Searching for the unsuspected in Brazil's justice system

Who avoided the Lisbon forums, the party in Trancoso, and the whisky and cigar tasting in London? Who declined the friendship of Vorcaro, Esteves, the Batista brothers and the “bet-boys”? Who stayed away from frivolous WhatsApp exchanges ending in “kkk” with newly rich friends?

That is where the search should begin, this column argues. It also calls for scrutiny of private ventures financed by companies with an interest in the courts, institutes that sell services to the government, private-plane rides and VIP boxes in Monaco or at Real Madrid matches.

The column asks how late the public recognized the seriousness of the situation. It urges readers to examine relatives who became wealthy as lawyers through family “tolls,” as well as “lawyer-brokers” who suddenly enter cases, with or without formal power of attorney, alongside the lawyers originally handling them. What qualities, it asks, allow these brokers to speed up or slow down proceedings for clients?

The search should also reach the higher courts and the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the column says. It says judicial coherence and the legal reasoning that should make procedures and decisions predictable have disappeared. When exceptions outnumber rules, it asks, how can abuse be distinguished from normality?

Justice André Mendonça currently has four of the country’s most closely watched investigations, involving Daniel Vorcaro, Flávio Bolsonaro and Banco Master-Dark Horse, Lulinha, Alexandre de Moraes, Paulo Gonet and other court figures. The cases reached him through random distribution rather than consolidation or a broad inquiry. The column criticizes his discretionary power to control the public flow of scandal-related news before elections, while also asking what other Supreme Court justices and the prosecutor general did to explain secrecy, defend procedural consistency and show why Mendonça is wrong.