The Briefing
- Nine of the Supreme Federal Tribunal's 11 justices are expected to rule Tuesday, Sept. 15, on whether to open a formal investigation into Justice Alexandre de Moraes — Moraes and Justice Dias Toffoli are barred from voting, though Moraes has signaled he may push to vote anyway.
- Court President Edson Fachin escalated the crisis on Sept. 9 by stripping Moraes of a seven-year-old "fake news" inquiry he had overseen since 2019, after Moraes tried to use it to investigate rival Justice André Mendonça.
- Newly unsealed police files describe two separate proposed contracts between banker Daniel Vorcaro and the law firm of Moraes's wife — one worth roughly R$131 million, a second, unsigned draft worth R$50 million that discussed paying part of the fee with a private jet and a helicopter.
- The showdown lands three weeks before Brazil's Oct. 4 presidential election, days after tens of thousands rallied nationwide demanding Moraes's removal.
Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) is heading into a session its own members call unprecedented: a formal vote on whether to investigate one of the court's sitting justices. The case centers on Justice Alexandre de Moraes and jailed banker Daniel Vorcaro, and the fallout has already reshuffled who runs one of the court's oldest and most sensitive investigations.
What Tuesday's Vote Will Actually Decide
Court President Edson Fachin called the extraordinary session for 10 a.m. on Tuesday after receiving a formal request from Justice André Mendonça and mounting pressure from retired justices. Despite the court's 11 seats, only nine members are expected to cast ballots: standard procedural rules bar a magistrate from voting on a case in which he is personally the target, sidelining Moraes, while Toffoli has already declared himself conflicted out of anything touching Banco Master. Moraes has since told allies he intends to ask to vote anyway, arguing that if Mendonça — the case's rapporteur and a direct party to the dispute — gets to vote, he should too. Unconfirmed backstage reporting suggests six votes are already effectively locked in, split three against opening an inquiry and three in favor, leaving Fachin's and Justice Cármen Lúcia's ballots as the likely deciding votes.
A Seized Phone Reopens a Denial
The case traces back to the iPhone federal police pulled from Vorcaro when he was arrested at Guarulhos airport in November 2025, hours after the Central Bank placed Banco Master into liquidation. Mendonça, who inherited the file, lifted its secrecy on Sept. 1. The resulting 218-page report directly contradicts an official STF statement from March that had denied any message exchange between Moraes and the banker; investigators instead logged at least six in-person meetings across 2024 and 2025, including at least two visits to Moraes's home in Brasília in April 2025, according to messages Vorcaro sent his girlfriend at the time.
Banco Master had built its balance sheet on certificates of deposit paying far above market rates, betting depositors on the government's guarantee fund to absorb any shortfall. That bet forced the fund's largest-ever payout, initially pegged at roughly R$41 billion at the moment of liquidation; a later tally folding in related liquidated firms pushed the combined hole closer to R$52 billion, covering roughly 1.6 million depositors. Regulators have since placed several related firms into their own liquidations — among them asset manager Reag Investimentos — as investigators trace where the money went.
Two Contracts and a Night of Whisky in London
Newly unsealed material shows the paper trail between Vorcaro and the Moraes family ran deeper than one deal. The first is a January 2024 services agreement between Vorcaro's bank and the law firm of Moraes's wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes — a deal police value at roughly R$131.3 million gross over three years, though several Brazilian outlets have separately used a rounded figure closer to R$129 million. Metadata showed an account under Moraes's own name edited the contract's final draft, which his wife's firm says happened only because compliance staff asked him to screen it for conflicts. Roughly R$80 million was actually paid out before the arrangement stopped when Vorcaro was arrested. A second, unsigned draft surfaced separately — a proposed R$50 million agreement through a Vorcaro-linked firm that discussed settling part of the fee with shares in a private jet and a helicopter rather than cash. Moraes's wife's firm denies any second contract was ever carried out.
Then there's the whisky. In April 2024, Banco Master sponsored a legal conference in London that drew roughly three dozen Brazilian officials, including Moraes, then-Justice Dias Toffoli, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, federal police chief Andrei Rodrigues, then-Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski and the man who would later become the Chamber of Deputies' president. Vorcaro personally covered a Macallan tasting at Mayfair's private George Club that ran roughly $640,000 — about R$3.2 million at the time. Moraes later confirmed the outing during a closed-door STF session: "Afterward we all went to a pub together and drank Macallan." Vorcaro, texting his girlfriend the same trip, boasted about addressing the group: "All of Brazil's ministers, from the STF, the STJ — and little me, speaking."
A Legacy Inquiry Becomes a Weapon — Then Vanishes From Moraes's Desk
The unsealing set off a power struggle inside the court itself. Moraes tried to use a separate investigation he had overseen since 2019 — originally opened to probe threats against the court — to build a case that Mendonça had abused his authority. Mendonça, in turn, acted on a political party's request to remove federal police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence chief Leandro Almada from their posts; Justice Flávio Dino reinstated both a day later, arguing Rodrigues had simply followed Moraes's own orders. On Sept. 9, Fachin moved to defuse the standoff in one stroke: he voided both justices' rulings, suspended the file against Moraes, and stripped Moraes of the fake-news inquiry entirely, taking direct control of it himself. Fachin has urged restraint throughout the crisis: "Disagreeing is not, and cannot be, synonymous with hating."
The Network Widens
Newly unsealed material has pulled in figures well beyond the court. Police allege former Central Bank supervision chief Belline Santana took recurring payments of roughly R$500,000 from Vorcaro — one transfer reached R$760,000 — in exchange for confidential regulatory information; Santana denies leaking anything. Separately, federal police are examining whether part of the roughly R$61 million Vorcaro sent to help finance "Dark Horse," a biopic of former President Jair Bolsonaro, was diverted through a Texas-based fund to cover the U.S. living expenses of Eduardo Bolsonaro, brother of presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, who had personally asked Vorcaro for the film funding. Eduardo has denied receiving any money from Vorcaro.
Streets and Ballots
The scandal has already spilled into election season. Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in at least seven state capitals on Sept. 7, Brazil's independence holiday, demanding Moraes's removal, with several presidential candidates — including Flávio Bolsonaro — joining the demonstrations. Moraes has not been formally named a criminal suspect, and only the full court can authorize investigating one of its own members. However Tuesday's vote lands, it will shape how Brazilians view their Supreme Court three weeks before they choose a president.
