Brazil’s Supreme Court Reaches a Point of No Return

Brazil’s Supreme Court has entered what Folha describes as the greatest crisis in its history, after investigations into alleged billion-dollar accounting and financial fraud at Banco Master exposed a broad network of influence.

Messages recovered from the phone of former bank owner Daniel Vorcaro, along with investigative documents, reportedly show Supreme Court justices doing business with the bank, accepting gifts and trips, discussing matters of interest to Vorcaro in private meetings, and having relatives hired by the institution. The names mentioned include Kassio Nunes Marques, Dias Toffoli, Alexandre de Moraes, André Mendonça and Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet.

The court’s initial response, the column says, was to treat the matter as personal impropriety and hold closed-door meetings. It portrays the transfer of the case from Toffoli to Mendonça as an attempt to contain the crisis through an arrangement outside normal procedure. Selective leaks and the selective lifting of secrecy then widened distrust inside the court.

The release of material from one investigation brought conversations involving Moraes into the open. In those exchanges, Vorcaro allegedly sought interference in ongoing investigations. Mendonça’s decision to lift secrecy and seek approval from the full court to investigate Moraes, and potentially Gonet, rejected a closed-door solution.

Fachin said he would announce measures after the necessary review and institutional procedures. The full court must decide whether Mendonça’s conduct invalidates the investigation and whether Moraes or other justices should formally be investigated. The column says the court will face lasting damage either by acknowledging that criminal proceedings were used as political weapons or by approving an investigation into one of its own members.

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concluded the necessary analysis of the facts and observed the relevant institutional procedures