering money for the PCC, Brazil's largest criminal faction. The complaint was filed on Wednesday (26) with the state's Military Court, which tries crimes committed by military police, according to Folha de S.Paulo, and still has to be accepted before the accused formally become defendants. Prosecutors requested preventive detention for Lieutenant Colonel José Henrique Martins Flores and the continued detention of the other three officers, in custody since February. According to the accusation, Flores ran security companies registered in the names of relatives used as fronts and ordered the issuance of false invoices to give the payments a veneer of legality. Captain Alexandre Paulino Vieira allegedly acted as the scheme's operational coordinator, recruiting the officers and negotiating directly with Transwolff directors. Sergeants Alexandre Aleixo Romano Cezário and Nereu Aparecido Alves, the latter already retired from the force, carried out armed escort and surveillance of the executives, their relatives and the company's bus depots. According to G1, the group drew on the Military Police's own training and weapons, including members of Rota, the force's elite unit. The complaint also says Sergeant Nereu handled the scheme's financial logistics. During the investigation, police seized a suitcase containing R$1.18 million in cash at his home. Prosecutors say the officers knew about the businessmen's criminal ties and nonetheless kept the illicit services running until early 2026. Case timeline February 4, 2026: the Military Police internal affairs unit launches Operation Kratos; Captain Paulino, Sergeant Romano and retired Sergeant Nereu are placed under preventive detention. May 2026: the internal affairs unit formally accuses the officers who provided security to Transwolff directors, according to reporting by G1. August 26, 2026: state prosecutors file the criminal complaint against the four officers with the São Paulo Military Court. What the defenses say Lawyers Mauro Ribas and Renato Soares, who represent Captain Paulino, say he "never joined, took part in or provided services to any criminal organization" and that the private security services were administered through a duly registered company. Nereu's defense says it received the complaint with "absolute surprise" and calls the accusations unfounded, especially the money laundering charge. According to lawyer Márcio Antonio Sousa Ferreira da Silva, the seized R$1.18 million belongs to businessman Ricardo Barnabé, for whom the sergeant worked, and the lawful origin of the money was documented in the case files. The defenses of Lieutenant Colonel Flores and Sergeant Romano had not commented by the time the reports were published. The next step lies with the São Paulo Military Court, which must decide whether to accept the complaint, a move that would make the four accused formal defendants, and whether to order the preventive detention of Lieutenant Colonel Flores. No date has been set for the ruling.

A pending response from a telephone carrier has delayed a decision by Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes on whether to authorize a formal police investigation into federal lawmaker Alfredo Gaspar (PL-AL), the running mate of presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), over an allegation of estupro de vulnerável, a crime in the Brazilian Penal Code covering sexual acts with children under 14 or with people unable to consent. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the Federal Police told the justice's office this week that it had completed the ordered steps, including obtaining registration data from phone companies, except for one carrier that did not reply. Gaspar denies the accusation.People close to Gilmar Mendes, the court's longest-serving justice, told Folha that his office does not consider the inquiry stage finished until the missing information is delivered, which postpones any ruling. The case rapporteur had been waiting for the Federal Police to wrap up its work and for an opinion from the Prosecutor-General's Office before deciding whether to open a formal investigation, as Folha itself reported in early August. The delay was also reported by the outlet Brasil 247.The accusation and Gaspar's responseThe accusation against Gaspar was made on March 27 by lawmaker Lindbergh Farias (PT-RJ) and senator Soraya Thronicke, of Mato Grosso do Sul, during the reading of the final report of the congressional committee that investigated fraud at the national social security institute (INSS), for which Gaspar served as rapporteur. According to Poder360, the two said their colleague had committed estupro de vulnerável and had fathered a child as a result of the alleged crime, without presenting evidence. In April, Gaspar had genetic material collected on his own initiative, in a court proceeding in the state of Alagoas, and sent a formal letter to the head of the Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, offering to undergo a DNA test. He also filed criminal complaints against Farias and Thronicke for slander, false accusation, defamation and coercion during proceedings. The criminal complaint filed by his adversaries against him is under review at the Prosecutor-General's Office.In August the case took a new turn. A merchant told the Chamber of Deputies' internal Legislative Police that he had received and passed on R$ 16,500 to a young woman so that she would accuse the lawmaker, according to Gazeta do Povo, and pointed to an alleged scheme to fabricate the complaint. Farias denied any role in such a scheme and asked the Supreme Court to nullify the deposition, taken as part of the Legislative Police's own internal inquiry. The Chamber forwarded the deposition to Gilmar Mendes, and Flávio Bolsonaro ruled out replacing his running mate.Gaspar has pressed for a quick conclusion. "Honor demands that this matter be concluded. We want to go to the very end, we want to do the DNA test and put an end to this talk", he told Poder360 on August 6, when he said he believed Gilmar Mendes "does not like" him because of his work on the INSS committee, while adding that he trusts the justice's impartiality. In an interview with Oeste magazine published this Friday (28), the lawmaker said he had been the victim of "the biggest fake news in Brazil's political history". Maria Claudia Bucchianeri, the legal coordinator of Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign, told Poder360 that the defense will ask the Supreme Court to speed up the genetic comparison."A person accused of something as infamous as this, what more could he have done? He sent a letter to Andrei Rodrigues saying: 'I want to do my DNA test. Please call me in, collect the DNA, identify who was born of this alleged crime and, please, protect and put an end to this.' We never received any response", Bucchianeri said.A state prosecutor for 24 years, former chief prosecutor and former public security secretary of Alagoas, Gaspar was elected to Congress in 2022 and left the União Brasil party this year to lead the PL in his home state and accept the invitation to join Flávio Bolsonaro's ticket. The next step depends on the missing carrier's reply: once the Federal Police forwards the information, Gilmar Mendes, who has set no deadline for the decision, will be able to rule on whether to authorize the investigation. Until then, Gaspar remains the target of a preliminary inquiry and denies the accusation.

A 19-year-old man was arrested in the state of Ceará, in northeastern Brazil, on suspicion of belonging to the Comando Vermelho (CV), one of the country's largest criminal factions, and of threatening candidates to block electoral campaigns in Maranguape, in the Fortaleza metropolitan area. Ricardo Vasconcelos da Cruz was located on Wednesday (26) in the Cachoeira district and booked while still in the act, according to G1. On Thursday (27), the state court upheld his detention at a custody hearing, the session in which a judge reviews the legality of an arrest.Timeline of the caseWednesday (26): the Civil Police locate and arrest Ricardo in the Cachoeira district after identifying social media posts carrying political threats;Thursday (27): at a custody hearing, the state court reviews the case and keeps the suspect in jail;Friday (28): police say the investigation continues in order to identify other people involved.According to the investigation, the order for the threats came from Johnathan Amaro Cabral, known as "Bodo", described as a Comando Vermelho boss and one of Ceará's most wanted criminals. He is on the run in Rio de Janeiro, the Civil Police said. Diario do Nordeste reported that Ricardo's arrest was carried out by civil police officers following intelligence work.At the police station, the young man was formally booked for membership in a criminal organization and for making threats in a political and electoral context. In upholding the detention, the judge at the custody hearing said the conduct under investigation "is not a mere individual threat or a simple expression of opinion", as it would directly affect "public peace, the safety of the community and the exercise of democratic political rights"."The post contained visual elements and corporate language directly alluding to the criminal faction Comando Vermelho - CV (the number '2' hand gesture, a red flag emoji and the jargon 'directorate'), ordering the compulsory end of electoral debate under explicit threat to the life and physical integrity of party colleagues and local citizens", the judge added in the ruling, according to G1.The case comes amid a series of episodes of faction activity during Ceará's electoral period. G1 reported that a faction charged 200,000 reais from allies of a mayor to allow campaigning in one municipality, and that a police operation against organized crime interference in the elections led to the arrest of three city council members. The reporting published so far relies on the police account and court records; the suspect's defense has not commented publicly.Ricardo Vasconcelos da Cruz remains in custody at the disposal of the courts as a suspect, with the right to the presumption of innocence. The next step is the continuation of the Civil Police investigation, which is working to identify others involved in the threats. No date has been announced for the conclusion of the inquiry; once it ends, it will be up to the Public Prosecutor's Office to decide whether to file charges.

The São Paulo State Prosecutor's Office launched Operation Merx on Friday (Aug 28) targeting a scheme in which civil police officers allegedly staged fake seizures of illegal goods and escorted smuggled cargo in exchange for bribes. A judge ordered the pretrial detention of seven people, four of them civil police officers, and authorized searches at 18 addresses, including three police stations in Greater São Paulo: the precincts of Embu das Artes and Santana de Parnaíba and the 2nd Police District of Cotia. The investigation is led by the Gaeco, the organized crime task force of the state prosecutor's office, with the Civil Police internal affairs division taking part and tactical support from the police strategic operations department (Dope). Prosecutors are investigating passive and active corruption, money laundering and criminal organization. According to the MP, officers intercepted shipments of cellphones and other electronics of irregular origin and, instead of formally seizing the goods, charged those responsible for the cargo up to roughly 70% of its value to release it, in full or in part. In at least four documented episodes since 2024, the bribes allegedly totaled R$ 2.35 million (about US$ 430,000). According to the investigation, the police force's own structure was used in the scheme: corporation systems allegedly served to monitor the shipments to be intercepted, and police station facilities were used to store merchandise and to register the seizure of only part of the goods, giving the operations an appearance of legality. An image attached to the case file, found with one of the suspects, shows a Civil Police vehicle in an alleged escort of smuggled products, according to Folha de S.Paulo. How the case unfolded June 17, 2024: a truck carrying about R$ 600,000 in smuggled goods is stopped by the Civil Police. According to the Gaeco, officers Bruno Moreno dos Santos and José Adriano da Silva Nishi charged R$ 400,000 to release the cargo, and only part of the merchandise was formally seized; July and August 2024: similar episodes take place, involving lawyer Sidiclei da Costa Almeida, identified as the middleman for bribes between the gang and the police officers; December 2024: Thiago Marcel Magnabosco, identified as the leader of an organization specialized in smuggling and tax evasion, is arrested by the Federal Police. Messages found on his phone connect the scheme to São Paulo civil police officers and trigger the Gaeco investigation; August 28, 2026: Operation Merx carries out arrest and search warrants in the states of São Paulo, Paraná and Goiás. Besides Santos and Nishi, pretrial detention was ordered for civil police officers Vagner Ramalho and Marcos Vinícius de Souza Melo, lawyer Sidiclei, businessman Jonathan Renan Vieira of Paraná, and Magnabosco himself, who is considered a fugitive and is believed by investigators to be in Paraguay. According to G1, at least four of the seven targets had been arrested by the operation's latest update. A fifth officer, investigator Vagner de Lima, was not ordered jailed but was removed from duty, had his credentials to access police systems seized and is barred from contacting suspects and witnesses. The court also authorized the lifting of bank and communications secrecy and ordered the freezing of up to R$ 4 million in assets belonging to the suspects. On the financial front, the Gaeco identified transfers to the company Rivieira Soluções em Tecnologias Ltda. and to third parties allegedly used as fronts to receive and conceal the money paid to the officers. All of those named are suspects under investigation, and no one has been convicted. Folha reported it could not identify the suspects' defense lawyers on Friday, and G1 said it is trying to reach the attorneys, with space open for their response. The next procedural step is the continuation of the Gaeco investigation, which may file formal charges once the inquiry is complete. The prosecutor's office has not announced a deadline. The pretrial detentions ordered on Friday have no set end date and must be reviewed periodically by the courts, as required by Brazil's Code of Criminal Procedure.

Brazil's Federal Police are investigating whether businesswoman and lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger, a friend of Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the eldest son of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, acted to broker business with Correios, the state-owned postal company. The suspicion, reported by O Globo on Friday (28), stems from a draft contract and messages found on her phone, seized in an inquiry into alleged influence peddling in federal agencies. Roberta and Lulinha are under investigation, no formal charges have been filed in this matter, and both deny any wrongdoing. The seized document involves RL Consultoria e Intermediações, a firm co-owned by Roberta, and Safe Consig Tecnologia da Informação, which builds platforms to manage payroll-deducted loans, a common credit product in Brazil where installments are discounted straight from salaries. Under the draft, Roberta's consultancy would be entitled to a 50% commission on Safe Consig's sales. "As commission for the sales it makes, it shall be entitled to 50%, to be calculated on the total amount recorded in the contracting party Safe's financing system, more specifically on the net value," reads the excerpt reproduced by O Globo. On May 13, 2024, Roberta forwarded the file to a contact with the message: "Saulo just sent it back to me revised. I'll sign it, ok?" Police are checking whether the Saulo mentioned is Saulo de Tasso Alves Caracas Dino, a Safe Consig partner. Reached by reporters, he said he was unaware of any contract between the two companies. Two weeks later, on May 28, 2024, Correios hired Safe Consig under a free-use agreement, at no cost to the postal company, to manage the payroll-loan margin of about 84,000 employees. Safe Consig is paid by the financial institutions that gain access to data on employees eligible for the loans. Who signed, and what each side says The contract was signed by Correios' then-president, Fabiano Silva, by finance, technology and information security director Maria do Carmo Lara Perpétuo, and by people management director Getúlio Marques Ferreira. According to O Globo, both directorates were held by appointees linked to Lula's Workers' Party (PT), and Fabiano is friends with Roberta and Lulinha and belongs to Grupo Prerrogativas, a lawyers' group close to the government coordinated by Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, the attorney defending Lulinha in the influence-peddling inquiry. All three have since left the company. Fabiano confirmed knowing Roberta and Lulinha but denied meddling in the hiring: "Administrative procedures at Correios are followed. There is no friendship or favoritism inside the institution. There is internal governance, and it is followed." Maria do Carmo said the contract was drafted by the administrative area and that she "was never approached by anyone to ask for anything. I never had contact with Lulinha and Roberta." Ferreira did not respond. In a statement, Correios said they had no "knowledge of irregularities related to the hiring or the execution of the contract." Rodrigo Feitosa, the Safe Consig partner who formally signed the deal, denied any intermediation: "If anyone eventually discussed this subject, as mentioned in your message, it did not happen, under any circumstances, with due authorization from Safe Consig." Roberta's defense declined to comment on the Correios allegation. Beyond the draft, investigators are reviewing a message, first reported by Estadão, in which Roberta mentions the postal company while listing ongoing business for a cybersecurity businessman: "I booked Geap for you next week too. Tomorrow, Julio. Ports and airports. Correios." The message does not mention Lulinha. Case timeline May 13, 2024: Roberta sends a contact the draft granting her consultancy a 50% commission from Safe Consig; May 28, 2024: Correios hire Safe Consig under a free-use agreement; 2025 to 2026: Federal Police seize her phone in the influence-peddling inquiry in which Lulinha is also investigated; Roberta also appears in Operation Sem Desconto, which probes fraud involving deductions from INSS social security benefits; August 27, 2026: in a TV Globo interview, Lula says he does not know Roberta; the next day his campaign releases a statement saying photos of the two together do not imply a personal, professional or political relationship; August 28, 2026: O Globo reports that police are probing the lobbyist's dealings with Correios. According to G1, investigators had already identified transfers from Roberta to Marco Aurélio Santana, known as Marcola, then the Presidency's chief of staff, as well as a draft contract to sell cannabidiol-based medicines to the Health Ministry. The Correios case is part of a broader inquiry into a possible network of contacts kept by the lobbyist and the president's son to facilitate private companies' deals with the federal government. The investigation remains open, with no public deadline; no indictments or charges by federal prosecutors have been brought on this point so far, and the probe alone does not establish any crime.

Prosecutors in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul (MPRS) charged 15 fans of Internacional on Friday (28) over the beating of a Grêmio supporter in Porto Alegre, G1 reported. The charges were filed with the city's 3rd Jury Court (3ª Vara do Júri), the court that handles intentional crimes against life in Brazil. According to the prosecution, ten of those charged will answer for attempted qualified homicide.Timeline of the caseThe attack took place in March this year, on the day of a Gre-Nal, the derby between Grêmio and Internacional, in a match of the Campeonato Gaúcho, the state championship, after a clash between members of rival organized fan groups, Rádio Guaíba reported. According to the investigation, the victim was chased by the attackers and caught on Rua Terezinha Turcato, in the Costa e Silva neighborhood. In August, Inter fans were arrested as suspects in the attempted homicide of the Grêmio supporter, as CNN Brasil reported on August 13. The formal charges came this Friday, nearly six months after the crime.According to the MPRS, the man was hit with punches, kicks and blows from pieces of wood, suffering injuries considered serious. He spent 21 days in a coma. Prosecutors argue that he did not die because he received medical care quickly.Aggravating factors and other chargesThe complaint lists three qualifying circumstances for the attempted homicide: a futile motive, tied to fan rivalry; cruel means, given the violence used; and the use of a resource that hindered the victim's defense, since the attack allegedly involved numerical superiority of the aggressors. All 15 suspects were also charged with taking part in a fan brawl, criminal association and corruption of a minor, because, according to the investigation, a teenager took part in the beating alongside the group.Also according to the prosecution, those involved were part of an association dedicated to violent acts linked to the rivalry between organized fan groups. Investigators say the group used messaging apps to exchange information, monitor members of rival groups, organize movements and plan attacks. Prosecutors also asked the court to set a minimum compensation amount to repair the damage caused to the victim.The charges do not amount to a conviction: the 15 people charged are presumed innocent unless a court rules otherwise, and they will have the right to a full defense. It is now up to the judge of the 3rd Jury Court to review the complaint and decide whether to accept it, which would formally turn the suspects into defendants. If they are indicted for attempted homicide, the case will go to a jury trial. No date has been set for that decision.

São Paulo: Prosecutors in the state of São Paulo are investigating a group of civil police officers suspected of taking bribes to facilitate smuggling schemes. According to the probe, the officers staged seizures of illicit goods and escorted high-value cargo using the force's own patrol cars. The case became public on Friday (August 28), when an operation was launched to investigate passive and active corruption and money laundering, with the civil police internal affairs unit taking part in the raids.According to Folha de S.Paulo, a judge ordered pretrial detention, with no set end date, for seven people, four of them civil police officers, and authorized searches at 18 addresses. The targets include the police stations of Embu das Artes and Santana de Parnaíba and the 2nd police district of Cotia, all in Greater São Paulo. G1 reported that three civil police officers were arrested during the operation.The investigation is run by Gaeco, the organized crime task force of the state prosecutor's office. It began in December 2024, after the Federal Police arrested Thiago Marcel Magnabosco, identified as the leader of a criminal organization specialized in smuggling and tax evasion. Messages stored on his phone, prosecutors say, connect the scheme to São Paulo civil police officers.Timeline of the caseJune 2024: a truck carrying around R$ 600,000 in smuggled goods was stopped by the civil police and placed in the custody of officers Bruno Moreno dos Santos and José Adriano da Silva Nishi. According to Gaeco, the pair charged R$ 400,000 to release the cargo.July and August 2024: similar episodes took place, this time with lawyer Sidiclei da Costa Almeida, identified as the bribe intermediary between the gang and the officers.December 2024: Gaeco opens its investigation after Magnabosco's arrest by the Federal Police.August 28, 2026: the operation is launched, with pretrial detentions ordered and searches at 18 addresses.Besides Santos and Nishi, who had their pretrial detention ordered, the other two civil police officers named as targets are Vagner Ramalho and Marcos Vinícius de Souza Melo. All remain suspects under investigation and are entitled to the presumption of innocence. Folha said it could not locate the suspects' defense lawyers on Friday.One of the files attached to the inquiry, reproduced by the press, shows a civil police patrol car allegedly escorting smuggled goods. The image was found with one of the suspects. As next steps, those detained must go through custody hearings, and Gaeco continues its investigative work. The prosecutor's office has not said whether or when it intends to file formal charges against the suspects.

The Federal Court in the Federal District has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, September 2, between the federal government and Discord before ruling on a request for urgent measures against the platform, which faces a public civil action seeking R$ 500 million (about US$ 96 million) in collective moral damages. The scheduling was reported on Friday (28) by Folha de S.Paulo.According to Folha, it is a justification and conciliation hearing expected to bring together representatives of the Union, Discord and the Federal Prosecutor's Office (MPF), with possible participation of the ANPD, Brazil's data protection authority. In ordering the meeting, the judge handling the case said the nature, gravity and complexity of the issues justify a more detailed clarification of the facts before any decision on the injunction request.The case so farThe lawsuit caps an escalation that began in July, when a 13-year-old girl from Mato Grosso do Sul took her own life after being incited during a livestream on the platform, according to investigators. The case led to the launch of Operation Livia on August 4, and on August 12 the ANPD suspended Discord's livestreams in Brazil after identifying failures in the protection of children and adolescents.On August 26, after negotiations for a conduct adjustment agreement (TAC) collapsed, the AGU, the federal government's legal office, filed the public civil action. Beyond the damages, the Union wants Discord to adopt age verification, link accounts of users under 16 to those of their parents or guardians, detect and shut down in real time broadcasts showing self-harm or suicide, and keep a Portuguese-speaking moderation team, among other obligations under the Digital ECA, Brazil's new statute protecting children online, according to G1."We have shown that this platform has allowed a series of legal violations under Brazilian law. This situation is absolutely unsustainable and, at the direction of the President of the Republic, we adopted this measure," said Solicitor General Jorge Messias when announcing the suit. The national secretary for Digital Rights, Victor Oliveira Fernandes, said in a statement carried by the site Vermelho that "platforms can no longer wait for the State to notify them before taking action."In a statement, Discord called the suit "disproportionate" and said it "does not accurately reflect Discord's approach to safety and compliance with Brazilian law." The company said it remains "committed to working with the competent authorities" to improve safety on the platform.Before reviewing the injunction request, the court had already given the MPF and Discord five days to present their positions, a deadline that stands regardless of the hearing. At Wednesday's meeting, Discord is expected to provide information on the safety and moderation measures it adopts, and the judge wants to clarify the scope and current status of the measures already imposed by the ANPD, including whether the company filed an administrative appeal against them. Only after those clarifications will the judge rule on the urgent measures requested by the Union.

An off-duty military police officer was killed on Friday night (28) during an attempted robbery on the Marginal Tietê, the expressway that runs along the Tietê River in São Paulo, near the Parque Novo Mundo neighborhood in the city's north zone. The information was confirmed by the Military Police, which is carrying out searches to locate those involved. No one had been arrested by the end of the night, according to Folha de S.Paulo.In a statement, the force said it is working to clarify the circumstances of the crime. "More information will be released as soon as it is confirmed," the police said. The victim's identity was not disclosed, and police did not say whether the officer resisted the approach or had any belongings taken.Case timelineFriday night (28): the off-duty officer is killed during an attempted robbery on the express lanes of the Marginal Tietê, heading toward the Castelo Branco highway.Shortly after: the incident blocks three lanes of the expressway, with police cars and cones cordoning off the scene.By the end of the night: police continue their search for the suspects, with no arrests made.Since no suspect has been identified or detained so far, there are no formal defendants in the case, and anyone eventually investigated is entitled to the presumption of innocence. The information available as of this report's publication comes from the Military Police statement and Folha's coverage; no other outlet had independently detailed the incident.The next procedural step will be the opening of a formal investigation by the Polícia Civil, São Paulo's civil police, which will be in charge of the homicide inquiry and of identifying those responsible. The force gave no deadline for releasing further details.

An Ecuadorean court sentenced former president Lenín Moreno, 73, to five years in prison on Friday (28) for bribery (known as cohecho under Ecuadorean law), in a case over kickbacks paid by Chinese construction company Sinohydro in the building of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant, the largest in the country. The conviction is a first-instance ruling and can be appealed, according to reporting by G1 and the Ecuadorean daily El Universo.According to Ecuador's Attorney General's Office, Sinohydro paid around US$ 76 million in bribes, the equivalent of 4% of the project's cost, and Moreno's family allegedly received about US$ 1 million to favor the construction. The judges found that Moreno, who was vice president when the project was developed, intervened in the bidding and financing of the plant, according to El Universo's coverage. G1 reports that six other people were convicted in the case and that the National Court of Justice held four of the defendants, including Moreno, responsible for bribery. The former president's wife and other relatives received sentences of nearly three years for complicity.Timeline of the caseThe case involves around 20 defendants, including Chinese citizens and a former Chinese ambassador to Ecuador. Moreno served as vice president under Rafael Correa between 2007 and 2013, when the hydroelectric project was designed, and the plant began operating in 2016. After 31 days of hearings, the National Court's criminal tribunal closed the trial phase on July 10 and retired to deliberate. Prosecutors had requested sentences of six years and six months for the main defendants, plus a full reparation payment of US$ 76 million to the state. The sentence was read on Friday and, according to El Universo, convicted 20 defendants, with heavy payments and a permanent ban from holding public office. Two former managers of Coca Codo Sinclair and businessman Conto Patiño are also among those convicted.Moreno denies the accusations. "I did not receive a single cent from Sinohydro," the former president said after the ruling, which he announced he will appeal. In statements carried by El Universo, he attributed the conviction to political persecution by his former ally Rafael Correa: "Correa offered to take revenge on me."Correa's former allyMoreno governed Ecuador from 2017 to 2021, elected with the backing of Correa, who led the country for a decade. The two broke apart after the inauguration, when the new president shifted to the right and moved closer to the United States. Correa lives in Belgium and was convicted in absentia in 2020 to eight years in prison in another corruption case, which involved companies such as Brazil's Odebrecht. Moreno, who uses a wheelchair, worked after his term as a UN special envoy on disability issues in Geneva and as the OAS representative for people with disabilities in Asunción.The next step in the case is the defense's appeal, already announced by the former president. As of this report's publication, no date had been set for the appeal to be heard, and Moreno remains formally convicted only at first instance.

The internal affairs unit of São Paulo state's Civil Police found 49 sealed cellphones inside a trash bag in a locked room of the 1st police precinct of Barueri, in Greater São Paulo. The discovery, made in October 2024 during an investigation into the diversion of smuggled goods, is part of the case that led a court this Friday (28) to order the preventive detention of two investigators from the precinct, according to reports by Folha de S.Paulo and CNN Brasil.The internal affairs inspection began after an anonymous tip that civil police officers from the unit had intercepted a shipment of cellphones on a highway and left part of the devices out of the official seizure report. According to CNN Brasil, the tip alleged that the officers demanded R$ 900,000 (about US$ 170,000) to return the merchandise to its owner.In the office of chief investigator Marcos Vinícius de Souza Melo, internal affairs agents found the 49 devices in the trash bag, with brands and models similar to those of the shipment cited in the complaint, plus six other new cellphones on the desk. In the office gun safe they found R$ 19,577 in cash, an amount with no justification according to the Prosecutor's Office, and two .38 caliber revolvers registered to third parties with no ties to the unit. Melo did not show up at the precinct and, according to Gaeco, the state prosecutors' organized crime task force, he "limited himself to remotely providing the electronic password to his office".The office of investigator Vagner Ramalho was also locked when the inspectors arrived. Inside, the lights and air conditioning were still on and the computer was unlocked, with WhatsApp Web open. On the desk were the investigator's driver's license, three cellphones and R$ 4,000 in cash, according to CNN Brasil. Ramalho's personal pistol was not found."Circumstances capable of indicating the possibility that the investigated officers fled or left the premises in a hurry," Gaeco said.Operation MerxThe case entered a new phase this Friday (28), when Gaeco launched Operation Merx, which investigates criminal organization, corruption and money laundering involving civil police officers, smugglers and a lawyer. According to the Prosecutor's Office, the officers involved in the scheme charged up to 70% of the value of the goods to release trucks or return part of the seized cargo. The operation served warrants in the states of São Paulo, Paraná and Goiás. In total, seven people were placed under preventive detention, and the courts ordered the freezing and seizure of up to R$ 4 million in assets belonging to those under investigation, as well as the suspension of one investigator from duty.Judge Djalma Moreira Gomes Júnior, of the Regional Guarantees Court of Osasco, ordered the preventive detention of Melo and Ramalho after concluding that alternative precautionary measures would be insufficient given the seriousness of the facts under investigation and the risk of interference with evidence. Folha and CNN Brasil report that they were unable to locate the lawyers of the two officers, who remain under investigation and are presumed innocent unless convicted. The Prosecutor's Office has not yet filed formal charges in the case, and the Gaeco investigation is still ongoing.

Brazil's Supreme Court (STF) reached a majority on Thursday (27) in favor of charging corporate income tax (IRPJ) and the social contribution on net profit (CSLL) over profits earned by mining company Vale through controlled companies based abroad. The trial is taking place in the court's virtual plenary, began last week and runs until this Friday (28), according to Folha de S.Paulo, which carried a Reuters report by Ricardo Brito. As of Thursday evening, six justices had voted to allow the taxes to apply to the profits of Vale subsidiaries headquartered in Belgium, Denmark and Luxembourg. The majority was opened by a divergent vote from Justice Gilmar Mendes, joined by Cármen Lúcia, Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin, Kássio Nunes Marques and Alexandre de Moraes. Mendes granted the federal government's appeal to, in his words, "recognize the possibility of counting as positive equity growth the profits earned by its controlled companies headquartered in Belgium, Denmark and Luxembourg". His vote relied on an earlier precedent of the court, case RE 541.090, which admitted taxation of profits of foreign controlled and affiliated companies even when they were not based in tax havens. "Therefore, applying what was decided by the plenary of this court in RE 541.090, I understand the case warrants recognizing the possibility of charging IRPJ and CSLL over the parent company's profit obtained through controlled companies located abroad", Mendes wrote. The case at a glance The dispute reached the Supreme Court in March 2015 and has drawn attention from the business community because of the amounts involved. In a technical note from February 2023 cited by Mendes, Brazil's tax authority, the Receita Federal, estimated the financial impact of the issue at R$ 142.5 billion for the years 2017 to 2021, plus R$ 28.5 billion for each following year. Valor Econômico reported that the impact for the federal government in case of defeat was calculated at R$ 22 billion in the fiscal risks annex of the 2026 Budget Guidelines Law (LDO). Timeline of the case so far: March 2015: the federal government's appeal reaches the STF; February 2023: a Receita Federal technical note estimates an impact of R$ 142.5 billion; Last week: the virtual plenary window for the trial opens; August 27, 2026: six justices form a majority in favor of taxation. Vale declined to comment on the trial. The Attorney General's Office (AGU) and the National Treasury Attorney's Office (PGFN), which represent the tax authorities in the case, did not immediately answer requests for comment, according to Reuters. The next procedural step comes this Friday (28), when the virtual voting window closes. Until then, justices may change their votes or request a "destaque", a move that would send the case to be discussed again in an in-person plenary session.

Messages obtained by Brazil's Federal Police show that lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger asked Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the eldest son of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to intervene in favor of business interests of Antônio Camilo Antunes, known as "Careca do INSS" (the INSS bald man, a nickname tied to the scandal over illegal deductions from pensioners' benefits at the social security institute), with the Ministry of Health. The revelation comes from reporter José Marques of Folha de S.Paulo, who accessed sealed material from the preliminary investigation and the Federal Police representation sent to Justice André Mendonça of the Supreme Court (STF). Mendonça authorized the opening of a formal inquiry on suspicion of influence peddling. None of the contracts discussed in the conversations was ever signed.The dialogues revolve around attempts to sell cannabidiol-derived substances and dengue test kits to the ministry. According to the Federal Police, Roberta was looking for a "solution to capitalize" the Careca do INSS and pressed the ministry's then executive secretary, Swedenberger do Nascimento Barbosa, known as Berger. "[We have to] run so Berger buys this soon", she wrote about the dengue kits. Police noted that the lobbyist said she had a deadline because "Fábio is leaving", a reference to Lulinha's move to Spain in 2025.The timeline of the messagesMarch 2024: in a message to Marco Aurélio Ribeiro, known as Marcola, Lula's former chief of staff, Roberta writes about Berger: "But are you going after him because I made Gustavo invest in the cannabidiol company lol".May 2024: she tells Marcola they have "to put Fábio on top of Berger lol". Marcola replies: "ok".October 2024: five months later, the lobbyist and Marcola arrange a barbecue, and she asks him to bring Berger, at Lulinha's request.November 2024: "Fabio is in Portugal and woke up today asking me to tell you to put pressure on Berger about the requests", she writes to Marcola.January 23, 2025: in messages to Gustavo Gaspar, a former aide to Senator Weverton Rocha (PDT-MA), Roberta says the Careca do INSS was pressing to close the deals quickly, that she had discussed the matter with Lulinha and that it would be good for "Fábio to get moving". For the Federal Police, "the demands made by Antônio depend on Fábio's intervention".The Careca do INSS was one of the main targets of Operation Sem Desconto (No Discount), which investigates a suspected scheme to divert money from retirees and pensioners through illegal deductions from social security benefits. Gaspar was also arrested in the operation and is under house arrest. Veja magazine, which reviewed the full inquiries after Mendonça ordered the breach of Roberta's phone secrecy, reported that the Federal Police concluded the lobbyist kept an informal partnership with Lulinha and businessman Fernando Bittar to prospect business inside the government. "I am Fábio", she summed up to an interested businessman, according to police. The Federal Police treats the findings as evidence of corruption, criminal organization, influence peddling, administrative advocacy and exploitation of prestige. Everyone named is under investigation; no formal charges or convictions have been brought so far.What the defense saysLawyer Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, who represents Lulinha, says his client "never, at any moment, made any intervention or held any meeting" in favor of the Careca do INSS's businesses. "There is nothing in the case files that disproves that. What the Federal Police has is a jigsaw puzzle of assumptions, with inconclusive inferences", the lawyer said. The defense adds that Lulinha began preparing his move to Spain in 2024, has professional ties to a Spanish company with no direct or indirect relationship with the Brazilian government and lives "exclusively from the result of his work". The lawyers of Roberta Luchsinger and Antônio Camilo Antunes did not respond to requests for comment. Roberta's defense had previously said it would not comment on an inquiry under seal.The inquiry is proceeding under seal at the Supreme Court, with no known date for the next decision. It will be up to the Federal Police to conclude the investigation and, if it finds sufficient elements, send the final report to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, which will decide whether to file charges.

Rio de Janeiro's Regional Electoral Court (TRE-RJ), the electoral tribunal that was also handling this criminal complaint, rejected by 4 votes to 3 the charges brought by prosecutors against former Rio mayor Marcelo Crivella (Republicanos), now a federal deputy and candidate for the Senate, in the case known as "QG da Propina" ("Bribe HQ"). The decision came in a session on Thursday (27), according to G1 and O Globo. With the rejection, Crivella does not become a defendant in the case, which accused him of corruption and money laundering.The score was tied at 3 to 3, and the tie-breaking vote fell to the court's president, Justice Claudio de Mello Tavares, who had requested more time to review the case file. In his view, there is not enough evidence to move the case forward against the former mayor. "A public agent cannot be punished on the basis of conjecture", he said in his vote, according to G1. Tavares held that Crivella could not answer for acts allegedly committed by the other accused. The court also ruled that a lower court judge will decide how the case proceeds against the remaining defendants.What prosecution and defense sayAccording to the complaint filed by the Public Prosecutor's Office, based on a Civil Police investigation, the scheme allegedly operated during Crivella's term as mayor (2017 to 2020) and involved Rafael Alves, brother of Marcelo Alves, then head of Riotur, the city's tourism company. Prosecutors say Rafael took part in recruiting businessmen and rigging public tenders, using shell companies, fake invoices and fictitious contracts. In the case, prosecutors sought convictions and the repayment of R$ 32 million (about US$ 6 million) to public coffers, O Globo reported. Earlier this year, prosecutors also charged Crivella and ten other people with administrative misconduct linked to the same scheme.The defense denies the accusations and welcomed the ruling. "Justice was done with the refusal of the complaint against Marcello Crivella. The absence of just cause was proven. There was no illegality on Crivella's part", said lawyer Marcio Vieira Santos, quoted by G1.Case timelineThe case has moved through the courts for years. In October 2024, the TRE-RJ itself declared Crivella ineligible for abuse of political and economic power and barred conduct in the 2020 elections. In July of this year, Supreme Court Justice Andre Mendonca suspended the ineligibility in an injunction. Last week, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) upheld the suspension by 4 to 3, with the decisive vote of Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, clearing the former mayor's Senate bid.With Thursday's rejection, the criminal case against Crivella over the "Bribe HQ" scheme stalls. The next step belongs to the lower court: a judge will decide the fate of the action against the other people charged by prosecutors. No date has been set for that decision.

Brazil's Federal Police (PF) postponed to Friday (28) the testimony of Daniel Vorcaro, former controlling shareholder of Banco Master, in an inquiry into whether Central Bank employees received improper advantages to benefit the institution. The hearing had been scheduled for Thursday (27), but a technical problem prevented it from taking place, according to g1 and Folha de S.Paulo. Vorcaro, held in pretrial detention since March at the Brasília prison known as Papudinha, was to testify by videoconference.According to Folha, it would have been the former banker's first testimony since two plea bargain proposals were rejected, and the first with his current defense team, led by attorneys Sérgio Leonardo and Daniel Bialski. People close to the defense told g1 that Vorcaro is expected to present his version of the facts under investigation. Vorcaro is a suspect in the inquiry and has not been convicted in this case. In a statement quoted by Folha, the defense said it waited for the signal to be restored so the hearing could proceed.The suspicions about the employeesThe inquiry centers on former Central Bank supervisors Paulo Sérgio Neves de Souza and Bellini Santana. According to the PF and the Central Bank itself, there are suspicions that the two received financial advantages and acted to favor Master in internal discussions about oversight and financial relief, during the period when the bank faced a liquidity crisis that ended with its liquidation by the Central Bank.In a deposition given to the PF in May, to which TV Globo had access, the Central Bank's supervision director, Ailton de Aquino, said the two employees resisted deepening oversight of Master credit portfolios that a technical team concluded did not exist. Aquino said he was informed by the Central Bank's president, Gabriel Galípolo, of reports received under anonymity about payments linked to Vorcaro. When questioned, Bellini said, according to Aquino's account, that he received two installments of R$ 500,000 and later monthly payments through a company he created, under a contract he attributed to social projects. Paulo Sérgio, in turn, said he sold a rural property in Guaxupé, Minas Gerais, for R$ 4.5 million and claimed he only later found out the buyer had family ties to Vorcaro.Among the messages analyzed by the PF is one sent by Paulo Sérgio to Vorcaro in April 2025: "Ailton thought it was very good, in other words, 5 billion can avoid damage of 58 billion", in reais. According to Aquino, the conversation dealt with a possible liquidity line from the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC), Brazil's deposit insurance fund, for Master.Timeline of the case2023: Bellini says he was approached by a person linked to attorney Leonardo Palhares with a proposal related to social projects.Early 2025: the Central Bank grows suspicious of Master's billion-real credit assignment operations to Banco de Brasília (BRB), despite the institution's liquidity troubles.November 2025: Vorcaro is arrested in the first phase of Operation Compliance Zero and released days later by order of the TRF-1 federal appeals court.January 2026: Galípolo informs Aquino of the anonymous reports about payments to the employees.March 2026: Vorcaro is placed in pretrial detention, where he remains.May 2026: Aquino testifies to the PF, detailing the suspicions.The next step is the rescheduled hearing on Friday (28). After the testimony, it will be up to the PF to decide whether to order further investigative steps or close the inquiry into the alleged favoritism, which has not yet produced charges from the Federal Prosecutor's Office in this branch of the investigation.

São Paulo state prosecutors have charged four military police officers with taking part in a criminal organization that provided private security to executives of Transwolff, a bus company under investigation for alleged money laundering for the PCC, Brazil's largest criminal gang. The complaint, filed on Wednesday (26) with the Military Court, the tribunal that tries police officers in Brazil, requests the preventive detention of Lieutenant Colonel José Henrique Martins Flores, described as the administrator of the companies used to formalize the security services and give the payments a legal appearance, according to Folha de S.Paulo.Also charged are Captain Alexandre Paulino Vieira, Sergeant Alexandre Aleixo Romano Cezário and retired Sergeant Nereu Aparecido Alves. The three have been in preventive custody since February 4, when the police internal affairs unit launched Operation Kratos, and prosecutors asked that their detention be maintained. The court must still accept the complaint before the four formally become defendants.According to the complaint, the group formed a unit tasked with protecting Transwolff's then-owner, Luiz Carlos Efigênio Pacheco, known as Pandora, and Cícero de Oliveira, known as Té, as well as other executives, their relatives and the company's garages. Prosecutors argue that by hiring police officers, some of them members of Rota, São Paulo's elite police battalion, the company was also buying the institutional credibility of the uniform: "The reputational shielding was itself the product being contracted," the complaint states, according to Folha. The police unit allegedly operated alongside a business and financial structure that included Pandora, Té and Robson Flares Lopes Pontes.The internal affairs investigation, detailed by Metrópoles, describes Flores as the financial backbone of the scheme through companies in the AM3 group registered in the names of relatives, including his mother and stepfather, who live more than 500 kilometers from the state capital. Records from a food delivery app allegedly confirmed the colonel's frequent presence at the addresses of these companies, which issued the invoices for the security services. According to the inquiry, payments continued at least until January this year, even after the operations targeting Transwolff.Timeline of the caseThe case began with Operation Fim da Linha (End of the Line), launched in April 2024 against Transwolff and another bus company, UPBus, on suspicion of laundering money for the PCC. In December of that year, the São Paulo city government opened proceedings to terminate both companies' contracts. On February 4, 2026, Operation Kratos arrested the three officers and seized R$ 1 million at one of their homes, serving 16 search warrants, according to G1. Investigators concluded the private security was provided between 2020 and 2024. Transwolff's defense denies any ties to organized crime and says it is challenging the accusations in court.What the defenses sayLawyers Mauro Ribas and Renato Soares, who represent Paulino Vieira, say the officer "never joined, took part in or provided services to any criminal organization" and that he ran private security services through a properly registered company. The defenses of sergeants Nereu and Romano said they will comment soon, and Flores's lawyer was contacted but had not responded by the time Folha published its story. The next step is the Military Court's review of the complaint: judges will decide whether to accept it and whether to grant the preventive detention request for Flores. No date has been set for the ruling.

Brazil's Federal Prosecution Service (MPF) and the Federal Revenue Service launched Operation Jogo de Sombras (Game of Shadows) on Friday (28) to investigate suspected tax evasion, illegal currency transfers and money laundering linked to fixed-odds sports betting platforms, known in Brazil as bets. Agents served six search and seizure warrants in João Pessoa (Paraíba), Recife (Pernambuco) and São Paulo, with no arrest requests. According to G1's reporting, the targeted addresses are linked to the NSX group, owner of the BetNacional platform, which investigators say moved more than R$ 5 billion (about US$ 1 billion) in 2025 alone. According to the MPF, there are indications that the group set up a shell company in Curaçao, in the Caribbean, to simulate that the platform operated outside Brazil before the sector was regulated, while Brazilian companies tied to the group were allegedly running the actual activities in the country. Investigators are also examining suspected transfers of funds abroad followed by the return of part of the money as payments for services, a model that could be used to justify bringing back resources previously sent overseas. Another line of inquiry is the possible use of pooled accounts that concentrate funds from different clients in a single account, which can make it harder to trace the final beneficiaries. The MPF and the Revenue Service say the suspicions extend beyond the pre-regulation period: they are checking whether old structures were adapted to keep tax evasion mechanisms running under the new rules. Alongside the warrants, the Revenue Service opened 11 tax proceedings to deepen the investigation, with potential tax recovery estimated at around R$ 300 million. The Prizes and Betting Secretariat of the Finance Ministry is assessing which technical measures it may take against the group under investigation. According to ministry officials heard by G1, the company already faces two ongoing administrative proceedings, and penalties under the sector's legislation range from a warning to suspension of activities. Case timeline 2025: the year in which, according to investigators, the platform moved more than R$ 5 billion; August 13, 2026: Operation Arena, the first major joint action by the Revenue Service and the MPF against the betting market this month, serves 17 warrants in five states, with a court order allowing the seizure of up to R$ 1 billion in assets; August 28, 2026: Operation Jogo de Sombras is launched, with six search and seizure warrants in three cities, followed by a press conference at the Finance Ministry headquarters in Brasília. In a statement, NSX Brasil said it received the Revenue Service's visit at its Recife office and gave "full cooperation to the action, making the requested documents available." The company said that before the sector's specific regulation it operated "in accordance with the legal framework then in force and with the practices adopted by the market," and that after the new rules took effect it "made the necessary adjustments and now strictly complies" with the law. So far, the operation has produced no criminal charges, and no suspect has been found guilty: the case is in an evidence-gathering phase. The details were presented at a press conference with the head of the Federal Revenue Service, Robinson Barreirinhas, and the national coordinator of Gaeco, the MPF's organized crime task force, Deputy Prosecutor-General José Adonis Callou de Araújo Sá, among other authorities. The next steps are the analysis of the seized material, the progress of the Revenue Service's 11 tax proceedings and a decision by the Prizes and Betting Secretariat on possible administrative sanctions. No deadline was announced by the authorities.

A federal court in Brasília on Thursday (27) provisionally suspended the collection of a 12% export tax on crude oil and bituminous minerals. The injunction was granted by Judge Diego Câmara of the 17th Federal Court of the Federal District, at the request of the Brazilian Association of Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Companies (ABEP), and orders the Federal Revenue Service to stop demanding the tax from the companies the association represents, according to G1.Timeline of the taxThe levy was created by Provisional Measure 1,340/2026, a type of presidential decree in Brazil that takes effect immediately but requires congressional approval, and has been in force since March. The measure expired because Congress did not vote on it within the constitutional deadline. That same day, July 9, the government's foreign trade executive committee (Gecex) published Resolution No. 938/2026, reinstating the rate for 60 days, valid until September 9. According to the Federal Revenue Service, the tax has already raised R$ 7.9 billion. InfoMoney puts the figure at R$ 7.982 billion collected since March, based on data through July.In his ruling, the judge found that the resolution renewed a levy that had been tacitly rejected by Congress, which in his view would amount to an attempt to bypass the legislative process:"There being no doubt, in this case, that reissuing a Provisional Measure restoring the Export Tax rate tacitly rejected by Congress this year was forbidden, I consider it all the more improper to renew such an increase through an infralegal normative act, under penalty of defrauding due legislative process," Judge Diego Câmara wrote.The judge also raised questions about the economic purpose of the levy and stated that the tax may not be suitable for achieving the government's stated goals.What each side arguesOil companies had been trying to overturn the charge. The industry argues that the rate reduces the attractiveness of investments and hurts Brazil's position in foreign markets, according to InfoMoney.The government defends keeping the tax. Asked about it earlier, Minister Márcio Elias said that, given the Middle East crisis and its effects on prices and logistics, the measure "is not only justified, it is necessary." In a letter to the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade, the Finance Ministry's executive secretary, Rogério Ceron, argued that the international scenario remains volatile, with restrictions on Gulf production and exports and risks to international energy transport routes, especially the Strait of Hormuz. The ministry maintains that, while the tax was in force, domestic refineries processed more oil and imports of crude and derivatives fell, and it supports keeping the 12% rate for another 60 days. The levy was introduced to counter the effects of the Middle East war on the domestic market and to cover the cost of gasoline and diesel subsidies. On Tuesday (25), the Finance Ministry extended the R$ 0.44 per liter gasoline subsidy until September 9.The injunction is provisional, and the merits of the case have yet to be judged. The dispute now moves on two tracks: Gecex meets this Thursday (27) to decide whether to extend the tax, which remains valid until September 9, and the federal government can appeal the 17th Federal Court's decision. No date has been set for the final ruling.

Brazil's Office of the Attorney General (AGU), the legal body that represents the federal government, filed a public civil action against Discord on Tuesday (25), seeking R$ 500 million in collective moral damages and court orders requiring the platform to adopt measures to protect children, teenagers, women and animals. According to G1, the lawsuit cites crimes committed by users on the service, failures to remove harmful content and the absence of an agreement to bring the social network in line with Brazilian law.The case that triggered the suit was the death of a 13-year-old girl who took her own life during a livestream in a Discord group in July, according to CNN Brasil. A report from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security states that the livestream began around 2:20 a.m., that the São Paulo Civil Police alerted the company at 3:50 a.m. and that the group was only taken down at 4:15 a.m. The people under investigation over the episode were only banned at 3:20 p.m. the following day. After the case, first lady Janja da Silva argued the platform should be taken offline "immediately". Brazil's data protection authority (ANPD) ordered the suspension of Discord livestreams in the country, but the AGU action does not seek to ban the service.Before going to court, the AGU spent two weeks negotiating a conduct adjustment agreement, known in Brazil as a TAC, under which the company would voluntarily take on obligations. "The company initially showed interest in assuming significant commitments to the Brazilian state, but unfortunately refused to sign the agreement at the last moment. We had no other option but to file a public civil action", said Attorney General Jorge Messias. Union Prosecutor General Clarice Costa Calixto said both parties signed a confidentiality agreement and she cannot detail why the talks collapsed. "Our required standard of child and adolescent safety was, regrettably, not accepted by the company", she said. According to her, the amount sought reflects the gravity and number of infractions attributed to Discord and the platform's revenue, which the AGU estimates at around R$ 4 billion per year.For Victor Fernandes, the National Secretary for Digital Rights at the Ministry of Justice, the slow response in the teenager's case was not an isolated episode. A survey by Ciberlab, the ministry's intelligence center, recorded more than 115 reports between 2025 and 2026 involving incitement to suicide, self-harm, animal abuse and animal sacrifice on Discord. In São Paulo, the Civil Police's digital observation unit counted an average of five complaints per day linked to incitement to suicide, self-harm, rape and other crimes against minors, and more than 385 cases of animal abuse and sacrifice on the platform in 2026. "Platforms must adopt proactive measures to detect and remove this content. None of that was observed in this case", Fernandes said, according to G1.The action followed Operation Livia, a Ministry of Justice investigation into criminal networks that used digital platforms such as Discord to promote violence against women and girls, according to CNN Brasil. Justice and Public Security Minister Wellington César Lima e Silva called the lawsuit "a state response" to ensure that "any platform, national or foreign, does not neglect the limits imposed by law".What the lawsuit demandsBesides the damages, which would go to a federal fund for diffuse rights, the AGU asks for a daily fine of R$ 500,000 if a court decision is not complied with, and wants to compel Discord to adopt, among other measures, according to CNN Brasil:a protocol to detect and interrupt livestreams with illegal content;a protocol to notify authorities of signs of sextortion;mechanisms to detect, assess and moderate content involving animal abuse;stronger age verification and mandatory linking of accounts of users up to 16 years old to their legal guardians;a headquarters and legal representative in Brazil, plus a permanent reporting channel in Portuguese.In a statement, Discord called the action "disproportionate" and said it "does not accurately reflect the approach" of the company regarding safety and compliance with Brazilian law. The platform says it presented the AGU "a detailed proposal" with technical changes and financial investment in online safety in the country, and claims it deactivated, before the teenager's death, the private server where individuals under investigation allegedly encouraged self-harm. "Any suggestion that we are not cooperating is incorrect", the statement says, also pointing to a lack of coordinated action among the federal agencies involved in the talks.With the filing, the case now moves to federal court, where Discord is expected to be served and present its defense. No date has been set for the next procedural steps.

Rio de Janeiro state prosecutors (MPRJ) on Thursday (27) arrested two military police officers and a man identified as a drug trafficker, all investigated over an alleged scheme to supply weapons and ammunition to the Curicica militia, a paramilitary group in the city's West Zone, and to the Terceiro Comando Puro (TCP), one of Rio's main drug trafficking factions. In total, 20 people were charged, according to MPRJ information reported by CNN Brasil, G1, Extra and O Dia.The arrested officers are Jorge Anastácio Rodrigues Simões, assigned to the 4th BPM battalion (São Cristóvão), and Leo Carlos Araújo Santos, of the 2nd BPM (Botafogo). According to the investigation, both are suspected of supplying and brokering purchases of weapons and ammunition for members of the militia and the faction. The third detainee is identified as a trafficker linked to the scheme. The warrants were carried out by the MPRJ's Security and Intelligence Coordination office, with support from the Military Police's internal affairs division.What the investigation saysAccording to the MPRJ, the Curicica militia and the TCP allegedly reached a cooperation pact to avoid clashes between the two groups and to join forces against rivals, mainly the Comando Vermelho (CV). The agreement would also have facilitated the negotiation of weapons and drugs. Yuri Guimarães Soares, known as "Lirow", is identified as the link between the militia members and TCP operatives active in the Maré and Pedreira favela complexes, in Rio's North Zone.Investigators identified negotiations involving rifles of 5.56 mm, 7.62 mm and .223 calibers, as well as pistols and ammunition. Within the militia's command, André Costa Bastos, known as "Boto" or "Redbull", currently held in a federal prison, is identified as responsible for the group's strategic command, while Osmar Silva de Souza, known as "Messi" or "Novinho", would be the operational leader. According to the MPRJ, the militia raises money through fees charged to residents and merchants and through vehicle and cargo robberies in Jacarepaguá and nearby areas.Case timelineInvestigation: the MPRJ's Security and Intelligence Coordination probes the link between the Curicica militia and the TCP, including the role of military police officers in arming both groups.Thursday (27): the operation executes warrants and arrests two officers and a suspect identified as a trafficker.After the operation: the MPRJ charges 20 people, and the 3rd Specialized Court for Criminal Organizations in the capital accepts the complaint; courts order the preventive detention of those investigated.With the complaint accepted, the accused become defendants and face charges such as forming a private militia, association with drug trafficking using firearms, and illegal trade of restricted-use weapons and ammunition. Defense teams will have a legal deadline to respond to the charges, and the next dates in the proceedings have not been announced. CNN Brasil reported it is trying to reach the lawyers of those named. All of those investigated are presumed innocent until a final conviction.

A court in Presidente Prudente, in the interior of São Paulo state, ruled on Thursday (27) to keep lawyer and digital influencer Deolane Bezerra and the other defendants of Operation Vérnix in pretrial detention, according to G1. The operation investigates an alleged money-laundering scheme attributed to the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), Brazil's largest criminal organization. The decision came in the periodic review that Brazilian law requires every 90 days for preventive detentions. Deolane has been in custody since May 21, 2026.In the ruling, the 3rd Criminal Court of Presidente Prudente found that the legal grounds for pretrial detention remain in place: guaranteeing public and economic order, the proper conduct of the criminal investigation, the need to ensure enforcement of criminal law, the risk that money-laundering activities would continue, and evidence of a structured and permanent criminal organization.What the prosecution allegesAccording to the complaint filed by the São Paulo state prosecutor's office, the criminal organization under investigation was split into three wings: a decision-making wing, formed by Marco Willians Herbas Camacho, known as Marcola, identified as the leader of the PCC, and by Alejandro Juvenal Herbas Camacho Junior; an operational wing; and a financial wing, in which Deolane was placed. In its request to keep her jailed, Gaeco, the organized-crime task force of the state prosecutor's office, called her "the main member of the financial wing", responsible for concealing and disguising illicit funds through bank accounts linked to her and to her companies and for converting those sums into high-value assets.The prosecution says that fiscal and banking documents and technical reports point to the movement of large sums and their conversion into assets with an appearance of legality, through shell companies and front men, known in Brazil as "laranjas". Gaeco also argued that two defendants, Paloma Sanches Herbas Camacho and Leonardo Alexsander Ribeiro Herbas Camacho, remain fugitives, which in the prosecutors' view reinforces the need for pretrial detention to ensure enforcement of criminal law.Timeline of the caseMay 21, 2026: Deolane is arrested preventively as part of Operation Vérnix;July 2026: the São Paulo State Court of Justice (TJ-SP) unanimously denies a habeas corpus petition filed by her defense;August 21, 2026: Gaeco asks the court to keep the preventive detention, citing the seriousness of the facts and flight risk, according to the legal news site Migalhas;August 27, 2026: the 3rd Criminal Court of Presidente Prudente keeps Deolane and the other defendants in custody.What the defense saysDeolane's defense argues that pretrial detention is unnecessary and asked for her release during the review, according to Migalhas. In the habeas corpus judged in July, the defense and a report by the São Paulo chapter of the OAB, Brazil's bar association, raised complaints about prison conditions. The rapporteur, Justice Renata Cantello, described the claims as "mere dissatisfaction with the natural strictness of the prison regime and internal administrative management issues", finding no illegality in the detention and no reason to replace it with house arrest. She also noted that Deolane's bar registration has been suspended since her arrest was ordered.Everyone named in the complaint is a defendant and is presumed innocent until any conviction becomes final. Under the periodic review rule, the case must return to the courts within 90 days. In the meantime, the defense can appeal the decision to higher courts.

The man identified by Rio de Janeiro's Civil Police as the coordinator of the street security group involved in the lynching of Cláudio Rafael Landeiro in Copacabana has 14 entries on his criminal record, according to G1. Aluisio da Silva Filho gave a statement on Wednesday afternoon (Aug 26) at the 12th Police Precinct, the Copacabana station leading the inquiry. His record includes threat, bodily injury, illegal firearm possession and the robbery of a tourist in the neighborhood. Aluisio is not under arrest and was heard as a suspect under investigation, which preserves the presumption of innocence.Cláudio Rafael, 37, was beaten on the night of August 11 after being falsely accused of stealing a bicycle that actually belonged to his sister. Taken to Miguel Couto Municipal Hospital in Gávea, he died on August 12. According to Folha, the victim was struck more than 60 times, and the wooden club used in the attack was fetched by security guard Davi Santos Machado from a bar on Barata Ribeiro street.Case timelineAugust 11: Cláudio Rafael is accused of theft and attacked by street guards and delivery workers in Copacabana; part of the beating is filmed.August 12: he dies at Miguel Couto Municipal Hospital.August 20: guard Davi Santos Machado is arrested in Mesquita; guard Jorge Luiz Ricardo Dias, 56, turns himself in at the precinct.August 21: delivery workers Felipe Eduardo dos Santos and Ailton José da Silva are located and arrested, according to CNN Brasil.August 25: police hear five people, including the owners of a bar, a restaurant and a pharmacy that paid for the group's services.August 26: Aluisio testifies, and police disclose his 14 criminal record entries.In his statement, Aluisio gave his own account. He said he has coordinated for more than 25 years a support group operating near Barata Ribeiro and Felipe de Oliveira streets, with no registered company (CNPJ) and four members, counting himself and the two jailed guards. According to him, the members do not call themselves "security guards" but "supporters", and were not authorized to approach or follow suspicious people, stop them from leaving a place, search them or seize objects. The standing instruction, he said, was to call 190, Brazil's police emergency number, in serious incidents, without using physical force. Aluisio also said he learned of Cláudio's death days later, that a witness reported a request for silence made by Davi, and that the employee denied involvement. He admitted having received complaints about Davi's aggressive behavior, including the beating of a homeless man. TV Globo tried to reach Aluisio's defense without success by the story's last update.The investigation tells a different side. Merchants from a bar, a restaurant and a pharmacy confirmed in testimony, according to Folha, that they paid for the irregular private security provided by Davi and Jorge, and are being investigated for possible contribution to the clandestine surveillance scheme; the bar owner's son is investigated for failure to render aid. Jorge, when surrendering, confessed to taking part in the approach and said he witnessed part of the beating, according to CNN Brasil. The four detainees, two guards and two delivery workers, face charges of triple-qualified homicide, a heinous crime under Brazilian law.The case exposed the work of irregular vigilantes in Rio's South Zone. Private security industry associations, meeting in Brasília on Tuesday (Aug 25), demanded stricter oversight from the Federal Police, the body that licenses surveillance companies, Folha reported. The inquiry's next step is the capture of the fifth aggressor, seen on camera kicking the victim's head: according to O Dia, the Rio State Court has issued an arrest warrant for Wellington Luiz Santos de Souza, identified by police as the man who delivered the kicks. Aluisio's testimony will be added to the investigation at the 12th Precinct, which has not announced a deadline for its conclusion.

A Sao Paulo court has sentenced former city councilman Camilo Cristofaro to 1 year, 9 months and 10 days in prison under an open regime for offenses and racial abuse against a community leader, according to the Painel column of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. The first-instance ruling allows Cristofaro, stripped of his seat for racism in 2023, to appeal while free. Under Brazilian law, an open-regime sentence is served outside a closed prison facility.The Folha report, published on Thursday (27), does not identify the court branch that issued the sentence nor detail the offenses. The case adds to Cristofaro's judicial record. In June 2022, the Sao Paulo state prosecutor's office (MPSP) charged him with racial abuse and threats against nursing assistant Dilza Maria Pereira. According to the complaint, based on an investigation by the 2nd police precinct of Bom Retiro and reported by Poder360, the then councilman allegedly said of the victim: "Shameless black woman. And besides being a shameless black woman, she was a black thief, with no right to a voice". Folha did not clarify whether this week's conviction stems from that complaint.Weeks later, in July 2022, the MPSP filed a second complaint against Cristofaro, this time for the crime of racism, over the phrase "that is a black thing, right?" ("e coisa de preto, ne?"), picked up by the councilman's open microphone during a remote session of a City Council parliamentary inquiry committee on app-based transport, on May 3 of that year. Prosecutors sought collective moral damages and the loss of his mandate. In that criminal case, Cristofaro was acquitted: in July 2023, a judge found no racism in the remark, according to the legal news site Migalhas.The political outcome was different. In September 2023, the City Council stripped Cristofaro of his seat after a breach-of-decorum proceeding. He was the first Sao Paulo councilman to lose his mandate for racism, according to Alma Preta Jornalismo.Case timelineMay 3, 2022: the phrase "e coisa de preto, ne?" is picked up during a remote committee session;June 9, 2022: prosecutors charge Cristofaro with racial abuse and threats against nursing assistant Dilza Maria Pereira;July 8, 2022: a second complaint, for the crime of racism, over the remark made in the committee session;July 2023: a judge acquits the councilman in the criminal case over the committee remark;September 2023: the City Council strips Cristofaro of his seat;August 27, 2026: the former councilman is sentenced to 1 year, 9 months and 10 days under an open regime for racial abuse against a community leader.One day after the 2022 committee episode, Cristofaro released a video alongside Black employees titled "racism is a mistake, I apologize" and said on social media that he is not a racist. "I come from a generation where little jokes were normal and I need to deconstruct those prejudices", he said at the time, according to Poder360. His defense could not be reached by Folha to comment on the conviction.The next procedural step is an appeal to the Sao Paulo State Court of Justice (TJ-SP), which Cristofaro can file while free. No deadline or hearing date has been reported so far. Because the sentence was issued by a lower court, the conviction is not yet final.

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general sentenced to life in prison for genocide and war crimes during the Bosnian war, died on Thursday (27) at the United Nations detention center in The Hague, Netherlands. He was 83. The death was first reported by Belgrade-based Informer TV and confirmed in coverage by Brazilian outlet G1, which described its own report as still developing.Mladic led the army of Republika Srpska (VRS) during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, a conflict that left around 100,000 people dead. He became known as the "Butcher of the Balkans" for the two episodes at the heart of his conviction: the nearly four-year siege of Sarajevo, which killed more than 10,000 people, and the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, when forces under his command executed more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys. International courts recognize Srebrenica as the only genocide committed in Europe since World War II.Timeline of the case1995: the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicts Mladic for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes;1996-2011: he spends some 16 years as a fugitive, protected by support networks in Serbia;May 2011: arrested in the village of Lazarevo, Serbia, and extradited to The Hague;November 2017: convicted on 10 of 11 counts, including the Srebrenica genocide, and sentenced to life in prison;June 2021: the UN's residual mechanism, successor to the ICTY, rejects his appeal and makes the sentence final;August 27, 2026: dies at the UN detention center in The Hague.Prosecutors argued throughout the trial that Mladic exercised effective command and control over the troops that committed the atrocities, a position upheld by judges in both instances. The defense always denied the charges. In court appearances, Mladic said he had defended his country and his people and called the accusations monstrous. He never expressed remorse for the Srebrenica killings and boycotted part of his appeal hearings. In Serbia and in Republika Srpska, the Serb entity within Bosnia, nationalist circles still regard him as a war hero.Because the sentence became final in 2021, his death does not change the judicial outcome: no appeal or procedural step remained open. As of publication, the UN residual mechanism had not issued a formal statement on the death or its cause. Mladic had a history of health problems, and his lawyers repeatedly and unsuccessfully sought his release on humanitarian grounds.

A raid conducted by the Special Police Operations Battalion (Bope), the elite tactical unit of Rio de Janeiro's Military Police (PMERJ), triggered intense gunfire and road blockades in the Cidade de Deus favela, in the city's West Zone, on Thursday morning (27). According to military police reports cited by Folha de S.Paulo, organized crime members commandeered at least two transit buses and set up public trash containers as barricades to obstruct armored police vehicles.Initial reports of shooting surfaced before dawn as Bope tactical units moved into the community. In response to the police operation, Avenida Miguel Salazar Mendes de Morais, the main thoroughfare cutting through Cidade de Deus, was blocked by hijacked buses placed across traffic lanes. The obstruction follows a similar incident in Rio's North Zone on Wednesday, when 19 buses were hijacked and used as barricades during clashes near the Morro do Fubá area.During the Thursday operation, officers detained two men under investigation for suspected ties to local narcotics trafficking, which authorities identify as controlled by the Comando Vermelho criminal faction. Police seized a handgun, a two-way radio, narcotics, and fuel canisters allegedly gathered to torch roadside barricades. Meanwhile, neighborhood residents posted on social media that one person had been shot during the crossfire, though the PMERJ stated that it had not officially confirmed any injured suspects.Officers delivered the detainees and seized evidence to the territorial Civil Police station to formalize arrest charges for illicit drug trafficking and illegal weapons possession. Both men remain in police custody and are scheduled to appear before a judge at a custody hearing within 24 hours, where the court will review the arrest proceedings and determine whether to order pretrial detention.

Civil Police in Rio Grande do Norte arrested at least 26 suspects on Thursday morning during the fifth phase of Operation Renorcrim, a coordinated crackdown targeting the command structure and financial network of an organized crime group operating across the state. State judicial authorities issued a total of 59 search and arrest warrants through the Specialized Court for Organized Crime Offenses (UJUDOCRIM). Police units carried out raids across eight municipalities, including the state capital Natal, Parnamirim, Macaiba, Sao Jose de Mipibu, Sao Goncalo do Amarante, Extremoz, Areia Branca, and Joao Camara. According to reporting by Inter TV Cabugi published by G1, one suspect escaped after an exchange of gunfire with officers, during which a dog was killed. The operation utilized state police helicopters and involved prison guards monitoring suspects subject to electronic ankle monitors. Investigation timeline and group structure The investigation began in 2024, when detectives started mapping the internal division of roles within the criminal network. Previous operational phases gathered intelligence on different organizational tiers, identifying members responsible for street-level offenses, communication of orders, and logistical support. In a formal statement, the Civil Police detailed the methodology behind the operation: Through investigative procedures, field surveys, police intelligence cross-referencing, and data analysis, members carrying out distinct roles within the group were identified. The continuity of this investigative work enabled a broader understanding of the internal mechanics of the organization, established links between the suspects, and reached members untouched in earlier stages. Next legal steps Officers seized firearms, narcotics, vehicles, and undeclared cash during the morning searches. Under Brazilian law and the presumption of innocence, the suspects remain in custody while formal evidentiary procedures are conducted. All seized materials have been sent for official forensic examination. The detainees are scheduled to appear before a judge for mandatory custody hearings to assess the legality of the arrests, while investigators finalize individual case reports to submit to the state Public Prosecutor's Office for formal indictment.

The debate over implementing El Salvador's hardline security model in Brazil has gained momentum in the run-up to the 2026 presidential election. Conservative and right-wing candidates, including Flávio Bolsonaro, Romeu Zema, and Renan Santos, have advocated adopting elements of President Nayib Bukele's approach to combat criminal organizations. However, public safety experts and legal scholars point to substantial constitutional and structural barriers that prevent a direct replication.Timeline and operational contrastsEl Salvador launched its security crackdown in March 2022, when the country's legislative assembly declared an emergency state of exception. The measure suspended several constitutional safeguards, enabled arrests without prior warrants, and prolonged pre-trial detentions without formal charges. While homicide rates fell sharply, international observers and human rights groups raised concerns over arbitrary detentions. In Brazil, security analysts emphasize that domestic organized crime operates on a fundamentally different scale.Speaking to BBC News Brasil, political scientist Robert Muggah, co-founder of the Igarapé Institute, explained that Brazilian groups such as the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command (CV) resemble multinational commercial enterprises. Unlike the territorial street gangs MS-13 and Barrio 18, which rely heavily on localized extortion and visible markers, Brazilian syndicates run sophisticated money-laundering schemes and global drug supply chains.Constitutional safeguards and procedural standardsProponents of the Salvadoran approach argue that maximum penal severity and rapid incarceration are necessary to dismantle gang influence and protect citizens from violent crime. In contrast, legal experts emphasize that Brazil's 1988 Federal Constitution establishes strict due process protections, safeguarding the presumption of innocence and requiring judicial warrants for detentions.Muggah noted that mass imprisonment alone would overburden Brazilian penitentiaries without neutralizing the financial circuits of organized crime bosses. Public security strategies will be examined in upcoming candidate debates ahead of the formal submission of government platforms to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

Civil Police in São Paulo arrested Leandro Teixeira de Andrade, known by the aliases "Portuga" and "Benfica," during a targeted operation at an apartment in the coastal city of Santos. Identified by investigators as a logistics operator linked to the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) criminal organization, Andrade was a fugitive from federal justice and was also booked on new drug trafficking charges following the seizure of suspicious materials at the scene. The criminal proceedings against Andrade date back to 2013, when he was indicted in the 5th Federal Court of Santos alongside four co-defendants, including André de Oliveira Macedo, known as "André do Rap." In 2015, the federal court convicted the group of transnational drug trafficking. While his co-defendants fled, Andrade was detained in 2017. In November 2025, the 5th Federal Court of Santos issued an arrest warrant ordering him to serve the remaining eight years and nine months of his definitive prison sentence in a closed penitentiary regime. According to the São Paulo Public Security Secretariat (SSP-SP), detectives from the Santos narcotics division (Dise/Deic) located Andrade on Avenida Epitácio Pessoa through intelligence data analysis. Officers seized 4,000 US dollars in cash, mobile phones, a vehicle, port worker uniforms from two shipping terminals, a bag containing white powder, and a handwritten notebook. Police delegate Leonardo Rivau reported that the notes detailed chemical formulas for diluting cocaine and impregnating the narcotic into clothing fabrics for smuggling. During formal questioning, Andrade exercised his constitutional right to remain silent and declined to provide handwriting samples for forensic examination. Defense attorney Felipe Pires de Campos told reporters that the arrest was executed under the preexisting 2013 federal conviction. The attorney stated that the police considered the items found in the property sufficient to justify a new in flagrante arrest for drug trafficking, adding that the defense is reviewing the formal records to determine future legal measures. Luiz Carlos do Carmo, director of the regional police department Deinter 6, stated that investigators will analyze the seized items to trace potential criminal associates. Andrade remains in custody awaiting a custody hearing regarding the new trafficking charge before his scheduled transfer to the state prison system to serve his outstanding federal sentence.

The Sao Paulo Highway Police seized 1,151.6 kilograms of illicit drugs concealed inside a grain transport truck on the border between Ourinhos, in Sao Paulo state, and Jacarezinho, in Parana. The 24-year-old Paraguayan truck driver was taken into custody under suspicion of drug trafficking on Thursday afternoon.The interception took place during routine highway patrols under the regional Operation Impact. According to highway officers, an inspection of the semi-trailer revealed dozens of bundles hidden beneath a legitimate shipment of rice. Official weighing confirmed 1,139.35 kilograms of compressed marijuana and 12.3 kilograms of dry sift, a concentrated cannabis resin extract.Following the discovery, the driver was detained and transferred to the Federal Police precinct in Marilia, Sao Paulo. The truck, the trailer, and the narcotics were impounded for forensic analysis. Federal investigators have opened a formal police inquiry to determine the origin, transport route, and intended recipients of the cargo inside Brazil.The Paraguayan national remains in federal custody under the legal presumption of innocence while represented by counsel. The next procedural step is a custodial hearing before a federal judge, who will review the legality of the arrest and determine whether the suspect will be held under pre-trial detention while the criminal investigation continues.

Brazil's Federal Police has formally indicted delegate Rodrigo Teixeira, the institution's former director of administration and logistics, on suspicion of corruption, money laundering, and obstructing an investigation into a criminal organization. The indictment stems from Operation Rejeito, an inquiry probing illicit schemes in the mining sector in Minas Gerais and inside the National Mining Agency (ANM), according to reporting by Folha de S.Paulo.Case background and mining allegationsTeixeira served as the Federal Police's administrative director from January 2023 to March 2025, ranking as the third highest authority in the agency during the Lula administration. In September 2025, he was placed under preventive detention during the launch of the initial police operation. The final police report indicts Teixeira alongside nine other individuals, including another Federal Police delegate and lobbyist Gilberto Horta Carvalho.The Federal Police report asserts that Teixeira maintained "an active and concealed presence in the mining market through intermediary corporate entities and coordination with investigated businessmen." Investigators also alleged that police resources were deployed to intimidate a mining company competing against interests tied to Teixeira.Defense response and legal procedureTeixeira's defense strongly rejected the police findings. Attorney Bruno Cesar stated that the report omitted testimony from other police delegates who had explicitly dismissed claims of investigative obstruction. In a formal statement, the lawyer argued that the document "lacks evidentiary substance and merely repeats the mendacious rhetoric that inaugurated this operation," adding that the allegations had not yet undergone judicial cross-examination.Following the conclusion of the police inquiry and the formal indictments, the case file will now be transmitted to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF). Federal prosecutors will evaluate the evidence to decide whether to file formal criminal charges before a federal judge, request supplementary investigative steps, or archive the case.

Brazil's Federal Police launched Operation Little Bag on Thursday (27) to dismantle an interstate drug trafficking network based in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Federal agents executed four preventive arrest warrants and multiple search and seizure orders in the municipalities of Dourados and Itaporã. A state court also ordered the freezing and seizure of bank accounts, vehicles, and real estate assets valued at over R$ 7 million ($1.3 million) linked to the suspects.According to investigators, the inquiry began in 2025 after several large shipments of marijuana, valued at more than R$ 4 million, were intercepted along federal highways. Tracing the transport routes and logistical support revealed an organized cell operating from Mato Grosso do Sul that regularly supplied illicit distribution hubs in the Southeast and South regions of Brazil.The Federal Police stated that the court orders aim to gather financial records, digital devices, and physical evidence to confirm or rule out the individual involvement of each suspect. Under Brazilian law, the suspects benefit from the presumption of innocence throughout the investigative phase. The identities of the targets have not been released due to court secrecy, and legal representatives for the suspects have not yet issued statements.The seized equipment and documents will now undergo forensic examination by federal analysts. The suspects remain in preventive custody and will give formal statements to police investigators before the case file is delivered to public prosecutors, who will decide whether to file formal criminal charges before the Dourados criminal court.

The Federal Police and Brazil's tax authority, the Receita Federal, launched Operação Peça-Chave on Thursday (27) to dismantle an alleged contraband and money laundering ring. Investigators report that the targeted network moved over R$ 146 million (around US$ 26 million) between 2018 and 2023 without lawful accounting records. Federal agents and tax auditors served nine search and seizure warrants across the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and São Paulo. The warrants were issued by the 5th Federal Court of Campo Grande, granting permission to seize computers, business documents, jewelry, artwork, and cash holdings exceeding R$ 5,000 without proven lawful origin. Origins of the inquiry and distribution methods The investigation began after financial intelligence units flagged large cash withdrawals and atypical banking activity at branches along Brazil's border region. According to tax authorities, the suspects acquired foreign manufactured auto parts brought into Brazil outside regular customs channels. According to federal auditors, the merchandise was distributed nationwide using fraudulent invoices. These documents were issued by shell companies known as "noteiras", which simulated legitimate commercial activity to provide cover for merchandise that had never been registered in formal inventory logs. Asset concealment and next procedural stages Investigators also identified evidence of money laundering through third party straw accounts. Bank accounts registered under individuals lacking personal wealth were allegedly used to channel proceeds from the illicit sales to the primary suspects. The seized files and electronics will now undergo forensic evaluation to be cross-referenced with existing tax and banking data. The Federal Police will compile a final investigative report for the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, which will determine whether to file formal criminal charges before the 5th Federal Court.

During a campaign event in São José dos Campos on Wednesday (Aug. 26), Senate candidate Simone Tebet (PSB) demanded public explanations from São Paulo's former Public Security Secretary, Guilherme Derrite (PP), regarding allegations of corruption and organized crime infiltration in the state police leadership during his tenure.Derrite led the São Paulo Public Security Secretariat for three years under Governor Tarcísio de Freitas before stepping down to run for the Senate. According to Tebet, Derrite must answer for investigations into alleged ties between law enforcement members and major criminal factions, including the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command (CV). She also cited administrative controversies, such as sidelining police colonels from strategic posts in favor of lower-ranking captains, as well as inquiries involving the Military Police general command.While criticizing Derrite's record, Tebet acknowledged common ground with Governor Freitas regarding the transnational reach of organized crime. She defended the federal government's proposed constitutional amendment (PEC) on public safety, arguing that countering cross-border factions requires national coordination through a dedicated federal security ministry while maintaining state operational autonomy.The confrontation highlights a tight race for São Paulo's two open Senate seats. According to a Quaest poll released Tuesday (Aug. 25) and registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under number SP-06946/2026, Derrite holds 12% of total voting intentions, in a statistical tie with Marina Silva (12%) and Tebet (11%). Campaign activities and debates will continue leading up to the general election on October 4.

The São Paulo State Prosecutor's Office (MPSP) has charged former state lawmaker Arthur do Val, known by his YouTube persona Mamãe Falei, with incitement to crime. Prosecutor Roberto Bacal, of the Special Criminal Court (a branch that handles minor offenses), filed the complaint on Tuesday (25), based on comments do Val made in a video on his YouTube channel about Operação Carbono Oculto (Operation Hidden Carbon), according to reporting by Metrópoles confirmed in an official MPSP statement.According to the complaint, do Val said in the video: "Oh! The Faria Lima scumbag who launders money for organized crime has to be killed". The remark targeted financial market operators investigated for laundering money for a scheme that, according to the task force behind the operation, includes cells run by the PCC, Brazil's largest prison gang. Prosecutors say the statement amounts to publicly inciting crime, an offense under Article 286 of the Brazilian Penal Code punishable by three to six months in detention or a fine.Case timelineAugust 2025: the MPSP, federal prosecutors, the Federal Police and other agencies launch Operation Hidden Carbon, targeting fraud and money laundering in the fuel sector;August 25, 2026: prosecutor Roberto Bacal files the incitement complaint against Arthur do Val, based on the YouTube video;August 26, 2026: the case becomes public in reports by Metrópoles, VEJA and Brasil 247.Launched in August 2025, Operation Hidden Carbon brought together some 1,400 agents from the MPSP, federal prosecutors, the Federal Police, the Civil and Military Police, the Federal Revenue Service, oil regulator ANP, the state attorney general's office and the state finance department, with support from the Gaeco organized crime unit. At the time, the task force called it the largest operation against organized crime in Brazilian history. According to the Federal Revenue Service, a network of 1,200 gas stations moved more than R$ 52 billion between 2020 and 2024 while paying only R$ 90 million (0.17%) in taxes. To launder the proceeds, the group allegedly used 40 investment funds holding R$ 30 billion, managed by operators on Faria Lima, São Paulo's financial hub.Do Val is a former São Paulo state lawmaker whose mandate was revoked after leaked audios in which he made sexist remarks about Ukrainian refugees. He is barred from elected office until 2030 and, in July this year, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes upheld the revocation. Now a member of the Missão party, according to Metrópoles, he is trying to return to politics.Metrópoles said it sought comment from do Val about the complaint but received no response by publication time, adding that it remains open to his statement. With the complaint filed, the next step lies with the São Paulo courts, which must decide whether to accept the accusation. Only if it is accepted will do Val formally become a defendant. No date has been set for that decision.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) may resume two far-reaching trials on Thursday (27): whether there is an employment relationship between digital platforms and the drivers and couriers who work through them, a debate known in Brazil as "uberization", and the validity of a provision of the Marco Civil da Internet, Brazil's Internet bill of rights, that requires a court order for access to user traffic data, including information that can identify who used a given IP address. According to G1, whatever the court decides on the labor case will be binding on the rest of the judiciary. More than 10,000 lawsuits are on hold awaiting a ruling, and the decision could affect about 1.7 million app-based workers.According to the legal news site Migalhas, Chief Justice Edson Fachin changed the agenda and said Thursday's session will open with the Marco Civil case and a separate action on investigations conducted by police detectives, so the platform appeals will not come first. G1 reports that the "uberization" trial is expected to restart with Fachin's own vote, since he is the rapporteur of an appeal by Uber, admitted under the court's general repercussion rule, against a position of the Superior Labor Court (TST).How the cases reached the courtThe labor dispute arrived at the STF through appeals by two platforms against labor court decisions that recognized the employment bond. Uber challenges a TST position; Rappi contests a ruling by the Regional Labor Court of the 3rd Region, in Minas Gerais, that recognized the employment relationship of a motorcycle courier. The Internet case was filed by the Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunications Providers (Abrint) and began to be tried in the virtual plenary in December 2025, when rapporteur Cristiano Zanin and Justice Dias Toffoli voted to uphold the rule.In his vote, Zanin argued that authorities may directly request basic registration data, such as name, parentage and address, but that access to traffic data requires a specific court order because it restricts fundamental rights. For the rapporteur, this type of metadata can reveal users' habits, routines and relationship networks.What each side arguesLabor courts have recognized the bond on the grounds that ride-hailing and delivery apps perform, in practice, the core activity of transport or logistics companies. The platforms say they are "technology companies" that only intermediate the provision of services, with no subordination, since workers set their own hours and trips, and ask the court to recognize free enterprise and economic freedom. Workers say there is supervision by the platforms and that they follow the "algorithm's command", which sets price, route, ranking and blocking, amounting to an employment relationship.In the trial, the Attorney General's Office (AGU) defended contractual protection for workers within an environment of technological innovation, which could pave the way for minimum rights such as a pay floor, a daily limit on hours logged in, social security contributions and life insurance. The Labor Prosecutor's Office (MPT) asked for the bond to be analyzed case by case and also defended a minimum floor of rights, noting that platform work has already spread to doctors, nurses and teachers. One reference in the debate is the recently approved ILO Convention 193, described as the first global pact on digital platforms, which sets minimum parameters such as union freedom, collective bargaining and pay compatible with each country's minimum standards.Behind the scenes, according to G1, there is an expectation that Fachin will vote for an intermediate line, with minimum guarantees, and that there would be a majority to reject the employment bond, although justices are discussing a thesis that recognizes protections such as working-hour limits and social security contributions. The next step is Thursday's plenary session (27), which starts with the Marco Civil case; the court may then resume the "uberization" trial, but justices can still ask for more time to study the case, which would delay a final ruling.

Brazilian police are investigating eight people, including three civil police officers and a digital influencer, over a staged police raid used to steal R$ 800,000 in cash and 30 kilograms of gold from a house in the Caçari neighborhood of Boa Vista, capital of the northern state of Roraima, on March 29, 2026. The case advanced on Wednesday (26), when Amazonas police commissioner John Allan Cunha Castilho and investigator Diego Gabriel Rodrigues de Araújo had their preventive arrest warrants served by the Federal Police in Amazonas state, in the second phase of the probe led by Draco, the organized crime unit of the Roraima Civil Police, according to g1 and local newspaper FolhaBV.According to the investigation, influencer Ivan Luiz Bastos Guimarães, 33, known online as "Itz Ivan", brokered gold sales for wildcat miners and decided to double-cross both sides of a deal scheduled at his own home. Around 7 p.m., armed men wearing hoods and dark, police-style clothing stormed the property carrying badges and using an unmarked official police car, simulated an on-the-spot arrest, subdued the gold buyer and Ivan himself, who posed as a victim, and fled with the ore and the cash.Who is under investigationDraco assigns distinct roles to the eight suspects. Ivan is described as one of the masterminds and the scheme's financial operator; he has been charged and was arrested on August 21 in Florianopolis, in southern Brazil, where officers seized phones, computers and a luxury car. After the robbery he was threatened by miners, fled to Manaus and bought high-value properties, g1 reports. Castilho, the influencer's cousin, allegedly recruited Araújo, provided tactical cover outside the house and helped his cousin take the proceeds to Amazonas. Roraima investigator Marcelo Henrique de Araújo Sobral allegedly commanded the fake raid and received at least R$ 200,000 from the sale of the gold; arrested in the first phase, he is now free under electronic ankle monitoring and has been suspended from duty. During the police action he was also caught in the act of procedural fraud after damaging his own phone, according to g1. His brother-in-law, Guilherme Santana da Silva, entered the house alongside the officers after being promised R$ 150,000 and confessed to the police. Sobral's wife, Ariane Cabral Paes, was also arrested in the first phase. In all, three of the eight suspects are in custody, one is on the run and four are responding while free.The first phase, launched on August 21, served four temporary arrest warrants and five search and seizure warrants, and courts froze about R$ 20 million in assets. The probe involves Roraima police internal affairs, the state prosecutors' organized crime unit (Gaeco) and the external oversight office for police activity. Investigators are also examining other robberies attributed to members of the group that allegedly caused losses of more than R$ 23 million in the state; FolhaBV reports a January episode in the town of Alto Alegre in which the seizure of gold from a miner was allegedly staged.Timeline and the defense's caseJanuary 2026: internal affairs opens inquiries that identify a Roraima Civil Police car being used in crimes, according to g1; FolhaBV dates the start of the investigation to March, after a robbery complaint.March 29: the fake raid takes the gold and cash in Caçari; the buyer reports the robbery to the police.August 21: the first phase arrests Ivan in Florianopolis and three other suspects in Roraima.August 25: a court orders Castilho's preventive detention.August 26: the second phase serves the warrants against Castilho and Araújo in Amazonas.Castilho's defense, by lawyers Gabriel Mourão and Carlos Villa Real, told FolhaBV it received the arrest "with surprise" and said that on August 19 the judge overseeing the legality of the investigation, a role known in Brazil as juiz das garantias, had expressly found no evidence of the commissioner's involvement, rejecting at the time requests to search his home and lift his bank and tax secrecy. "John Allan Cunha Castilho vehemently denies any participation in the crimes attributed to him. He did not take part in the planning, did not take part in the execution and received no benefit", the statement said, noting he is a tenured civil servant with a clean record who was not heard before the arrest, which was ordered by a different judge. The lawyers stress that preventive detention is a precautionary measure and does not anticipate guilt. G1 said it is seeking contact with the lawyers of the other suspects.Next, Castilho's defense said it will act within the case files to clarify the facts and challenge the preventive detention, while Draco's investigation into the other robberies attributed to the group continues. One of the eight suspects remained at large as of Wednesday evening.

São Paulo state prosecutors have accused 16 people of taking part in a criminal organization that diverted methanol to adulterate fuels sold in Greater São Paulo, Folha de S.Paulo reported on Wednesday (26). G1 also covered the case. Among those named is businessman Roberto Augusto Leme da Silva, known as Beto Louco, described by prosecutors as one of the main financiers of the scheme. The complaint was filed by the Guarulhos unit of Gaeco, the special organized crime task force of the São Paulo prosecutor's office.According to Folha, the accused face counts of criminal organization and money laundering. Prosecutors also cite evidence of fuel adulteration, tax crimes, consumer crimes, fraud, document forgery and environmental crimes. The complaint says Beto Louco used the companies Aster, Copape and Duvale to move millions of reais tied to the activities under investigation. The group allegedly operated from 2017 to 2025.Investigators say the organization relied on a network of chemical companies, trucking firms, fuel distributors, payment institutions and investment funds to divert methanol, an input with controlled sale and use in Brazil, and to conceal the origin of the money made through the fraud. The complaint describes a standing structure set up to simulate purchases of the product:"The evidence gathered allows us to state that there is a permanent structure to forge the acquisition of methanol for the supposed production of biodiesel, with the product never shipped to its formal destination on paper, and the effective delivery of the product to gas stations, precisely to adulterate fuels and increase profits," prosecutors wrote, according to Folha.The case is an offshoot of Operation Carbono Oculto (Hidden Carbon), which investigates the infiltration of the PCC, Brazil's largest criminal gang, in the fuel sector. On May 28, Gaeco launched the operation's second phase, called Fluxo Oculto, with 59 search and seizure warrants in five states targeting a money laundering scheme run through fintechs and the adulteration of fuel with naphtha, according to CNN Brasil.Case timeline2017 to 2025: period in which the organization allegedly operated, according to the complaint;May 2023: Brazil's Federal Highway Police found methanol with one of those involved, the episode that started the investigation;May 28, 2026: Gaeco carries out the second phase of Operation Carbono Oculto, aimed at fintechs and investment funds;May 2026: the state prosecutor general, Paulo Sérgio de Oliveira e Costa, rejects a plea bargain proposal submitted by Beto Louco; according to CNN Brasil, the refusal was driven by omissions in the offer;August 26, 2026: prosecutors accuse 16 people.Folha contacted Beto Louco's defense on WhatsApp on Wednesday afternoon but had received no reply by the time its story was published.A judge will now review the complaint and decide whether to accept the accusations and open a criminal case. Only if it is accepted will the accused formally become defendants; all are presumed innocent unless a final conviction is handed down. No date has been announced for the decision.

Armed criminals seized city buses and turned them into barricades across streets in Cascadura, in Rio de Janeiro's North Zone, on Wednesday morning (Aug. 26), in retaliation for a Military Police operation in the Campinho and Fubá favelas. The raid, carried out by the 9th BPM (Rocha Miranda) and 18th BPM (Jacarepaguá) battalions, left one suspect dead and at least four people under arrest. G1 counted 19 buses used in the blockades and five detainees; Agência Brasil and the newspaper O Globo, citing the police's initial account and the Rio Ônibus bus operators' union, reported 18 buses and four arrests.The man who died was identified by O Globo as Jeferson Ferreira da Silva, 19. According to the operation's command, armed men exchanged fire with officers and fled into a wooded area; Jeferson fell behind the group and was found unconscious by the police. The force says he suffered cardiac arrest and did not survive. A second suspect was shot and taken to the Carlos Chagas State Hospital, and the police had not disclosed his condition as of the latest updates. All those detained remain suspects under investigation, with no convictions in the case.Timeline of the morningEarly morning: teams from the 9th and 18th battalions enter Campinho and Fubá; according to the police, there is a shootout and the suspects flee toward the woods.Shortly after: one suspect suffers cardiac arrest during the escape and dies; another is shot and hospitalized; four are arrested.Late morning: criminals stop bus drivers and park the vehicles across Clarimundo de Melo street, Ernani Cardoso avenue and Dom Hélder Câmara avenue; a truck is also used as a roadblock.Around 12:30 p.m.: all buses had been released and routes began returning to normal, according to Rio Ônibus.In all, Rio saw at least 54 bus lines diverted on Wednesday in traffic-orchestrated reactions to police operations, O Globo reported. In the Cascadura area alone, the Rio Ônibus union registered disruptions on 33 routes. In Água Santa, three lines were affected and one lane of the Linha Amarela expressway toward Barra da Tijuca was closed near the Covanca Tunnel, reopening shortly before noon, according to the concessionaire Lamsa.In a statement, the Military Police secretariat said the criminals' goal was to "demobilize the teams" and listed the seized material: a pistol, a grenade, a radio communicator, six rifle magazines and a pistol magazine, plus drugs still being counted. Policing was reinforced with teams from Bope, the elite special-operations battalion, as well as the Shock Battalion, the Tactical Motorcycle Battalion, the Expressways Battalion and the 3rd BPM (Méier), besides crowd-control units, according to Agência Brasil."The criminal actions are a reaction to the Military Police's planned operations against the criminal faction operating in the communities of Campinho, Fubá, Morro do 18, Praça Seca and several others in Jacarepaguá," the force said, in a statement reproduced by O Globo.Classes went ahead: by 12:15 p.m., no state school had closed, and municipal schools in Fubá and Campinho were holding in-person classes, according to the education secretariats. One primary care clinic suspended operations and two others canceled external activities such as home visits, the Municipal Health Secretariat said. People arrested in the act must be brought before the Civil Police, which opens the formal investigation; as of the latest updates, the Military Police had not said which station received the detainees nor released further findings on the death of Jeferson.

Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) has authorized the Federal Police (PF) to fully access material seized by São Paulo's civil police in the investigation into the production company behind Dark Horse, a biographical film about former president Jair Bolsonaro. The decision, reported Wednesday by journalist Andréia Sadi's blog on G1, releases not only reports already produced by the São Paulo state police but also documents, raw data extracted from seized media, and chain-of-custody records, the log of how evidence was collected, stored and analyzed. The measure grants a request made by the PF itself.The investigation examines financing of the film, which reportedly received about 61 million reais (roughly $11 million) through the American fund Havengate Development, linked to Paulo Calixto, a lawyer for Eduardo Bolsonaro, one of the former president's sons. The PF is investigating whether part of those funds covered Eduardo's living expenses while he was based in the United States. Eduardo denies receiving money through that channel. The case became public after the outlet Intercept Brasil revealed conversations between Flávio Bolsonaro, another son of the former president and a leading 2026 presidential candidate, and Daniel Vorcaro, founder of the failed Banco Master, pointing to an arrangement worth roughly 134 million reais to finance the film. Flávio initially denied Banco Master had financed the production; he later acknowledged receiving 61 million reais from Vorcaro, saying the funds were used entirely for the film.A private forensic audit commissioned by GoUp Entertainment, the film's production company, reviewed only the company's own spending and did not examine the origin of the Havengate funds. According to the report, cited by news outlet Poder360, total production spending came to $3.72 million in Brazil and $9.66 million in the United States between June 2025 and June 2026, classified in the document as private funds with no link to public money or Brazil's Rouanet cultural incentive law. Anisio Castelo Branco, the forensic expert who conducted the audit, told newspaper O Globo he was not authorized to audit the Havengate fund itself, and that tracing the origin of the money it transferred fell outside the scope of his work.An institutional dispute over the probeAccording to Sadi's column, PF investigators are privately weighing whether to ask that all threads of the film-financing investigation be consolidated at the Supreme Court, under Dino's oversight, a process known in Brazil as "federalization." Such a move could originate from a formal PF request or from the Office of the Prosecutor General (PGR); the column stresses federalization is not decided, only one of the paths investigators consider possible. The PF's request for raw data, not just material already curated by the civil police, suggests federal investigators want to examine original evidence and reach independent conclusions.São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas has publicly defended the state civil police's handling of the case, calling criticism that the investigation was being "held back" in São Paulo disrespectful. A day before Dino's ruling, Tarcísio said he would comply with the Supreme Court's order to share documents from the probe into an NGO linked to the film and denied any delay in the São Paulo-led investigation. The expanded federal access, in Sadi's reading, signals institutional distrust of how the state police has run the case, a dispute that has taken on political weight ahead of the 2026 election, in which Tarcísio is allied with Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign.No date has been set for a decision on federalizing the investigation; for now it remains an internal discussion among investigators that may or may not advance through a formal request from the PF or the PGR. Justice André Mendonça also oversees a separate Supreme Court track tied to the film investigation, alongside probes into fraud at Brazil's social security agency (INSS) and a case involving Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, son of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. As of this report, neither the PF nor the PGR had formally requested federalizing the Dark Horse case.

Brazil's Federal Police, in a preliminary investigation, allege that lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger asked Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the eldest son of President Lula, to intervene to help close business deals sought by Antônio Camilo Antunes, known as 'Careca do INSS' (the INSS Baldy), with Brazil's Health Ministry. The report was first published by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo on Wednesday.Messages accessed by police on the businesswoman's phone show pressure on Lulinha to join discussions over attempts to secure government contracts for a cannabidiol-derived product and dengue testing kits. According to the report, none of the contracts were ultimately signed. Antunes is one of the central figures in a wider scandal over improper deductions from retirees' benefits managed by the INSS, Brazil's national social security institute.Timeline of the caseAccording to messages cited by police, on January 23, 2025, Luchsinger complained that Antunes was pressuring her to close the deals quickly but lacked the nerve to apply that same pressure directly on Lulinha. The exchanges show her maneuvering to move the deals forward before Fábio Luís relocated to Spain later that year. The material is part of a preliminary police probe and a formal request sent to Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça, who opened a judicial inquiry into the matter. The case file remains under seal.What each side saysContacted by Folha, Fábio Luís's defense said he began planning his move to Spain as early as 2024 and holds a professional relationship with a Spanish company that has no direct or indirect ties to the Brazilian government. In a statement, his lawyer Marco Aurélio de Carvalho said: 'He lives in Spain solely off the proceeds of his work. A simple life, but a dignified one, without the luxury they are describing.'The defense denies Lulinha took any action to benefit Antunes's business interests. 'He never, at any point, made any intervention or attended any meeting,' the lawyer said, dismissing the police findings as speculative: 'There is nothing in the case file that contradicts this. What the Federal Police has is a puzzle of inferences, none of them conclusive.' Lawyers for Luchsinger and Antunes were contacted by Folha at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday and had not responded by the time of publication. Luchsinger's defense had previously said it would not comment on a sealed inquiry.None of those named in the probe has so far been formally charged. The inquiry remains under Justice Mendonça's oversight at the Supreme Court, with no date set for its conclusion or for a possible indictment. Next steps depend on the Prosecutor General's Office reviewing the evidence gathered so far by the Federal Police.

Body camera footage worn by two military police officers shows the moment Wesley dos Reis, 41, was shot during a stop in the southern zone of São Paulo. The footage, obtained by Brazilian outlet G1, indicates the shot was fired before officers issued a formal order to stop and that the patrol car had been following the motorcycle with its siren off. The case is being investigated by the Homicide and Person Protection Department (DHPP) and by the Military Police's own internal affairs unit.According to the incident record, the shooting happened on July 5. Wesley was riding home from his granddaughter's second birthday party, about two kilometers away, when officers Lucas Benitelli da Costa and Héctor Luiz de Macedo began tailing two motorcycles during a routine patrol. Wesley was a passenger on one bike; his wife, Pâmela, and the couple's son were riding the other. The footage shows the officers discussing over the radio that one license plate appeared partially covered and reporting a possible vehicle fleeing, still without activating the siren.The recording shows officers ordering Wesley to stop his motorcycle, and almost simultaneously, Héctor fired the shot that hit him in the chest. The patrol car's siren was only turned on after the shot. Wesley was taken to a hospital but did not survive. Officers briefly followed the motorcycle carrying Pâmela and their son before returning to where Wesley had fallen.Conflicting accounts of the stopSpeaking to the civil police, the officers said the two motorcycles matched the description of vehicles reportedly used in robberies in the area, based on what they described as operational intelligence, and that the partially covered plate reinforced their suspicion. According to Lucas and Héctor's account, as the patrol car approached and the stop order was given, Wesley made a movement to raise one hand, which was covered by his jacket sleeve, leading them to fear he might be reaching for or aiming a weapon. Héctor says he fired a single shot in response. No weapon has been reported as found with the victim in accounts released so far. Under Brazilian law, both officers remain under investigation and have not been formally charged; they are legally presumed innocent unless charges are filed and proven in court.The driver of the motorcycle carrying Wesley gave police a different account. He said he heard tires screech and someone shout "stop, stop," and when he looked over, he heard the gunshot and saw Wesley fall. Frightened, he sped away, believing at first that it was a robbery. Wesley's sister, Grazieli, said her nephew, the victim's son, witnessed part of the scene and told the family the officers "never actually approached" or "formally ordered him to stop," they simply shot. "By the time they look over, that's how long it takes him to shoot," Grazieli said.In a statement to TV Globo's local newscast SP1, São Paulo's Public Security Secretariat confirmed both the civil and military police are investigating the case and that, according to the police report, the officers say they fired because one of the motorcycle passengers appeared to be reaching for a weapon while fleeing a stop. The secretariat said the body camera footage is now being reviewed by DHPP and the Military Police's internal affairs office to clarify the facts, and that Costa and Macedo have been pulled from street duty and are on administrative assignment in the meantime. Neither officer had been formally charged as of the footage's release, and the investigation continues with no announced date for conclusion.

A 10-year-old girl was struck by a stray bullet on Saturday afternoon, August 22, while playing on a bounce house in Sapiranga, a city in the Sinos Valley region near Porto Alegre in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The case was first reported by G1 Rio Grande do Sul, which gathered details from local authorities.According to police, the child felt a burning sensation in her arm during play and was taken to Sapiranga Hospital for treatment. An X-ray showed the bullet had lodged in her right forearm. She underwent surgery to have the projectile removed.Witnesses at the scene told police they did not hear any gunshots, which complicates efforts to pinpoint the exact moment the girl was hit. As of the G1 report, civil police in Sapiranga had not identified where the shot came from or named any suspects.What is known so farA timeline of the case: the girl was playing on an inflatable bounce house when she felt the wound; she was taken to the municipal hospital; exams confirmed a bullet lodged in her forearm; the projectile was removed in surgery; and the origin of the shot remains under police investigation.Stray bullet cases in Brazil are notoriously hard to investigate, since there is no identifiable target and often no witness who can pinpoint the moment of the shot. Sapiranga's civil police are continuing to trace the bullet's trajectory and origin, but G1 did not report a timeline for the investigation's conclusion or a date for the next update.

Rio de Janeiro's Military Police launched an operation on Wednesday morning in communities linked to the Comando Vermelho (CV), one of Brazil's largest drug trafficking factions, in the state capital and in the Baixada Fluminense metropolitan region. Police said they had detected a plan by the faction to invade the Complexo de Israel, a cluster of favelas controlled by a rival group, the Terceiro Comando Puro (TCP), according to Brazil's state news agency Agência Brasil. At the same time, police began an open-ended occupation of the five communities that make up the complex, in the city's north side.According to CNN Brasil, intelligence indicated CV members had been holding meetings to plan an advance on Vigário Geral, Parada de Lucas, Cidade Alta, Cinco Bocas and Pica-Pau, the communities that form the Complexo de Israel and are controlled by the TCP. To try to head off that movement, police operated in the communities of Quitungo, Guaporé, Furquim, Dique and Ficap, in the city's north zone, and in Parque das Missões, in the city of Duque de Caxias, areas police describe as under CV influence. In total, 200 officers took part, backed by six armored vehicles, 40 patrol cars and aircraft from the police's air unit.Timeline of the crackdownThe sequence of actions began on Tuesday, when the Civil and Military Police carried out arrest warrants against alleged TCP members in the Complexo de Israel, the result of an investigation by the 38th Police Precinct in the Brás de Pina neighborhood. Eight people were arrested, among them Luana Rosa de Araújo, who police describe as the right hand of Álvaro Malaquias Santos Rosa, known as Peixão and identified by authorities as one of the TCP's main leaders in the area. Officers found a property allegedly used as a fortified bunker, with reinforced firing slots, and seized cellphones and other electronic devices that will undergo forensic analysis.As part of the same effort, officers went to the Buraco do Boi community in Nova Iguaçu to check intelligence reports. Three people were arrested there, and a man identified by police as the local drug trafficking manager died after allegedly attacking officers. Two rifles, drugs and vehicles reported as stolen were seized. None of those arrested in either operation has had a judicial outcome made public, and their individual responsibility remains under investigation, as Brazilian law presumes innocence until conviction.On Wednesday, the police began the extended occupation of the Complexo de Israel itself. More than 220 officers from special operations units, including the Bope special police battalion, the riot squad known as Choque, a K9 unit and the 1st Area Policing Command, began patrolling the five communities around the clock, with shift changes carried out on site. "We are doing preventive, visible policing alongside our intelligence sector. We conduct sweeps with the K9 battalion, Bope and Choque," Major Maicon Pereira, the force's spokesman, told Agência Brasil.Police said major expressways, including the Linha Vermelha and Linha Amarela highways and Avenida Brasil, would be shut immediately in the event of armed confrontation during the occupation. Authorities also describe Peixão as using a religious front to impose violent territorial control over the communities, including alleged persecution of residents of other faiths, according to the characterization given by police. The force gave no timeline for when the occupation might end, nor a date for completing forensic analysis of the seized devices, steps expected to shape the next stage of the investigation into both factions.

Brazil's National Council for Human Rights (CNDH), which answers to the Ministry of Human Rights, sent an official letter to Rio de Janeiro's state Public Security Secretariat demanding a thorough investigation into the beating death of cyclist Claudio Rafael Landeiro, 37, who was killed on August 11 in Copacabana, in the city's South Zone. The council requested detailed information about the investigation and asked state authorities to take action, according to the Painel column in Folha de S.Paulo.The case drew national attention after security camera footage showed the sequence of attacks. Claudio had stopped with a bicycle, which belonged to his sister, in front of a store at the corner of Barata Ribeiro and Belford Roxo streets. According to police, people in the area suspected the bike was stolen and called a street security guard. Shortly after, two men dressed as delivery workers arrived by bike and began talking to the victim; a third man then appeared carrying a stick and began the attack, which included more than 30 blows plus punches and kicks, according to a reconstruction by CNN Brasil based on the footage.Timeline of the caseAugust 11: Claudio is beaten on a public street in Copacabana and taken by firefighters to Miguel Couto Municipal Hospital, where he dies of his injuries.August 19 and 20: two suspects are arrested by the 12th Police Precinct (Copacabana), which is leading the investigation.August 21: a third suspect, identified as Felipe Eduardo dos Santos Silva, turns himself in to police in the Tijuca neighborhood and is placed under temporary arrest.August 24: newspaper O Globo reports that the private street security service operating in the Copacabana area will also be investigated.August 26: the CNDH formally requests a rigorous investigation from Rio's Public Security Secretariat.According to Claudio's family, the theft suspicion that triggered the initial confrontation was false, since the bicycle belonged to his sister. Relatives say he died of a skull fracture and internal bleeding caused by the blows. Police have identified four suspects in total; three have been arrested, two caught in the act and one after turning himself in, while the fourth remains at large. None of the men under investigation has been formally charged by prosecutors so far, and all remain presumed innocent while the 12th Precinct's inquiry continues. In Brazil, this kind of vigilante beating is legally described as 'linchamento', a mob attack often triggered by mistaken accusations of theft, a phenomenon rights groups say has become more frequent on Rio's streets.The case is also being monitored by the Human Rights Commission of the Rio de Janeiro bar association (OAB-RJ), according to O Globo. Rio's Public Security Secretariat had not publicly responded to the CNDH's request as of this report. The next step is the conclusion of the 12th Precinct's inquiry, which is expected to include locating the fourth identified suspect and examining how the street security service involved in the episode operates, before the case can be referred to prosecutors for a possible formal charge.

São Paulo's Civil Police sent the Federal Police in Brasília, on Wednesday, documents from Operation Wi-Fi, a raid carried out in June against the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB), a nonprofit tied to the production company behind a biographical film about former President Jair Bolsonaro. The transfer follows an order by Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), who approved a Federal Police request to access the material, according to G1.The ICB is owned by Karina Ferreira da Gama, who is also a partner in Go Up Entertainment, the production company behind Dark Horse, a film about Bolsonaro's political trajectory. São Paulo's Civil Police is investigating suspected fraud in a public Wi-Fi contract with the São Paulo city government worth 108 million reais (about 19 million dollars) a year. None of those involved has been formally charged; the case remains at the investigative stage, and Brazilian law presumes their innocence until any conviction.How the case reached the Supreme CourtThe federal inquiry opened after Dino asked Brazil's federal comptroller general (CGU) to examine congressional earmarks, known in Brazil as 'emendas parlamentares,' a mechanism that lets lawmakers direct federal budget funds to specific projects. The earmarks in question, from lawmakers Mário Frias, Marcos Pollon and Bia Kicis, were funneled to the ICB and to another nonprofit, the Academia Nacional de Cultura (ANC), both allegedly coordinated by the same group led by Gama. Investigators want to determine whether public earmark money helped finance the Bolsonaro film.Federal Police told the Supreme Court the institute sits at the center of the earmark investigation and argued that material already seized by state police from the NGO's offices, from Gama and from other affiliated companies could deepen and speed up the federal probe. Dino found the request justified and consistent with the court's standards for sharing evidence between police forces.What was handed overAccording to G1, São Paulo investigators sent the complete state-level case file, including documents, witness statements and investigative reports, along with raw evidence such as data already extracted from seized phones. Some devices had not yet been processed by the state forensic institute, either because they were still in a backlog or because São Paulo's systems could not break their encryption. In those cases, the physical devices themselves were sent to the Federal Police; if federal experts manage to access the data, it will later be shared back with São Paulo authorities.With the material, the Federal Police plans to review computers, phones, accounting records, invoices, payment receipts and financial statements relevant to the inquiry, and to map out Gama's business relationships and any campaign donations tied to those under investigation. The film's financing has already drawn political attention: Governor Tarcísio de Freitas of São Paulo told Folha de S.Paulo on Wednesday he considers the matter 'settled,' referring to an episode in which Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (Jair Bolsonaro's son) asked banker Daniel Vorcaro for funds to help produce Dark Horse, adding that his view holds 'as long as nothing new comes up.'No date has been set for the Federal Police to conclude its review under Supreme Court oversight. The next step depends on whether investigators can extract data from the pending devices and finish analyzing the material already transferred from São Paulo.

Public prosecutors in the Brazilian state of Roraima have formally charged evangelical pastors Wenderson Lima de Souza, 32, and Arielly Kamila Moraes de Souza, 24, with sex crimes against at least six teenage girls in the state capital, Boa Vista. The complaint was filed on August 21 by the specialized prosecutor's office for crimes against sexual dignity and against children and adolescents, and its contents were first reported by G1 on Wednesday (26). The couple has been on the run since July, when a court ordered their pre-trial detention.According to the complaint, the victims identified by the state's child protection police unit (DPCA) are between 12 and 17 years old. Prosecutors say the couple followed a pattern: Wenderson made a cordial, "playful" first approach, while Arielly invited the girls and offered them attention. The two then isolated the victims, distorted Bible passages to present the abuse as having a spiritual purpose and exploited the teenagers' reverence for pastoral authority. The police report also says the suspects offered money, including instant Pix transfers, and other favors in exchange for silence.Wenderson was charged with six crimes: estupro de vulnerável (rape of a vulnerable person, a Brazilian statute that covers minors and people unable to consent), sexual harassment (importunação sexual), facilitating the sexual exploitation of a teenager or vulnerable person, unauthorized recording of sexual intimacy, procedural fraud and use of false identity information. Arielly was charged with rape of a vulnerable person, sexual harassment and procedural fraud. The prosecutor's office asked for both to be convicted and to pay moral damages to the victims: R$ 560,000 from Wenderson and R$ 195,000 from Arielly.Timeline of the caseAugust 2021: the congregation led by the couple registers its founding act; the church was formally established in 2022 in the Cinturão Verde neighborhood, in western Boa Vista, with Wenderson as president and Arielly as vice president.April 2026: the legal guardian of a 14-year-old girl files a police report; five more victims come forward afterward.April 27: according to one victim's testimony, the couple leaves Boa Vista taking money from the church's tithes and offerings.July 16: the Civil Police conclude the investigation and formally indict the pair, as reported by CNN Brasil.July: a court orders the couple's pre-trial detention.August 21: prosecutors file the formal charges in court.During the investigation, police identified 11 possible victims, but five of them chose not to give statements, according to CNN Brasil. A 20-year-old woman was also indicted, suspected of destroying evidence on Wenderson's phone, on counts of procedural fraud and corruption of minors. Detective Kamilla Basto, who led the inquiry, called it a "challenging case" because of the "high degree of dissimulation by the suspects, who used precisely the victims' trust as an instrument of domination and silencing". In earlier reporting, police said the couple had fled to the neighboring state of Amazonas after the first complaints.G1 contacted the couple's defense but had received no reply by the latest update of its story; CNN Brasil also said it was seeking their lawyers. Because the charges have not yet been reviewed by a judge, Wenderson and Arielly are formally charged but not yet defendants at trial, and remain presumed innocent under Brazilian law.The next procedural step is the court's review of the complaint. If a judge accepts the charges, the couple will formally become defendants and criminal proceedings will begin, with hearings and the evidence-taking phase. No date has been set for that decision. The arrest warrants remain active and the two are still at large.

A private forensic audit commissioned by GoUp Entertainment, the production company behind Dark Horse, a biographical film about former president Jair Bolsonaro, failed to trace the origin of funds transferred by the US-based investment vehicle Havengate Development to finance the movie. The finding was reported by the newspaper O Globo and relayed by Poder360 on Wednesday. According to reporter Eduardo Gonçalves, tracing that money trail is considered essential by Brazil's Federal Police as it investigates whether the film was used to divert funds.The expert responsible for the assessment, Anisio Castelo Branco, president of the Instituto de Perícia Investigativa, told O Globo that he only reviewed funds actually spent by GoUp and had no authorization to audit the Havengate fund itself. 'I don't know how much was sent from Brazil to the US, or even if it was sent, because I'm not investigating the fund. I don't speak for the fund, I don't belong to Havengate,' he said.'That information is outside our scope. We don't work with the Havengate fund, we have no contact with it. As for how the fund is capitalized, I don't know how much capital it has, whether it held only money from the film or R$ 100 million or R$ 1 billion. That's confidential information about the fund,' the expert told the newspaper.The controversy around the film began in May, when the outlet Intercept Brasil published messages exchanged between presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator for the PL party, and Daniel Vorcaro, then the owner of Banco Master, pointing to an agreement worth roughly R$ 134 million (about $25 million) to finance the production. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the payments allegedly moved through a Vorcaro-linked company called Entre Investimentos e Participações into Havengate, a fund based in Texas and controlled by Paulo Calixto, a lawyer for Eduardo Bolsonaro, a federal deputy who currently lives in the United States. Federal Police documents indicate roughly R$ 61 million flowed through the fund toward the film, a figure Flávio eventually acknowledged receiving from Vorcaro after initially denying any financing from Banco Master.Scrutiny over Eduardo Bolsonaro's expensesFederal Police are examining whether part of the money channeled through Havengate covered personal expenses for Eduardo Bolsonaro during his time in the US. Eduardo denies receiving any money from Vorcaro through the investment fund, and Flávio maintains the funds were used entirely on the film. In May, when pressed by reporters, Flávio said he had asked both the production company and the fund to organize 'a transparent accounting, to everyone, of the expenses made in connection with this investment in the film, within 30 days.'Despite that pledge, Folha reports that Flávio outsourced the disclosure to GoUp and did not follow through on the specific transparency commitment regarding the American fund. On August 20, the candidate said the Dark Horse case was a 'closed chapter' and that he no longer had any obligation to discuss the film's financing, since the accounting report commissioned by the producer had already leaked to the press. That report, however, is part of a separate inquiry into suspected misuse of congressional earmarks in the production and, according to O Globo, contains no information about how the money moved abroad, leaving the Federal Police's central question about the source of the funds unanswered.

Flávio Bolsonaro, the presidential candidate for the PL party, has outsourced the disclosure of financial records for the film Dark Horse, a biopic about his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, to the movie's production company, Go Up Entertainment, without fulfilling his promise of transparency about a transfer made through an American investment fund, Havengate, that helped finance the project. The report comes from Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.The controversy began in May, when the news outlet The Intercept published messages exchanged between Flávio and Daniel Vorcaro, then the owner of Banco Master, in which the senator asked for money to fund the production. According to that report, the total amount negotiated reached 134 million reais (about $25 million), of which Vorcaro actually paid 61 million reais. The funds reportedly moved through a Vorcaro-linked company, Entre Investimentos e Participações, to Havengate, a fund based in Texas and controlled by Paulo Calixto, a lawyer for Eduardo Bolsonaro, one of Flávio's brothers. The episode prompted Brazil's Federal Police to open an investigation into whether part of the film's money covered Eduardo Bolsonaro's expenses while he lived in the United States.On May 19, surrounded by PL lawmakers, Flávio told reporters he had asked the production company and the fund to organize, within 30 days, a transparent accounting of the investment's expenses. Days earlier he had said he could release the financing contract if his lawyers allowed it, claiming a confidentiality clause had kept him, back in March, from admitting he knew Vorcaro. By late June, when contacted by Folha, his campaign said Go Up had already disclosed its accounts, but the statement released by the producer offered no details on how the money reached the American fund.Private expert says he never traced the US fund's moneyAccording to a report by newspaper O Globo, republished by news site Poder360, the private forensic expert hired by Go Up to review the film's finances, Anisio Castelo Branco, said he only examined the funds actually spent by the producer and was not authorized to audit Havengate. "I don't know how much was sent from Brazil to the US, or even if it was sent, because I'm not investigating the fund, I don't speak for the fund, I'm not part of Havengate," he told the newspaper, adding that information about the fund's capital is confidential and fell outside the scope of his work.Federal Police consider that tracing effort essential to determining whether the film was used to divert funds, according to reporter Eduardo Gonçalves of O Globo. The expert's report was submitted as part of a separate legal case investigating alleged misuse of congressional earmarks in the film, but it contains no information about the money's path abroad, the newspaper said. Eduardo Bolsonaro denies receiving money from Vorcaro through the fund, and Flávio maintains all the money was used "entirely" for the film's production.On August 20, Flávio described the Dark Horse case as a "closed chapter" and said he no longer had any obligation to discuss the financing, arguing that the accounting commissioned by the producer had already leaked to the press. Folha notes that, despite that statement, his original commitment to transparency about the American fund's transfer to the film remains unfulfilled.

A video recorded by residents shows military police officers smashing concrete benches and tables with sledgehammers and setting part of them on fire at Praça José Lamacchia, a square in the Bom Retiro neighborhood of Santos, on the coast of São Paulo state. According to G1, the incident took place during an operation on Monday, August 24, which the Military Police described as an effort to dismantle barricades and support points used by drug trafficking in the area.Footage recorded by witnesses shows officers hammering the concrete structures and setting fire to part of the square's furniture. The images sparked outrage among residents, who criticized the action on social media after the footage circulated. In a statement to G1, the Military Police said the square was under the control of a criminal organization and had become unsafe and unsanitary for community use, arguing that the coverings, benches and tables made it harder for security forces to access the area and put residents at risk.The police force said the removal was carried out strictly for public safety purposes and that the material was cleared with support from Terra Santos, the city's urban cleaning contractor. According to the police, the square will now have continuous policing and be returned to the population's use. The occupation of these spaces by drug trafficking deprives citizens of their right to community life and leisure, and poses a permanent risk to the lives of residents nearby, the force said in the statement cited by G1.The Santos city government told G1 that the regional administration for the Zona Noroeste district will assess the site to determine what repairs are needed. City officials also said the Municipal Civil Guard was not called to the scene and that there was no prior notice about the demolition of the structures; Terra Santos, the city said, was contacted directly by the police only to remove the debris. G1 asked the police whether formal authorization existed for removing the structures but had not received a response as of its last update.Seizures and a history of violence at the squareDuring the operation, officers seized R$ 180.25 in cash, two precision scales, a cell phone, two packages of tubes used to store drugs, three notebooks and portions of cocaine, marijuana and crack cocaine, police said. Officers also identified an illegal water tap in the area and took the person responsible to the police station.Praça José Lamacchia has been the site of several deadly armed confrontations over the years. In February 2024, Rota police officer Samuel Wesley Cosmo was shot in the face and killed while patrolling an alley near the square alone, an episode that triggered the second phase of Operação Verão, a security crackdown in the Baixada Santista region. The following month, Edneia Fernandes Silva, 31, a mother of six, died after being hit by a stray bullet while sitting and talking on a bench in the square. In April of the same year, police killed Carlos Henrique Barbosa Garcia, 26, who officers said had threatened them at the same location.

A new survey by Nexus Pesquisa e Inteligência de Dados, a Brazilian data intelligence firm, shows that scammers in the country are moving away from traditional password theft toward 'cloning' people using artificial intelligence tools. The research, which analyzed social media mentions of digital security issues between January and July 2026, was released this week, and G1 reviewed several of the victim reports it draws on.According to the study, criminals already use AI to reproduce a real person's voice or appearance from photos, videos and other content found online. With that material, they build fake identities or impersonate someone the victim knows, making the approach far more convincing than older, more generic scam tactics.Nexus tracked 39,700 social media mentions of digital security problems faced by consumers during the period. Of those, 2,800 mentions, or 7.3%, dealt specifically with the manipulation of personal data. The survey also logged 9,100 mentions of Pix, Brazil's instant payment system, tied to fraud concerns. Pix has become a favorite target for scammers since its adoption became near-universal among Brazilian bank customers.'The study also reveals a contrast: while criminals already use AI tools to impersonate other people in increasingly convincing ways, Brazilians are still trying to understand what a deepfake is and how these new types of scams work,' said Marcelo Tokarski, Nexus's CEO, in comments to G1. A deepfake uses artificial intelligence to create or alter images, videos and audio realistically, for instance placing one person's face on another's body or simulating someone saying something they never said.Scams mapped by the studyAmong the fraud schemes identified is 'SIM swapping,' in which criminals pose as the victim to request a new SIM card from a mobile carrier, claiming the original was stolen or damaged. Once the swap goes through, the victim's chip stops working and the phone number begins receiving calls and messages on a device controlled by the scammers, who can then intercept SMS codes and attempt to reset passwords for accounts on apps like Instagram and WhatsApp. Another scheme involves fake profiles built with stolen personal data to advertise nonexistent concert tickets, targeting social media users who post that they are looking for tickets to a show.Tokarski said 'identifying this gap between the advance of technology and society's familiarity with the subject is the first step to protecting the digital environment.' The study does not detail, so far, how much money victims of AI cloning scams have actually lost, but it echoes warnings already raised about deepfakes in other contexts, including election-related propaganda.

A territorial dispute between rival drug trafficking factions in Duque de Caxias, a city in Rio de Janeiro's Baixada Fluminense metropolitan region, has left more than ten people dead since early August, according to reporting by Brazilian outlet g1. The fighting pits traffickers based in the Pantanal favela against a rival faction controlling the nearby Corte Oito community, and has included drone-dropped grenades and killings attributed to what is known locally as the tribunal do trafico, an informal execution carried out by gang members against suspected informants.The first death in the current wave was recorded on August 8 in Pantanal, a community controlled by the Terceiro Comando Puro faction. Since then, 11 men have been killed, most of them believed by investigators to have been linked to drug trafficking. According to g1, seven attacks by the rival Comando Vermelho faction against Pantanal resulted in ten deaths of suspected rival gang members. An eleventh victim is believed to have been killed by his own allies, accused of passing information to the enemy side.On August 17, a resident was shot in the head while walking home from church with his son, becoming a bystander casualty of the conflict. Civilians in the area had already been hit before: in July, an elderly woman was shot in the back on Rua Venancio Adres, in the Vila Leopoldina area near the disputed territory.Drone attacks and retaliationOn Sunday, August 23, grenades were dropped by drone on the Corte Oito community, which is controlled by Jonatha Hyrval Cassiano da Silva, known as Bochecha Rosa. Witnesses told g1 the attack was retaliation for deaths on the rival side. Jonatha, currently a fugitive, was previously filmed by Globo's Fantastico program carrying an anti-drone bazooka in the Complexo da Penha favela in Rio's North Zone, considered a headquarters for the Comando Vermelho faction. He faces investigations for robbery, homicide, and involvement with organized crime and drug trafficking.The conflict has also disrupted public services in the area. According to the Duque de Caxias city government, four public schools had activities affected by the clashes or police operations: one daycare center had to activate its security protocol on three separate days, and at least two schools suspended activities on two days each. The Pantanal health clinic closed its doors on August 18 and suspended outreach activities on three days over a one-week span.Contacted by g1, Rio's Military Police said its 15th Battalion, responsible for Duque de Caxias, maintains ongoing patrols on foot, in vehicles and on motorcycles, adjusted according to criminal activity in the area. The Civil Police said the homicides are being investigated by the Baixada Fluminense Homicide Division, and that the region's narcotics unit carries out daily intelligence work and arrests aimed at curbing the factions' activity.

The death of child welfare officer Maryna Colucci de Jesus, 34, has shaken the town of Jacuí, in southern Minas Gerais state. A trans woman, she was known locally for her work with residents and her readiness to help anyone who sought her out, according to Brazilian outlet G1. Maryna went missing the previous Friday, after leaving home around 1 p.m. Her body was found buried in a rural area of the municipality on Tuesday, roughly a meter and a half underground, in a hard-to-reach spot near a rural property.According to the Civil Police, Maryna was the victim of a femicide, the killing of a woman because of her gender. The main suspect is José Sérgio de Oliveira, a 42-year-old sergeant with the Military Police, who confessed to the crime and led investigators to the burial site. Marcos Pimenta, chief of the 18th Civil Police Department, said that over the weekend, information gathered informally from the community pointed to the possibility that Maryna had been in a relationship with the officer. He said the suspect took the team to the location where he described "a disagreement" followed by "a gunshot.""He initially took us to a spot where he says there was a disagreement and a gunshot. Afterward, frightened, he took the body and dumped it, digging a hole in the rural area near a family property," Pimenta told G1.Oliveira was arrested in the act for concealing a body, and the Civil Police also requested his pretrial detention for involvement in the femicide. The delegate said the crime occurred while the sergeant was off duty, not acting in his police role, meaning he will be prosecuted "as an ordinary citizen." Brazil's Military Police said it opened an administrative process to investigate the case and assess whether Oliveira will remain in the force.Who Maryna wasRelatives describe Maryna as calm and devoted to her family. Her sister, Dalila Cristina de Jesus, told G1 that Maryna was known throughout town for her willingness to help, "in hospitals, at city hall, with the highest authorities here," and that no one would speak ill of her. Their mother, Regina Silva de Jesus, said Maryna lived with her parents, kept a close routine with the family and neither drank nor smoked. Their father, Benedito de Jesus, recalled that on the day she disappeared he was home with Maryna when she received a message on her phone and left to meet someone, saying she was going to talk with a friend.The search for the body involved both Civil and Military Police officers and began Tuesday morning, ending that afternoon when the body was located in a hard-to-reach area along the road connecting Jacuí to Fortaleza de Minas. Delegate Marcos Pimenta said investigators are now working to resolve every remaining question about the circumstances of the killing.

Brazil's Federal Prosecutor's Office (MPF) has charged 12 people accused of belonging to a criminal organization led by a family from Governador Valadares, a city in Minas Gerais state known as a longtime hub of Brazilian emigration to the United States, that specialized in smuggling Brazilians into the country. Investigators found that between 2017 and 2023 the group arranged the crossing of at least 673 people, making it one of the largest migrant smuggling schemes ever recorded in Brazil. The charges were filed in court last week, and the 12 defendants remain free while awaiting trial.According to the MPF, the group charged between R$ 50,000 and R$ 100,000 per person for the clandestine journey and moved more than R$ 40 million in total. The defendants face charges of transnational criminal organization, migrant smuggling, use of false documents and money laundering.Prosecutors say two brothers ran the scheme, in charge of recruiting victims and escorting them to the Mexico-US border. Their father also took part, while other relatives laundered the proceeds: five of the 12 defendants belong to the same family. Investigators mapped more than 300 bank transfers made directly by victims to the brothers, with the money moving through accounts opened with false documents or in the names of third parties.Forced thank-you videos and coerced debtsAccording to the MPF, migrants were forced to record video testimonials thanking and praising the service, material later used to convince new victims. On top of the fee, the group demanded that migrants hand over vehicles, sign promissory notes and debt confession statements, and grant powers of attorney allowing properties to be sold in favor of scheme operators. Adults were also encouraged to cross the border with children to reduce the risk of deportation once in the United States. At least 223 of the migrants were minors, according to Operation Siblings, the Federal Police investigation that uncovered the case.Operation Siblings served 14 search and seizure warrants, 11 of them in Governador Valadares, two in Espírito Santo state and one in the Federal District, according to CNN Brasil. Courts also ordered 11 precautionary measures, including arrests and passport seizures, as well as the freezing of assets that could reach R$ 43 million. Two people were arrested in flagrante during the raids, one for illegal possession of ammunition and another for resisting, and police seized documents, cash, jewelry and vehicles.According to the Federal Police, the organization had specialized cells for recruiting migrants, buying plane tickets, booking hotels, forging public documents and opening bank accounts in the names of third parties. Police estimate the group brokered the journey of 669 migrants to the United States via Mexico and that more than 1,500 people, including minors, fell victim to the scheme. The force called it the largest migrant smuggling operation it has carried out in Governador Valadares by number of victims, and combined sentences for the crimes under investigation could exceed 33 years in prison.

Civil Police in the state of Ceará arrested a 21 year old man in São Paulo on Wednesday morning, suspected of belonging to the Red Command (Comando Vermelho) criminal faction and of taking part in a scheme to threaten and extort candidates in the town of Forquilha, in Ceará's interior, according to G1. Police did not release the suspect's identity and blurred images of the arrest.Investigators say the man used social media profiles to carry out the crimes against candidates in Forquilha, a town about 213 kilometers from the state capital Fortaleza. The arrest was carried out by Ceará's Civil Police with support from São Paulo's Civil Police.The case marks the third arrest of a Red Command member in less than a week over demands for money to allow election campaigning in Forquilha. On August 20, police had already arrested Gean Barboza Fontenele, 28, and Francisco Werlysson Feijão Silva, 19, accused of demanding 200,000 reais (roughly 37,000 US dollars) from candidates for state legislature seats in exchange for letting them campaign in the town.How investigators found the suspectsAccording to G1, a phone call used to threaten people connected to Forquilha's mayor, Edinardo Rodrigues Filho, of the PSB party, along with an email linked to that phone number, helped police identify the pair arrested in August. Investigators also allege the two suspects were taking orders from a woman identified as one of the faction's leaders, who is believed to be a fugitive in Rio de Janeiro.Following Wednesday's arrest, the suspect was taken to a police station and formally charged in the act with belonging to a criminal organization, the same charge applied to the first two suspects arrested in the case. Investigations into the Red Command's involvement in Forquilha's election race continue.

A police operation against members of a criminal organization carried out 48 court-ordered warrants on Wednesday across four Brazilian states: Mato Grosso, Paraná, Goiás and São Paulo, on suspicion of drug trafficking and money laundering. According to the investigation, reported by G1 Mato Grosso, the group and companies linked to it moved more than 12 million reais (roughly 2.2 million dollars) between 2024 and 2025.The operation, named Operação Dissolução Forçada ("Operation Forced Dissolution"), included 18 search and seizure warrants, the freezing of 24 bank accounts that could total up to 12 million reais, and the suspension of activities at six companies suspected of serving as fronts to move illicit funds.In Mato Grosso, warrants were carried out in the cities of Sinop, Cuiabá, Várzea Grande, Rondonópolis and Matupá. The operation also reached Loanda, in the state of Paraná, Goiânia, the capital of Goiás, and the city of São Paulo.How the scheme allegedly workedInvestigators suspect that funds obtained through criminal activity were funneled through individuals and companies in order to hide their illegal origin and give the money a legal appearance, a practice known as money laundering. Freezing the bank accounts and halting the six companies' operations aim to stop the money from continuing to circulate and to disrupt the criminal group's financial network.Documents and materials seized during the operation will be analyzed by the Civil Police. The findings and any further seizures will be forwarded to the Sinop unit of the Narcotics and Organized Crime Division (Draco), which will continue the investigation to determine each suspect's degree of involvement in the scheme.

A military court in Rio Grande do Sul state has convicted four military police officers of torturing soccer fan Rai Duarte, who was beaten in a bathroom at Passo D'Areia Stadium after a match in May 2022, according to Brazilian outlet G1. The sentences range from three to eight years in prison.The incident took place on May 1, 2022, following a match between Brasil de Pelotas and São José in Brazil's third-tier national championship, held in Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul. According to G1, officers from the state's 11th Military Police Battalion entered the stadium to break up a fight among fans after the game. Duarte, who prosecutors say had not taken part in the altercation, was pulled off a bus carrying Brasil de Pelotas supporters and handcuffed by three officers for reasons that were never clarified. He was taken, along with other fans, to a stadium bathroom, where he was beaten.Those convicted are officers Leandro Duarte Lemes, João Carlos Krauze and Kelli Lisiane Abreu Marques, along with Lieutenant Dilnei Leon, who commanded the police team that day. Thirteen other officers who faced trial in the case were acquitted by the military court. Duarte's lawyer told G1 he intends to appeal those acquittals.Duarte fell into a coma after the beating, spent 116 days hospitalized and underwent 14 surgeries. According to prosecutors, cited by G1, he suffered severe injuries including internal abdominal hemorrhaging, a ruptured artery and hemorrhagic shock. In an interview with Brazilian broadcaster RBS TV in July 2022, while still hospitalized, Duarte described the attack:"They beat me, threw me on the ground and then took me to the hospital," said Duarte, who stated he was "cowardly beaten by 5 or 6 police officers."Defense denies wrongdoing, plans appealAttorney Fábio César Silveira, who represents Leon and Krauze, told G1 that "the ruling contradicts the evidence in the case file" and said he plans to appeal. Attorney Ana Carolina Stein, who represents Lemes, made a similar statement, saying "the decision does not reflect the body of evidence in the case." The military court did not order the four convicted officers jailed; they will appeal while remaining free.According to prosecutors, cited by G1, a total of 12 fans were beaten for more than 40 minutes that night while handcuffed and offering no resistance. Prosecutors also alleged the officers said they were used to beating Brasil de Pelotas fans whenever the team visited Porto Alegre, and that the attackers threatened to plant drugs on the fans to incriminate them, as well as threatening retaliation if the beatings were reported. Brasil de Pelotas is a soccer club based in the southern city of Pelotas, roughly 250 kilometers from Porto Alegre.

Businessman João Carlos Mansur, former chairman of the board of asset manager Reag Investimentos, has submitted a plea bargain proposal to Brazil's Attorney General's Office (PGR) focused on information about Daniel Vorcaro, the former controlling shareholder of Banco Master. The news was reported Wednesday by columnist Natália Portinari of UOL Notícias.According to UOL's reporting, reproduced by the outlet Times Brasil, the proposal is in its final adjustment phase before formal signing and includes 17 attachments detailing suspected financial crimes. As part of the deal, Mansur is expected to pay roughly 40 million reais (about $7.7 million) in fines, a sum said to match what he received from Reag during his time at the company. The document still needs to be formally signed and submitted to Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) for possible approval.The centerpiece of the collaboration is Vorcaro. Per UOL's reporting, Mansur described negotiations he held directly with the banker and said those dealings made clear that Vorcaro was aware of the alleged diversion of funds from Banco Master.Outlet BNews, citing Revista Oeste, had reported two days earlier that Mansur's defense team and the PGR had already reached an understanding on most terms of a potential deal. That report said Mansur is under investigation on two fronts: the Banco Master case and Operation Carbono Oculto ("Hidden Carbon"), launched in August 2025 to probe suspected fraud, tax evasion and money laundering in the fuel sector. Talks toward a plea agreement began in late 2025, initially with a proposal to federal prosecutors in São Paulo that did not move forward.Mansur and Vorcaro had business ties and were at one point represented by the same lawyer, José Luís Oliveira Lima, known as Juca. In March, according to BNews, investigators had considered the possibility that the two men could offer complementary accounts under separate collaboration agreements.The Banco Master caseVorcaro was arrested in November 2025 at an airport as he attempted to leave Brazil on a private jet bound for Malta, the same day the Federal Police launched Operation Compliance Zero and the Central Bank ordered the extrajudicial liquidation of the bank. The case is regarded as one of the largest banking fraud schemes ever uncovered in Brazil, with suspected diverted funds estimated in the billions of reais. Banco Master, a private lender, had offered high-yield investment products despite lacking the assets to back them, a scheme described by investigators as functioning like a pyramid.

At least two buses were seized by criminals and used as barricades in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday morning, August 26, according to G1. The vehicles were pulled across Clarimundo de Melo and Ernani Cardoso streets in the Cascadura neighborhood, according to the bus operators association Rio Onibus.The blockades happened during a joint operation by Rio's Military Police in the Campinho and Fuba communities, involving units from the 9th Battalion (Rocha Miranda) and the 18th Battalion (Jacarepagua). Police said the operation targeted organized crime in the area.According to police, armed criminals clashed with officers and fled into a wooded area, where units are now conducting a search operation to locate and arrest the suspects. A pistol was seized during the action. Police also said the criminals hijacked the buses while fleeing and pulled them across the roads to hinder officers movement, a tactic used in Rio to slow security forces during raids on communities controlled by armed groups.Police presence in the area was reinforced, and officers are working to clear the roads and restore traffic flow. As of the latest update from G1, no injuries had been reported.Bus routes affectedRio Onibus said 19 routes passing through the area had altered itineraries, including lines 353 (Gardenia Azul-Gentileza Terminal), 624 (Mariopolis-Praca da Bandeira), 745 (Bangu-Cascadura) and 979 (Madureira-Fundao). The operator did not specify when service on those routes would return to normal.

Brazil's Council of the Federal Justice (CJF), the body that coordinates the country's federal court system, has released a new batch of back-payments owed by the INSS, Brazil's national social security institute, to retirees, pensioners and other beneficiaries who won lawsuits against the agency, according to a report published Wednesday by Folha de S.Paulo. The batch covers cases that were filed for payment in July 2026.The report says 2.745 billion reais (roughly $500 million) was released specifically to cover overdue amounts tied to social security and welfare rulings, including pension recalculations, sick-pay benefits and survivor pensions. The sum covers 125,963 court cases and reaches 173,283 beneficiaries. Including cases from other areas of law processed in the same batch, the total released by the courts reaches 3.3 billion reais, Folha reported.How the payments workEach federal court handles the release of funds on its own schedule. During processing, the court opens an account at either Caixa Econômica Federal or Banco do Brasil, Brazil's two largest state-controlled banks, to hold the funds before payout. Once processing is complete, beneficiaries can check the responsible court's website to find out which bank is holding their payment.Back-payments are only released once a case is fully resolved and the court issues a formal payment order. That happens after what Brazilian law calls 'trânsito em julgado,' the point at which a ruling becomes final and neither side can appeal further. In practice, only claimants who have already won their case with no further appeals pending are included in these release batches.To check the specifics of an individual claim, including the amount owed and the date funds become available, beneficiaries need to consult the website of the court that handled their case. Folha obtained the figures directly from the CJF.

The Regional Dentistry Council of the Federal District (CRO-DF), the professional body that licenses dentists in Brazil's capital region, voted unanimously to revoke the license of dentist Gustavo Chiovatto Najjar, who has been accused of rape by at least eight patients and already convicted in one case. The decision, made in early August, still needs to be confirmed by the Federal Dentistry Council to take final effect, according to G1.In its ruling, the council said Najjar's conduct violated duties of 'respect, dignity, good faith, loyalty, probity and protection of the person treated,' and undermined trust in the dentist-patient relationship. Given the 'exceptional severity of the recognized ethical violations,' the board considered revoking his license an appropriate and proportional measure.Conviction and other complaintsIn 2024, Najjar was convicted by Brasília's 3rd Criminal Court and sentenced to six years in prison, initially under a semi-open regime, for one of the rape cases. His defense said at the time it would appeal the sentence. According to Civil Police investigators, the victim met the dentist through social media and went to his office for a consultation related to a cosmetic procedure.The woman told police that during the appointment, Najjar began asking questions about her body before sexually assaulting her. Forensic exams by the Legal Medical Institute (IML) found injuries consistent with sexual abuse, and DNA testing matched genetic material from semen found in samples collected from the victim to Najjar. After the first complaint became public, seven other women came forward to the Civil Police with similar accounts.G1 said it sought comment from Najjar's defense regarding the license revocation but had not received a response by the time of its original report. The outlet said the space remains open for him to respond.

Brazilian federal tax auditor Francisco Eliezer Viana da Silva, suspected of receiving R$ 6.8 million in bribes from a scheme that defrauded imports through Fortaleza's airport, in northeastern Brazil, tried to get rid of his own cell phone by throwing it into the toilet's water tank when Federal Police agents arrived to arrest him on Tuesday (25). The information was given to news site g1 by a source close to the investigations.According to g1's reporting, agents had to break into the auditor's apartment after he failed to answer the door. Once inside, the team found that the phone had been thrown into the toilet tank. The device was recovered, but it is still unknown whether its files can be restored. The arrest was part of Operation Snooker 2, a joint action by the Receita Federal (Brazil's tax authority), the Federal Police and federal prosecutors that served 15 search and seizure warrants in the Ceará cities of Fortaleza, Caucaia and Eusébio, and in Salvador, Bahia. Two businessmen, Rodolfo Sergio Martins Maia and Hugo Andrade Mendonça Santos, were arrested in Bahia, and assets such as luxury cars and watches were seized.A tenured civil servant at the tax authority since 1994, Eliezer had held his post at Fortaleza's airport since December 2016 and earned more than R$ 30,000 a month. In June 2026, already under investigation, he received R$ 44,000 thanks to a year-end bonus. He worked at the airport customs inspection office and is identified by investigators as the head of a criminal organization active since at least 2020, suspected of irregularly interfering in customs clearance and leaking confidential foreign trade information in exchange for bribes.The schemeAccording to the investigation, the group was split into four branches (public, business, financial and support) and operated on two fronts. In one, an importer run by a businessman from Ceará brought in silver jewelry declared as costume jewelry made of common metal, with a far lower tax value, counting on Eliezer's help to obtain fraudulent expert reports. In the other, a couple of Chinese nationality who ran another importer underinvoiced electronics to pay less tax, also with the auditor's intercession; the bribes paid by this group are estimated at at least R$ 2.5 million.The tax authority identified more than R$ 27 million in transactions between companies linked to the scheme and the purchase of about R$ 31.8 million in cryptoassets with no compatibility with declared income. More than R$ 26 million has already been frozen in corporate and personal bank accounts, in addition to the seizure of imported vehicles and a luxury boat. According to local newspaper Diário do Nordeste, courts also ordered the freezing of up to R$ 40 million in corporate accounts.The suspects may face charges of criminal organization, corruption, money laundering and import fraud. Eliezer's lawyer, Marcelo Oliveira, told g1 he was surprised by the arrest order, since the auditor had already been the target of a search and seizure warrant and had been formally charged by federal prosecutors, with no new facts since then. He said the defense is taking "all necessary legal measures to reverse the arrest decree, beyond demonstrating his innocence in the criminal case". G1 could not reach the lawyers of the two arrested businessmen.

Brazilian citizen Gabriel Oliveira Araújo Vieira, 24, died in Cambodia in July 2025 amid suspicions he was a victim of a human trafficking network, and his body was only repatriated to Brazil nearly a year later, according to a report published by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo on Tuesday. The case is part of a newspaper series called 'Carga Humana' (Human Cargo) investigating Brazilians lured to work in the Southeast Asian country and then trapped in online scam operations.According to the report, Gabriel's body remained for about a year at the Evergreen funeral home, located behind a Buddhist temple in the capital Phnom Penh, before it was released to his family. His parents, teacher Leniêr Quirino, 54, and veterinarian Daniel de Araújo Vieira, 55, turned down the cheaper option of receiving only his ashes, common among families of foreigners who die in the country, because they needed certainty that the body was indeed their son's. The company that reportedly employed Gabriel told the family, in a message, that his death was caused by a microwave oven explosion, but provided no evidence to support that claim.Per Folha, Gabriel had technical training in information technology and accepted a job offer in Bangkok, Thailand, drawn by the promise of housing, meals and flights included. The report points to human trafficking as the leading theory for what happened to him afterward. Cambodia became, in 2025, the top destination for Brazilian trafficking victims registered under the country's Standard Operating Protocol for assisting victims of international human trafficking, according to Justice Ministry data cited by the newspaper.Daniela's caseGabriel's story is linked to that of Daniela Marys de Oliveira, an architect from Minas Gerais and a graduate of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), who remains imprisoned in Cambodia. According to a report by CNN Brasil, Daniela, then 35, had moved to the country in early 2025 to take a telemarketing job, but refused to continue when she discovered the position was actually part of an online scam operation. Her family says that, in retaliation, criminals planted drugs among her belongings to frame her, and later extorted the family, threatening to sell her into sexual exploitation if they did not pay a ransom.Daniela was tried by Cambodia's Court of Justice without an interpreter and sentenced, on November 12, 2025, to two years and six months in prison for drug possession and use, according to CNN Brasil. Her family had 30 days after the sentencing to appeal the evidence presented by prosecutors. Brazil's Foreign Ministry, Itamaraty, told the broadcaster that the Brazilian Embassy has been engaging with the Cambodian government and providing appropriate consular assistance to Daniela, in line with the Standard Operating Protocol for Assisting Brazilian Victims of International Human Trafficking.The two cases, covered by separate news outlets, illustrate a pattern Brazilian authorities have flagged: workers recruited with seemingly attractive job offers in Southeast Asia, followed by confiscation of documents, coercion into running digital scams, and in some cases violence or death when victims resist. For readers unfamiliar with the term, a 'Protocolo Operativo Padrão' is a formal Brazilian government procedure that coordinates consular and judicial support for trafficking victims abroad.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino has ordered that information gathered by the São Paulo state police on the production company behind the film Dark Horse be shared with the Federal Police, according to a report published by the Correio Braziliense newspaper on Tuesday, August 25. The decision opens a new investigative front within the federal agency, which is already probing the case under a separate inquiry.The film, a biography of former president Jair Bolsonaro, was financed by Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master who is currently in custody. In June, São Paulo's civil police carried out an operation against Karina Ferreira Gama, owner of Go Up Entertainment, the company that produced the film. The raids also targeted the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB), another company owned by Gama that holds R$ 108 million (roughly $22 million) in contracts with the São Paulo city government.According to the Correio Braziliense, the São Paulo operation focused on tracing parliamentary earmarks, known in Brazil as "emendas parlamentares" (funds individual lawmakers direct to specific projects), sent by federal deputy Mário Frias of the PL party to the production company. Investigators found Frias funneled R$ 2 million to Gama's group in 2024. The raids seized documents, phones and computers that could now feed the Federal Police's own investigation, which remains under seal at the Supreme Court.Two separate probesThe state and federal police are pursuing distinct lines of inquiry, the newspaper reported. The Federal Police is trying to determine whether money laundering occurred in the funds sent for the film and whether part of that money helped keep ousted federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro in the United States. Separately, the funds spent on the production and their ties to Banco Master are being investigated under a different inquiry overseen by Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça, which also examines the potential involvement of PL presidential pre-candidate and senator Flávio Bolsonaro.The investigation into the production company began after Dino, who oversees Supreme Court cases on the traceability and transparency of parliamentary earmarks, asked Brazil's federal comptroller general (CGU) to examine funds sent by deputies Mário Frias, Marcos Pollon of PL-MS and Bia Kicis of PL-DF to the ICB and to the Academia Nacional de Cultura. The Correio Braziliense reported that investigators have privately complained about delays by Mendonça in authorizing procedures requested in the inquiry under his watch.The case drew national attention in May when leaked conversations between Flávio Bolsonaro and Vorcaro showed the senator pressing the banker to pay the R$ 134 million he had promised toward producing Dark Horse, of which R$ 61 million was reportedly transferred, according to the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper. After the leak, Flávio said publicly he was "100% willing" to release the film's contract with Vorcaro, but as of the Folha's Tuesday report, the document had not been made public.

A 21-year-old man was temporarily arrested by Brazil's Federal Police on Tuesday, August 25, on suspicion of taking part in a scheme to defraud benefits from the National Social Security Institute (INSS), the government body that manages Brazil's public pension and welfare payments. According to G1, the suspect worked as an intern at an INSS office in the Itapuã neighborhood of Salvador, the capital of Bahia state, and is accused of belonging to a criminal organization that investigators say caused 3.5 million reais (roughly 650,000 US dollars) in losses.Federal Police said the group is suspected of inserting false data into INSS systems and defrauding 97 pension and welfare benefits identified so far. The investigation began about four months ago after police detected irregular activity in the system used by the Itapuã office. Among the tactics described by investigators, the group allegedly registered legal representatives on benefit accounts without the knowledge or authorization of the actual beneficiaries, giving those representatives the power to withdraw monthly payments and retroactive sums.Investigators also found cases of benefits that had been suspended being improperly reactivated, releasing retroactive payments, and fraud involving the "proof of life" process, a periodic check Brazil requires to confirm that a benefit recipient is still alive. As a result, the INSS system recorded some beneficiaries listed as over 100 years old still receiving payments. Police said the fact that fraudulent legal representatives were registered across different Brazilian states points to the group possibly operating in multiple states.Benefits allegedly faked from the startThe investigation also uncovered cases in which benefits appear to have been fraudulent from their creation: according to Federal Police, the personal data of people eligible for retirement was used to generate benefit payments before those individuals had even filed a formal request with the INSS. Police estimate that if the scheme had gone undetected, total losses could have reached 99 million reais.Besides the intern's arrest, an 18-year-old second suspect was targeted with a search and seizure warrant. In total, the operation carried out two search and seizure warrants and one temporary arrest in Salvador. Federal Police said those involved could face charges of aggravated fraud, criminal association and insertion of false data into a government information system. The operation was carried out jointly with the General Coordination of Intelligence of Brazil's Ministry of Social Security, and the investigation continues as authorities try to identify other members of the group and determine the full scope of the losses to public funds.

Federal police officer Gabriel Moraes Ferreira dos Santos was sentenced to 26 years and 7 months in prison for facilitating drug trafficking at Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, capital of the Amazonas state, and for leaking confidential information from Brazil's Federal Police (PF) to a criminal group. The ruling, handed down by a federal court, sets an initial closed prison regime and strips him of his police post, according to G1 Amazonas.According to the indictment filed by federal prosecutors (MPF), Santos used his access to restricted areas of the airport to place bags containing drugs in the domestic departure area. He is also accused of improperly accessing internal PF systems to obtain data on ongoing police investigations and passing that information to the criminal group.The federal court convicted him on charges of drug trafficking, criminal association for trafficking, money laundering, breach of professional confidentiality and improper use of restricted access. In addition to the prison term, he was ordered to pay 2,456 fine-days, a penalty calculated as a multiple of daily income under Brazilian law.Three other convictionsThe scheme, which moved drugs from Amazonas to other Brazilian states, also involved a logistics coordinator and two couriers, identified as Attilio Barbosa de Castro Neto and Pedro Felipe Melo de Souza. Prosecutors say the two entered the airport with empty backpacks, passed through security screening, and then received other backpacks already loaded with drugs. Each was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months in prison. The logistics coordinator, identified as Joel Santos Ramos, received a sentence of 16 years, 9 months and 7 days in a closed regime, plus 2,056 fine-days.The arrests took place during Operation Gatekeeper, launched by the Federal Police in March 2025, when officers also carried out six search and seizure warrants. The criminal case is being heard by the 2nd Federal Court of the Amazonas Judicial Section, under case number 1004955-21.2025.4.01.3200.In a ruling published in June 2026, the federal court upheld the pretrial detention of the two couriers. Federal judge Thadeu José Piragibe Afonso said the pair had made dozens of interstate trips consistent with the scheme under investigation, which justified keeping them in custody. At the time, Santos was under alternative precautionary measures ordered by the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF-1), while Ramos remained a fugitive with a preventive arrest warrant outstanding. G1 said it was trying to reach the defense attorneys for those convicted in the case.

Two military police officers were arrested in the act on Monday morning (24) in São Paulo, suspected of robbing three young people at gunpoint and raping a 17-year-old girl in the city's East Zone. According to the Civil Police, which handles investigations in Brazil, the officers were off duty when the crimes took place overnight and were identified by the victims at the 24th police station, in the Ponte Rasa district, where the case was registered. The Polícia Militar is the uniformed state force responsible for street patrols.According to news outlet G1, the officers were identified as Victor Miguel Sebastião da Silva and Willian Santana Santos. Newspaper Metrópoles reported that both serve in the 2nd Company of the 2nd Metropolitan Military Police Battalion, a unit covering part of the East Zone, a sprawling working-class area of São Paulo.The victims, two young women aged 17 and 18 and a 19-year-old man, told police they were at a party at a gas station on Avenida Itaquera when they accepted a ride from two men in a gray Volkswagen Fox. The group stopped at a fast-food restaurant near Avenida Jacu-Pêssego before the route changed: one of the men pulled a firearm, announced the robbery and prevented the three from leaving the car. The young women handed over their cellphones, while the man managed to hide his.The car then headed to a deserted area near Parque Jacuí, in Jardim Pantanal, on the city's far east side. According to the police report, the armed suspect ordered the other man out of the vehicle with the 18-year-old and the young man, stayed alone with the teenager and forced her into sex under threat. "He said he would shoot if she did not do what he ordered," the victim's sister told G1. After the assault, the pair drove around with the group before abandoning them; the three found a police patrol car and asked for help.Identification and arrestWhile registering the case, officers found that the car described by the victims belonged to a military policeman due to start his shift that morning. His company commander took both officers to the 24th police station, where the three victims picked them out in person without knowing the suspects were police. One was identified as a co-author of the robbery; the other, as the author of the robbery and the sexual assault. The police chief ordered both arrested, in a procedure witnessed by an officer from the force's internal affairs unit. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the two were taken to the Romão Gomes military prison, in the city's North Zone.In a statement, the São Paulo Public Security Secretariat said the Military Police "does not tolerate misconduct" and acted firmly by immediately handing the officers over to the Civil Police. The case is investigated through an internal military inquiry and by the Civil Police. The teenager underwent a forensic medical examination, according to her family, which says it fears retaliation now that the case has become public.

The Rio de Janeiro Military Police announced on Monday (24) an open-ended occupation of the neighborhoods of Vigário Geral, Parada de Lucas and Cordovil, in the city's North Zone, an area known as the Complexo de Israel ("Israel Complex"). The information was reported by Folha de S.Paulo and confirmed by G1.Territory controlled by the TCPThe territory is controlled by the Terceiro Comando Puro (TCP), or Pure Third Command, the main rival of the Comando Vermelho (Red Command), two of Brazil's largest drug-trafficking factions. According to Folha, the area earned the nickname Complexo de Israel because of the dominance style of trafficker Álvaro Malaquias Santa Rosa, known as Peixão ("Big Fish"). Investigations indicate the group persecutes Afro-Brazilian religions within its territory and uses Israeli symbols, such as the country's flag and names from the Old Testament.Also according to Folha, four people were arrested on Monday in a police operation aimed at curbing the TCP's activities in the area, which is marked by vehicle and cargo theft. The action also targeted the group's religious intolerance. The faction fought back: two trucks were set on fire and both directions of Avenida Brasil, Rio's main expressway, were closed. Officers seized two rifles, two grenades, drugs and a radio transmitter.How the occupation will workThe occupation began on Monday afternoon. In a statement, the Military Police said the goal is to "restore the population's sense of security." According to the force, the region has been the target of criminal actions, such as the installation of barricades, the digging of trenches by drug traffickers on access roads and near homes, and episodes of religious intolerance carried out by members of criminal groups.Officers will surround and patrol the outskirts of the Parada de Lucas, Cordovil, Pica-Pau and Cinco Bocas communities, with ambulance support. In addition to the local battalions, the operation involves the air-mobile unit, the expressway battalion and the motorcycle battalion, which will operate on roads such as Avenida Brasil and the Presidente Dutra highway.G1 also reported that the police will occupy the Complexo de Israel for an indefinite period and that the area is dominated by the TCP. Days earlier, on Friday (21), an operation in the region found cars and barricades rigged with explosives; a bus driver was hit by a stray bullet and one man was killed in a shootout, according to G1. Police action in the area also disrupted the operation of schools and health units.

Brazil's Federal Police say lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger, investigated over suspected influence peddling in business with the federal government, made "significant cash transactions" and used part of that money to pay for airline tickets for Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the eldest son of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The claims appear in the document that grounded the opening of a police inquiry into Lulinha, reported on Monday (24) by the newspapers Folha de S.Paulo and O Estado de S. Paulo. The case runs at the Supreme Court (STF) under seal, with Justice André Mendonça as rapporteur.According to Folha, which had access to the document, the police highlight that on June 25, 2025, Roberta's driver made "two cash collections with an unknown third party", worth R$ 100,000 and R$ 200,000. Of that total, R$ 50,000 was passed to a travel agency that had issued tickets for Lulinha and the lobbyist. On the same day, the agency was used to pay for R$ 2,000 tickets for both, from Brasília to Congonhas airport in São Paulo.Two months later, on August 25, 2025, Roberta told businessman Cléber Ribas, in a conversation transcribed by investigators and obtained by O Estado de S. Paulo, that she had warned Lulinha the tickets would be cut off because of a businessman's late payments:"Hey, Fábio, it is over now, because the house costs us about R$ 100,000 a month, so the tickets just will not be possible anymore"By the lobbyist's account, Lulinha replied that he would start asking the businessmen for the payments directly. For the Federal Police, "it can be inferred that paying for Fábio's airline tickets was a recurring practice, and that this provision was expected to end because of a new expense related to a property". The force said, however, that the investigation must be deepened to clarify precisely what Roberta meant.The Brasília house and the Supreme Court caseRoberta did not make clear which property she was referring to. A labor lawsuit filed by a former employee indicates the lobbyist kept a house in Brasília frequently used by Lulinha and used for social events with politicians, according to O Estado de S. Paulo. Police also suspect that Ribas acted as an intermediary for payments from a man identified only as Freitas, who has not been located. When the conversation took place, investigations into the diversion of pension payments at the INSS, Brazil's social security institute, were already under way, which investigators believe may explain the difficulty in payments to the lobbyist.In an interview aired on Monday, Lula said that "no one is above the law" when commenting on the accusations against his son, according to O Estado de S. Paulo. On Friday (21), Roberta's defense asked Mendonça to halt the investigation, according to O Globo.What the defenses sayLulinha's defense told O Estado de S. Paulo that the house was never his and that he only stayed at the residence occasionally. Speaking to Folha, his lawyer Marco Aurélio de Carvalho said that "sectors of the Federal Police instrumentalized by political and electoral interests keep trying to interfere in the 2026 elections" and that the case files do not prove the money was used to pay for the tickets. "It is a veritable jigsaw puzzle of inferences born of the irresponsibility of those who have no real project or program for the country", he said, comparing the case to "the worst that happened during the defunct Operation Car Wash", the corruption probe known in Brazil as Lava Jato.Roberta's defense said it would not comment on "conversations supposedly taken from a report that is under seal". Ribas's defense said in a statement that "it is not possible to comment on alleged messages without prior access to the raw data of the electronic interception or to the full set of ongoing investigations".

Prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro have charged four men over the murder of lawyer Rodrigo Marinho Crespo, 42, shot dead on February 26, 2024, in front of the local headquarters of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB-RJ), on Avenida Marechal Câmara, in the city center. The charges were brought by the Gaeco, the organized crime unit of the Rio state prosecutor's office, after homicide detectives closed their investigation, and name gambling boss Adilson Oliveira Coutinho Filho, known as Adilsinho, as the mastermind, according to G1 and O Globo. On Monday (24), police arrested one of the accused, active duty military police officer Renato Franco Lopes, nicknamed Pitbull or Fantasma, of the 15th Battalion.According to the indictment, Adilsinho runs a criminal organization involved in illegal gambling, cigarette smuggling and killings, and is seen as one of the main leaders of the new top tier of the jogo do bicho, Brazil's traditional illegal numbers game. Ryan Patrick Barboza de Oliveira, known as Motinha, is accused of tracking the lawyer's routine in the days before the crime. Rafael Ferreira Silva, known as Cachoeira and identified as the driver of the car used in the operation, has been on the run since escaping a police operation in 2025. Prosecutors say Renato and Rafael stayed inside the gunman's vehicle and supported the getaway. Adilsinho and Ryan were already in jail and were served the preventive detention warrants last Wednesday, O Globo reported.For prosecutors, the motive was economic. Crespo was studying a move into the online betting market and was looking for investors: he planned to open a betting house in Botafogo, in Rio's South Zone, a territory whose jogo do bicho trade came under the control of Adilsinho's group from 2023, according to G1. O Globo reported that the lawyer also planned a "sports bar" with slot-style machines. In the prosecution's assessment, the execution removed a possible competitor and served to intimidate others interested in the same market.A planned crimeThe investigation concluded the homicide was planned and carried out in a coordinated way, with tasks split among the participants. The lawyer was monitored for days on his trips between his home in Barra da Tijuca and his office downtown. The findings were based on the lifting of phone and data secrecy, cell phone location data, security camera footage, vehicle tracking and forensic analysis, according to G1. Prosecutors classified the crime as qualified homicide, committed for base motives, through an ambush and with means that left the victim defenseless. They also argue the action shows typical traits of an extermination squad, citing the planning, the logistics and the use of restricted weapons.Rio's 3rd Criminal Court accepted the charges and ordered preventive detention for all four. Adilsinho was ordered to remain in a maximum security federal penitentiary for three years, and Renato Franco Lopes was suspended from police duty and had his gun carry permit suspended. Ryan was arrested during the investigation of another crime attributed to Adilsinho's gang, the killing of Antônio Gaspazianne Mesquita Chaves, owner of the bar Parada Obrigatória, in Vila Isabel, in the North Zone, also in 2024, G1 reported.

Brazilians trafficked to Cambodia are being forced by a criminal network to run phone scams against targets in Brazil while posing as agents of the country's Federal Police, according to a Folha de S.Paulo investigation published on Monday (24). Reporter Victoria Damasceno traveled to Sihanoukville, on Cambodia's southern coast, and heard victims who described forced labor under the threat of beatings, electric shocks and food deprivation.One of them is Pedro Alencar, 25, who asked to be identified by the name he was known by inside the scam compounds. A telemarketing worker, he was lured with promises of high pay and decent work. Before landing on the Cambodian coast, he had been taken to Laos and the Philippines, where the forced labor was tied to casino platforms. In Cambodia, he was made to run what he called "the heaviest scam": pretending to be a federal officer and drawing the victim into a story that only ended once a bank transfer went through."You have to bear the legal consequences for every crime committed using your identity. Do you understand?" reads one line of the script Alencar had to follow. According to Folha, besides the Federal Police, the network also impersonates Brazil's civil and military police forces, federal prosecutors, the Central Bank, the federal audit court, the National Justice Secretariat and even private companies such as Meta. The scammers cite the names of active-duty officers and go as far as summoning victims to fake online meetings.Another story in the same series, titled Carga Humana (Human Cargo), showed that compounds in Poipet, on the border with Thailand, recruited Brazilians with offers of US$ 4,000 a month (about R$ 20,000), 12-hour shifts and one-year contracts. Crimes of this kind have made Cambodia one of the main destinations for trafficked Brazilians, the newspaper reports.A three-stage scriptThe pattern described by Folha matches earlier accounts of the scheme. In October 2025, a Brazilian woman trafficked to Southeast Asia told Profissão Repórter, a TV Globo documentary program, that the scam run from Cambodia had three stages. First, the criminals posed as civil police officers and said someone had been arrested carrying a credit card in the victim's name. The call was then transferred to a fake Federal Police agent, who pressed for banking details under the threat of having the victim's accounts frozen. Finally, the victim was persuaded to transfer money to a supposed Federal Police account, with a promise it would be returned once the investigation ended. The scammers worked overnight to match Brazil's time zone and had access to the victims' personal data, such as names, addresses and CPF numbers, Brazil's individual taxpayer ID.The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she ran the scams under threat of torture. "They stood behind you with a taser, a stun gun," she said, according to G1.Fake police station found on the borderIn March, a tour organized by the Thai Army for the AFP news agency found in O'Smach, Cambodia, a room set up to mimic a Brazilian Federal Police station, alongside sets reproducing police offices from Australia, Canada and India. The site, abandoned in haste during border clashes in December 2025, still held call scripts and lists of phone numbers of targets in several countries. According to the Thai military, about 20,000 suspects fled before the area was attacked.Southeast Asia has become the hub of a billion-dollar online scam industry that draws in hundreds of thousands of people, some of them trafficking victims, according to AFP. Cambodia's government has promised to dismantle the scam operations on its soil, but Thai officials say the country needs to acknowledge the scale of the problem and seek international support to fight it.

Military Police sergeant Carlos Fernando Dias Chaves goes before a jury on Tuesday (25) at Rio de Janeiro's 4th Jury Court, in the city center, almost 11 years after he shot and killed two young men during a patrol in Pavuna, in the city's North Zone. According to news site G1, he is charged with the deaths of Tiago Guimarães Dingo, 24, and Jorge Lucas Paes, 17, shot in October 2015.The two victims were on a motorcycle when they rode past the police vehicle and were hit. In testimony given at the time, the sergeant, then assigned to the Military Police's 41st Battalion in Irajá, said he mistook a hydraulic car jack that Jorge Lucas was carrying on the back of the motorcycle for a gun. Both were shot in the back and died at the scene, G1 reports.The shooting happened on October 29, 2015. Afterward, the sergeant turned himself in to the Homicide Division to give a statement. In December of that year, Rio's Civil Police staged a reenactment of the incident to clarify how the deaths occurred, with forensic experts retracing the routes taken by the young men and the officers. During the reconstruction, gunfire broke out in the area and riot police had to support the operation.The deaths caused outrage among residents of the neighborhood at the time. At Tiago's funeral, military police officers were heckled by mourners.The Rio de Janeiro Public Defender's Office, which under Brazilian law can assist the prosecution on behalf of victims' families, represents Tiago Guimarães Dingo's relatives at the trial. In a statement, the office also said the officer faces charges in other cases and is currently in custody for them.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday (24) that Facebook and TikTok are failing to detect, remove and block content produced by Colombian armed groups to recruit minors, and that the platforms' algorithms appear to even promote such posts. According to the organization, this material helped fuel a recruitment drive that has drawn in at least 1,500 children and teenagers since 2021, with a sharp rise in cases since 2023, based on data from Colombia's Ombudsman's Office.The report, titled "I Thought I'd Never See My Mom Again", was presented in Bogotá and describes dozens of profiles on the two networks showing weapons, uniforms, bundles of cash, jewelry and bracelets identifying each group, some set to narcocorridos, songs that glorify criminal organizations. Combined, the profiles had more than 85,000 followers, and some videos topped 250,000 views and 50,000 likes. In the comments, users asked how to join groups such as the Clan del Golfo cartel, the ELN guerrilla and the FARC dissident factions that rejected the 2016 peace deal. Some posts offered to cover travel costs for willing recruits. The armed groups sell "a lifestyle" of "easy money", said Mathew Charles, a former Unicef adviser in Colombia who runs Mi Historia, a foundation that works with vulnerable youth."Digital platforms need to recognize that they are being used to recruit girls and boys. In practice, they are being used to commit crimes, including war crimes", said Juanita Goebertus, HRW's Americas director, at the launch of the report.Indigenous children make up nearly half of victimsNearly half of the recruited minors are indigenous, even though indigenous peoples account for only 4% of Colombia's population. Girls represent 40% of cases and are exposed to sexual violence, and more than 30% of those recruited were between 10 and 14 years old, which could be classified as a war crime under the Rome Statute, HRW said. The groups use children mainly to fight, gather intelligence and operate drones. Recruitment feeds on poverty, social exclusion, domestic violence and poor access to education, often through intermediaries paid up to US$1,000 per child, and at times takes place inside rural schools. FARC dissidents account for 74% of recruitments recorded between 2021 and 2025, mostly in the southwestern department of Cauca.Companies say profiles were removedHRW says it sent ByteDance, TikTok's owner, a list of 35 profiles in July, and Meta, Facebook's parent company, a list of 16. In August, both companies said they had removed all the flagged material, but researchers found new posts promoting the groups, some of them active for more than a month. Meta confirmed the authenticity of a letter attached to the report, signed by its human rights manager Alex Warofka, in which it says it condemns child recruitment and is constantly refining its detection of content that violates its policies, according to CNN Brasil. ByteDance said it "proactively" stops illegal armed groups and criminal organizations from using the platform for that purpose.Over six decades of armed conflict in Colombia, guerrillas and drug traffickers recruited poor children and teenagers. The 2016 peace deal disarmed most of the FARC, but dissident factions and other armed groups have expanded since then. President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office on August 7, has launched a military offensive against these organizations with help from the United States and Israel. The report draws on nearly 200 interviews with officials, aid workers, indigenous leaders and children who were recruited or at risk, and HRW is urging the new government to adopt a comprehensive security and justice policy with guaranteed funding for child protection agencies.The issue has a direct Brazilian connection: a Federal Police investigation found that the Comando Vermelho, one of Brazil's largest criminal gangs, relies on businessmen and pilots to bring drugs from Colombia into Brazil, according to a G1 report published on August 13.

São Paulo's Military Police, the uniformed force responsible for street policing in Brazil's most populous state, opened 928 internal disciplinary proceedings to investigate signs of improper use of body cameras by officers in the first half of 2026. The figure averages more than five cases a day and marks a 208% rise from the previous six months, when 301 proceedings were opened, Folha de S.Paulo reported on Monday (24).The data comes from a semiannual report by the state's Public Security Secretariat (SSP), under Governor Tarcísio de Freitas, finalized on August 20. There is no public figure for proceedings opened in the first half of 2025, which prevents a comparison with the same period last year. The report also shows the number of cameras in operation grew 26%, from 11,900 in December to 15,000 in May and June.What the SSP saysIn a statement, the SSP said any comparison of the number of proceedings should take into account the expansion of the body cameras, known in Portuguese as COPs (Portable Operational Cameras), and noted that more than 1 million videos were generated in June alone."The use of the cameras is monitored continuously, with periodic training and guidance. Between August 2025 and June 2026, 93.74% of the recordings generated were activated remotely, without depending on any action by the officer wearing the equipment," the secretariat said.The secretariat also stressed that "opening a proceeding does not mean an infraction occurred." According to the SSP, every indication of improper use is investigated, and any sanctions depend on the conclusion of each case, after the officers involved can present their defense. Some of the most recent investigations are still underway.Folha has previously reported on recurring cases in which officers switch on the camera only after shots are fired, which prevents the alleged confrontations from being recorded and hampers Civil Police investigations into deaths caused by police.

One of the four men arrested for the lynching of Cláudio Rafael Landeiro in Copacabana, in Rio de Janeiro's South Zone, showed up to give a statement to the police riding the bicycle the victim had been using on the night of the crime. According to G1, street security guard Davi Santos Machado, 21, arrived that way at the 12th police precinct (Copacabana) on Monday, August 17, six days after the beating that killed Cláudio on the night of August 11.Police chief Ângelo Lages, who heads the precinct, said investigators only noticed the detail when they reviewed security camera footage. "All we knew was that he had brought the bicycle to the station on Monday. We went to pull up the images and saw that he came pedaling", he said, according to the news site Polêmica Paraíba. On arrival, Davi handed the bike over to the authorities. The bicycle, which belonged to Cláudio's sister, had been taken from the victim on the night of the crime by the other security guard involved in the case, Jorge Luiz Ricardo Dias, according to footage analyzed by police and obtained by TV Globo.From denial to confessionInitially heard as a witness, Davi denied taking part in the assault. "I am being accused of something I did not do. I ask forgiveness for everything that happened", he said, according to Polêmica Paraíba. The next day, however, he returned to the station and confessed. According to G1, he admitted punching and kicking the victim and hitting her with a baton, including several blows to the head, and described his own actions as an "insane act", saying he could not explain what drove him. Davi also stated there was no concrete information that the bicycle had been stolen and that Cláudio did not resist.The crimeCláudio Rafael Landeiro, 37, left his home in Botafogo at around 10:30 p.m. on August 11 to ride his sister's bicycle. On Barata Ribeiro street, he stopped at a shop around 11:20 p.m. to ask for a cigarette. Minutes later, Davi arrived and asked about the bike. Cláudio, who according to his family had psychiatric problems and speech difficulties, answered only "no". Camera footage shows Jorge forcibly taking the bicycle. Cláudio tried to get it back, was assaulted and walked to Felipe de Oliveira street, where he sat at a building entrance. There, two app delivery workers joined Davi and the beating resumed.The assault lasted almost nine minutes and was filmed by the attackers themselves. In the footage, a man with a rod lands at least 30 blows on the victim, who falls unconscious on the sidewalk. The group then searches Cláudio's pockets, and the security guard photographs the scene before leaving. The victim lay agonizing for about half an hour. Firefighters took him to Miguel Couto Municipal Hospital in Gávea, but he did not survive. According to information given to the family, the cause of death was cranial trauma and internal bleeding.Besides Davi and Jorge, delivery workers Felipe Eduardo dos Santos Silva, 23, who turned himself in on Thursday, August 21, and confessed his role, and Ailton José da Silva, who remained silent during questioning, are also in custody. Police are still trying to identify a fifth attacker and people who saw Cláudio agonizing without helping him. For police chief Ângelo Lages, it was "a heinous crime, a triple-aggravated homicide, with cruelty and a futile motive, with no possibility of defense for the victim". Cláudio's mother, Ana Luísa Motta, demanded punishment: "He was not a criminal, he had no record. They simply assumed he was one."

A municipal school director was arrested on Monday (24) in Santarém, in western Pará state, on suspicion of interfering with the investigation into the sexual abuse of children and adolescents in a community in the Tapajós region. The information was released by the Civil Police, according to G1. The case was also reported by the Gazeta Carajás news portal.The inquiry began after a teenager went to the Delegacia da Criança e do Adolescente (DEACA), the police precinct specialized in crimes against minors, to file a complaint. As the work advanced, other victims were identified: so far, police count about eight victims, aged 8 to 14. A teacher from the same community had been arrested earlier on suspicion of sexual crimes against children and adolescents. According to police, the director and the teacher are relatives and belong to a family group that holds influence over local residents.According to police chief Milla Moura, the director was already subject to court-ordered precautionary measures short of prison, including removal from his duties and a ban on contact with the victims and people linked to the case, but allegedly breached the orders. The Civil Police say he allegedly offered advantages to victims' relatives to interfere with their statements and with the course of the investigation. Police chief Márcia Rabelo said the suspect also used financial power to try to stop complaints from being filed or to get victims to change their accounts. Authorities say some children and adolescents changed their statements after the alleged interference, which was reported to the courts and led to a preventive detention order.The arrest warrant was served in Santarém by teams from the Investigations Support Unit (NAI) and the Civil Police. After the arrest, the suspect was to be taken for a forensic exam and then to a prison facility, where he will remain at the court's disposal. Police said the investigation continues and more people may be heard to determine whether there are more victims or other people involved.Milla Moura urged possible victims or relatives to contact the authorities and said children and adolescents should not be afraid to report, because their accounts will be handled under protection by specialized teams. In a statement, the Santarém city government said, through the Municipal Education Secretariat (Semed), that it is "looking into the information presented by the courts and cooperating with the investigations". The suspects are considered innocent unless convicted in court.

A man armed with a rifle burst into the Frei Gaspar Municipal School, a city-run public school in Recreio dos Bandeirantes, in Rio de Janeiro's West Zone, on Monday morning (24) while fleeing a Military Police operation. To try to avoid arrest, he abandoned the weapon inside the building, put on kitchen clothes and tried to pass himself off as a merendeiro, a school meal server, but officers found and arrested him before students arrived.According to G1, the operation was led by the 31st Military Police Battalion (Recreio dos Bandeirantes) in the Pombo sem Asa community, in Vargem Grande, targeting drug trafficking groups. Terra reports that officers were also operating in the neighboring Cascatinha community, in the Vargens area, and that there was a shootout with armed men. At around 6 a.m., when he spotted the police teams, the suspect ran with the rifle, jumped the school wall and entered the building, about an hour and a half before classes were due to start.The cafeteria worker disguiseInside the school, the man dropped the rifle and put on white clothes, an apron and a hygienic cap used by the staff who prepare school meals, in an attempt to blend in with employees, according to Terra. A cleaning worker found the stranger in a bathroom near the kitchen and alerted the school's management, which called the police. The suspect was arrested before 7:30 a.m., when students were expected to arrive, and left the school in handcuffs, according to G1.According to the Military Police, the suspect is from Vila Velha, in the state of Espírito Santo, and is suspected of involvement with drug trafficking. Four other men were arrested in the operation, and police seized two rifles and three pistols. The case was referred to the 42nd Police Precinct, which covers the Recreio area.Rio's Municipal Education Department said the police were called as soon as the break-in was noticed and that the arrest happened before classes began. Classes at Frei Gaspar were moved on Monday to the nearby Teófilo Moreira Municipal School as a safety measure. According to Terra, no one was hurt.

Flávio Dino, a justice on Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), on Sunday (23) declared null and void any congressional budget amendment — emendas parlamentares, earmarked funds that lawmakers steer to their home bases — whose allocation was decided by party presidents, former members of Congress or anyone without an elected mandate. According to reports by Poder360 and CartaCapital, the ruling covers any act, spreadsheet, official letter or request attributing earmarking power to party officials, and not even the later endorsement of a sitting deputy or senator can validate an allocation originally made by someone without the legal authority to do so. “Any act, table, document, communication, spreadsheet, letter or request that seeks to attribute to a political party president or a former lawmaker the authorship, ownership or power to indicate a parliamentary amendment must be considered legally unfit and absolutely null,” Dino wrote in the decision. Origin of the investigation The measure stems from investigations into the execution of budget amendments opened with Operation Transparência, launched by the Federal Police in December 2025. According to Poder360, analysis of the mobile phone of Mariângela Fialek, known as Tuca — a Lower House aide linked to the chamber's former speaker, Arthur Lira — pointed investigators to a possible role by the president of the PL party, Valdemar Costa Neto, in directing public funds despite holding no elected office. In July, the Federal Police flagged 21 amendments totaling R$ 119.2 million under suspicion of Valdemar's influence. The probe also pointed to possible involvement of former deputy Eduardo Cunha. Dino ordered both men's assets frozen as part of the investigation. The issue gained traction after Valdemar said in a July 14 interview with GloboNews that he makes “suggestions” to PL deputies and senators and that leaders of other parties do the same, according to CartaCapital. Following the statement, Dino demanded explanations from all 21 parties represented in Congress about whether party presidents held reserved amendment quotas. Every party that responded — including the PL — denied that such quotas exist. Podemos and Solidariedade were the only parties that failed to respond to the court. Dino gave both five business days to provide explanations, under penalty of a daily fine of R$ 100,000. Poder360 said it sought comment from both parties but had received no reply by the time its report was published. Dino also ordered the heads of the Chamber of Deputies, Hugo Motta, and of the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre, to notify the technical bodies of both houses that party presidents have no authority to allocate amendments. The parties' statements will be forwarded to the Federal Police to aid the investigations, and the justice warned that failure to comply may lead to disciplinary, criminal and civil liability.