Judicial Deposits and Special Funds Move Billions With Little Transparency

Billions of reais are being moved through judicial deposits and special funds in Brazil, yet transparency surrounding these vast sums remains critically low, a Folha de S.Paulo investigation reveals. Judicial deposits are funds from litigants held in bank accounts managed by judges as guarantees until a final court decision. With over 76 million pending cases, the accumulated amounts are immense; the São Paulo Court of Justice (TJ-SP) alone held R$ 100 billion in judicial deposits in 2023.

These dormant funds generate substantial interest. Courts contract banks to manage these resources, receiving periodic payments in exchange for exclusive administration. For instance, TJ-SP's contract with Banco do Brasil yielded R$ 3.7 billion in 2024. However, details on which courts receive how much, from which banks, under what conditions, and how the money is used are not easily accessible to the public.

This opacity poses a governance problem for the judiciary itself. A recent incident highlighted this when judges at the Maranhão Court of Justice discovered their president had unilaterally transferred R$ 2.8 billion in judicial deposits from Banco do Brasil to Banco de Brasília (BRB), a move that bypassed the court's collective decision-making body and reportedly led to heated disputes.

Further complicating transparency are special funds, often financed by judicial fees and bank remuneration from deposit management. These funds operate outside the ordinary budget, allowing for flexible spending on everything from computers to unspecified expenses. While information access is slightly better than for deposits, it remains inadequate. For example, in 2025, TJ-SP reported R$ 8.4 billion, TJ-MG R$ 4.2 billion, TJ-RS R$ 2.2 billion, and TJ-PR R$ 889 million. Compiling this data required extensive searching across disparate sources, making it practically impossible for ordinary citizens to track these funds.