Banco Master scandal: Supreme Court Judge De Moraes implicated in Brazil
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, central figure of the Supremo Tribunal Federal, is targeted by a report from the Brazilian federal police revealing his links with banker Daniel Vorcaro.
Brazil's Supreme Court shaken by Banco Master affair
According to Google News LU FR, the financial scandal surrounding Banco Master took on an unprecedented dimension on 1 September 2026, when documents from an investigation by the Brazilian federal police implicated Alexandre de Moraes, judge of the Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), the country's supreme court.
Alexandre de Moraes, one of eleven members of the STF, had until now been largely perceived as a bulwark of Brazilian democratic institutions. He had played a central role in the conviction of former president Jair Bolsonaro for attempted coup d'état. But messages extracted from the telephone of banker Daniel Vorcaro, at the heart of the Banco Master scandal, reveal regular exchanges between the two men.
Compromising exchanges and contracts
The federal police report indicates that Vorcaro had allegedly sought De Moraes's intervention with officials from the federal police and the general prosecutor's office, as investigations into Banco Master were closing in on him. The document also cites a contract worth 131 million reais — approximately 22 million euros — linking the bank to the law firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the judge's wife. Investigators note that De Moraes appears as the final editor of several versions of the draft contract. The provision of aircraft and other benefits offered by Vorcaro to the judge's circle is also mentioned.
The federal police specify, however, that they have not established at this stage that all the banker's offers had been accepted, nor that they had conferred an illegal advantage on the magistrate. The Brazilian press emphasises that these elements do not yet constitute proof of an offence. The newspaper Folha de São Paulo nevertheless believes that the nature of these relationships — with a banker it describes as "mafia-linked" — justifies the judge's resignation.
The decision by André Mendonça, another institutional bombshell
Perhaps the most explosive aspect of the affair concerns the manner in which these documents were made public. It was André Mendonça, STF judge in charge of the Banco Master investigation, who decided on 1 September to lift the confidentiality of the report and transmit the new findings to the full bench of the supreme court.
The decision is particularly sensitive: Mendonça is a former Justice Minister under Jair Bolsonaro, appointed to the STF by the latter in 2021. He thus finds himself examining evidence capable of incriminating a colleague — De Moraes — who has become one of the principal targets of the Bolsonarist camp. Political scientist and journalist Gustavo Ribeiro, co-founder of the media outlet Brazilian Report, summarises: "A large part of what was revealed on Tuesday, we already knew. [...] What we saw on Tuesday were details that make the story even more shocking." Ribeiro emphasises that Mendonça is considered an adversary of Moraes within the institution itself.
De Moraes counter-attacked on 3 September by requesting the opening of an investigation for "abuse of authority" and "favouritism towards certain political groups" against his colleague Mendonça.
Lula forced to respond
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had initially preferred to remain silent. Faced with the scale of the crisis and reactions from his political opponents, he finally spoke in a video released on X, demanding that the STF conduct an impartial investigation into the scandal involving De Moraes. Lula thereby intended to avoid any appearance of protecting the magistrate, whom the Bolsonarist camp considers close to his majority, although he is regarded as rather conservative.
An electoral calendar that amplifies the crisis
The first round of the Brazilian general elections — presidential, parliamentary and regional — is scheduled for just over a month away. Flavio Bolsonaro, son of the former president and one of the principal opponents of Lula da Silva, has demanded the departure of Alexandre de Moraes and intends to use the scandal to denounce a supreme court that the right has long accused of being politicised.
But the affair could also backfire against the conservative camp: Flavio Bolsonaro himself is linked to Daniel Vorcaro, to whom he had requested funds to finance a biographical film about his father.
For Gustavo Ribeiro, the stakes exceed the court alone. "This is something that can swing the presidential election and the elections for Parliament," he says. "The next president of the Republic will be able to appoint four judges. So there will be four new judges out of eleven. It is enormous." The future composition of the STF thus constitutes a decisive issue in the forthcoming ballot.
Source: Google News LU FR