Brazil Judge Faces New Claim Over Banker

BRAZIL · SUPREME COURT

A report by Brazil’s federal police (PF) that the agency’s leadership rejected suggests that Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court, Brazil’s top court, may have signalled his position in a 2024 judgment to Daniel Vorcaro, the jailed owner of the failed Banco Master bank. Gazeta do Povo, a Brazilian newspaper, says Moraes’s office had not replied.

Gazeta do Povo published the claim on Friday 13 November 2026, citing UOL, a Brazilian news portal. The report does not prove that Moraes told Vorcaro how he would vote, and on 9 November Diário de Pernambuco, a newspaper, reported a column by Malu Gaspar of O Globo saying that PF reports on three justices’ ties to Vorcaro do not attribute a crime to them.

What Does the Report Say?

Gazeta do Povo, citing UOL, says the PF report points to indications that Moraes anticipated to Vorcaro his position in a Supreme Court judgment, a case known as ADC 81, on the rule for opening new medical courses. The judgment interested Vorcaro directly, the newspaper says, because Banco Master was a creditor of the group that runs Ulbra, a Brazilian Lutheran university.

Private messages from February 2024 are at the centre of the claim, and the judgment ended on 4 June 2024. Gazeta do Povo also reports that PF leadership judged the document too descriptive and beyond what the court had requested, and that two police chiefs were removed from their leadership roles on 5 November.

Gazeta do Povo says Moraes and Justice Kassio Nunes Marques voted with the rapporteur, Justice Gilmar Mendes. Fábio Faria, a former communications minister named in the messages, denied involvement, the newspaper reports.

What Is the Banco Master Contract?

Banco Master was Vorcaro’s bank, which Brazil’s central bank lists as in extrajudicial liquidation, a form of forced wind-down. Moraes’s wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, is, according to Itatiaia, a partner in the law firm that the bank hired.

Malu Gaspar, a columnist at the newspaper O Globo, reported in December 2025, as relayed by the radio network Itatiaia, that the contract totalled R$129 million (about US$22.8 million at the central bank’s 13 November rate of about 5.65 per dollar) over 36 months, or R$3.6 million (about US$637,000) a month. In a note of 9 March 2026, quoted by the legal news site Migalhas, the firm said it was hired by Master between February 2024 and November 2025 and never handled a Master case at the Supreme Court.

Where Does Vorcaro’s Case Stand?

Vorcaro, jailed in the Banco Master investigation, filed a petition on Monday 9 November 2026 asking court president Edson Fachin to let Justice Gilmar Mendes, the court’s dean, decide on revoking his pre-trial detention. The petition, reported by the newspaper DGABC and by Diário de Pernambuco, also asks that he leave the Papuda prison complex in Brasília and go home.

Neither outlet reports a decision.

What Prediction Markets Say

Polymarket, a prediction market where users trade on outcomes, lists the question “Alexandre de Moraes out as Brazil Supreme Court Justice?” at an implied probability of about 5% , with about US$268,000 traded in total, as of 1:20 p.m. ET on 13 November 2026. These are bets, not polls, and a low price means traders see an exit as unlikely.

Why we show this: prediction markets turn real-money bets into a live probability that moves within minutes of the news, which is why investors, campaigns and newsrooms in the United States now follow them closely. We show them next to polls and official results, never instead of them.

What It Means for You

For readers abroad the point is procedural: the claim rests on one report that police leaders themselves set aside, not on a charge or a court finding. The next markers are any reply from Moraes’s office and a decision on Vorcaro’s petition.

Until then the contract and the report are separate threads. The report does not show wrongdoing.

What Is Not Known

We have not seen the PF report or the UOL original, so the contents are as Gazeta do Povo describes them. Whether Moraes will respond, and what he knew about the 2024 judgment, is not established.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the new report say about Moraes and Vorcaro?

Gazeta do Povo, citing UOL, says a Federal Police report indicates Moraes may have anticipated his position in a 2024 judgment to Vorcaro. The report does not prove it, and police leadership rejected it.

How much was the Banco Master contract with Moraes’s wife’s firm?

O Globo reported it at R$129 million (about US$22.8 million) over 36 months. The firm says it advised Master from February 2024 to November 2025 and never handled a Master case at the Supreme Court.

Has Moraes responded?

Not as of Gazeta do Povo’s report on 13 November 2026, when Moraes’s office, the court and Vorcaro’s defence had not replied.

Sources: Gazeta do Povo, rejected PF report, 13 November 2026; Itatiaia, contract report, 9 December 2025; Migalhas, law firm note, 9 March 2026; Diário de Pernambuco, PF reports column, 9 November 2026; DGABC, Vorcaro petition, 10 November 2026; Banco Central do Brasil, Banco Master liquidation listing, read 13 November 2026; Banco Central do Brasil, PTAX dollar rate, 13 November 2026; Polymarket, Moraes market, 13 November 2026.

Related coverage: Brazil news · Alexandre de Moraes edited wife’s Banco Master contract · Vorcaro’s lawyers challenge Fachin · Moraes calls the Vorcaro messages a fraud

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated AI newsroom. Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief. The Rio Times also runs Ask Rio Times, which answers from 100,000+ of our own articles, the daily Latin America Power Map, and prediction-market odds on elections and markets.. How we use AI · Report an error

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