Moraes Investigation Divides Brazil’s Supreme Court as Two Justices Step Aside
Brazil · Supreme Court
Key Facts
- —What is being decided Whether to open a Moraes investigation, the first criminal inquiry into a sitting judge of the court.
- —Who Alexandre de Moraes is The justice who led Brazil’s cases against Jair Bolsonaro and against online disinformation.
- —Why it started Police found messages and a legal contract linking him to a banker whose bank collapsed.
- —Two judges have withdrawn One was named in the seized messages. A second gave no reason, as the law allows.
- —What the banker’s phone held Messages naming the sons of three different justices, along with offers of access and money.
- —Why it matters beyond Brazil Brazil votes for president in under three weeks, and the court’s standing is now in doubt.
Brazil’s highest court spent Tuesday weighing a Moraes investigation, the first criminal inquiry it has ever considered opening into one of its own members. Two of the judges who were meant to vote had already walked away.
Brazil’s Supreme Court met on Tuesday to decide something it has never decided before. The Moraes investigation would be the first criminal inquiry the court has opened into a sitting judge.
A Court Asked to Investigate Itself
Alexandre de Moraes is the best-known judge in Brazil. He led the prosecutions that put Jair Bolsonaro in prison and ordered social networks to take down accounts.
The request to investigate him came from a fellow justice, André Mendonça, and rests on a Federal Police report. Mendonça oversees the court’s Banco Master case.
Banco Master was a São Paulo lender that sold savings certificates at unusually high rates. The central bank shut it down in November 2025, and police describe the structure as a pyramid.
Its owner, Daniel Vorcaro, was arrested at the airport as he tried to leave for Malta. He is now held at a unit of the Papuda prison complex in Brasília.
Police took his phone. What they found on it has already removed two judges from the vote.
Two Judges Out Before a Single Ballot
The Moraes investigation lost two votes before it began. Kassio Nunes Marques declared himself barred from the case on Tuesday morning, hours after messages naming his son were published.
In one exchange, the bank’s legal director asks whether R$500,000 a month (about US$97,000) will be kept up. The money ran through a small tax consultancy in Teresina.
That firm took R$6.6 million (about US$1.3 million) from the bank across 2024 and 2025 while declaring almost no revenue. The judge’s son says he received R$281,600 (about US$54,000) for tax advice unconnected to the court.
Nunes Marques himself has said nothing. A second judge, Dias Toffoli, is also out of the Moraes investigation.
Toffoli declared himself unfit on personal grounds. Brazilian law lets a judge do that without explaining why.
What the Banker’s Phone Contained
The seized messages reach further than one judge. They name the sons of more than one member of the court.
Rodrigo Fux, a lawyer and the son of Justice Luiz Fux, wrote the words red carpet, brother, while rearranging a meeting. The exchanges run from May 2024 to August 2025.
His firm says it never represented Vorcaro or the bank, and that no commercial relationship was ever formed. Neither Fux nor his son has answered directly.
Then there is the contract. A law firm belonging to Moraes’s wife signed a deal with the bank worth R$131 million (about US$25 million).
She is Viviane Barci de Moraes, and the agreement dates from January 2024. Of the total, R$80.2 million (about US$15.5 million) was actually paid across 22 monthly instalments.
The payments stopped when the central bank liquidated the lender. The firm says Moraes read and edited the final draft at the request of its compliance staff.
Moraes Answers in Writing
Moraes filed a 44-page defence on Monday night, naming Mendonça dozens of times. He calls the police report a fabrication assembled for electoral purposes.
The wording is blunt. He writes of an incriminating farce, of revenge, of fantasy dialogues and a total break in the chain of custody.
His argument is procedural as much as personal. He says the material was gathered irregularly and that, in his own words, nothing happened.
The Feud Widens
On Tuesday morning another judge, Flávio Dino, turned the inquiry back towards Mendonça. He ordered that facts about a meeting between Mendonça and Vorcaro be passed to the court president.
That meeting took place on 14 March 2025 at Instituto Iter, a body Mendonça founded. The next day Mendonça asked for extra time in a São Paulo cemetery-concessions case.
Mendonça has confirmed that he received Vorcaro there. Whether the two facts are connected is what Dino wants examined.
What Happens Next
Edson Fachin holds the file and is also the court’s president. He votes first on whether to open the Moraes investigation, and the rest follow in reverse order of seniority.
Any judge may ask to take the case away for up to 90 days. A request of that kind would push the decision into December.
Vorcaro was due to answer police questions on the same day. His lawyers moved it to 24 September, arguing that they still lack access to the file.
They want to ask him about R$12 billion (about US$2.3 billion) in letters of credit. That paper moved between Banco Master and the state-owned bank of Brasília.
Why This Reaches Beyond the Court
Brazil votes for president on 4 October. The same judges sit on the electoral court that will certify the result.
A court under investigation is a weaker referee. That is the real stake, whichever way the vote falls.
Markets spent Tuesday looking elsewhere. The Ibovespa fell and the real weakened, but traders pointed to United States bond yields and Wednesday’s interest-rate decisions.
The economist Alex André argued last weekend that the session mattered more to markets than the Federal Reserve. His reasoning was that institutional doubt, not politics, is what deters long-term money.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Alexandre de Moraes?
He is a justice of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court and its best-known member. He led the prosecutions arising from the 8 January 2023 attack on government buildings, the case that ended in Jair Bolsonaro’s conviction, and a long series of orders against online disinformation.
Why are two judges not voting?
Kassio Nunes Marques declared himself barred after messages seized from the banker’s phone named his son in connection with monthly payments. Dias Toffoli declared himself unfit on personal grounds, which Brazilian law allows a judge to do without giving a reason.
What is Banco Master?
It was a São Paulo bank that grew quickly by selling savings certificates at high rates. Brazil’s central bank ordered its liquidation in November 2025, and the Federal Police describe the structure as a pyramid in which promised returns were not backed by real assets.
When will the court decide?
The session on the Moraes investigation opened on Tuesday 15 September in Brasília, and the result was not settled when it began. Any justice may ask to hold the file for up to 90 days, which would move the decision to December.
Sources: Poder360 on the written defence filed by Alexandre de Moraes, Metrópoles on the contract between Banco Master and the law firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, Metrópoles on the messages from Rodrigo Fux, Metrópoles on the decision by Flávio Dino, Gazeta do Povo on the postponement of Daniel Vorcaro’s testimony, Gazeta do Povo on the rules governing the session
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief
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