Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Seeks to Void Federal Police Report on Moraes and Vorcaro

Brazil’s prosecutor-general, Paulo Gonet, has asked for the annulment of a Federal Police report that includes conversations between former Banco Master owner Daniel Vorcaro and an interlocutor identified as Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

Gonet, who is himself cited in the report, directed his request at Justice André Mendonça, the case’s rapporteur. He said Mendonça had effectively imposed an investigation into a fellow justice and used the police for activities outside his authority.

“Judges may not accuse, much less conduct pretrial investigations,” Gonet said. He argued that an order instructing police to investigate specific people, without a request from the Public Prosecutor’s Office or an independent police initiative, was invalid because it exceeded a judge’s powers at the pretrial stage.

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Judges may not accuse, much less conduct pretrial investigations.

The report has expanded the known details of Vorcaro’s dealings with public officials. Federal Police investigators recovered messages, contract drafts and metadata from his cellphone. Vorcaro had contacted Moraes while trying to save the bank and follow investigations that would eventually lead to the former banker’s arrest.

The material also records requests to contact Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and Gonet. Other documents concern a contract worth about 131 million reais between Banco Master and the law firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice’s wife. A second proposal, worth 50 million reais, called for payment through stakes in a private jet and a helicopter.

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The order given to police to investigate specific people, without a request from the Public Prosecutor’s Office and without an initiative from the police authority, is invalid because it exceeds the judge’s jurisdiction at the pretrial stage.