By Lisandra Paraguassu and Luciana Magalhaes
BRASILIA/SAO PAULO, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Brazil’s Chief Justice Edson Fachin ordered the unsealing on Thursday of thousands of pages from a probe into an alleged multibillion-dollar fraud centered on failed lender Banco Master that implicated central bank officials, politicians and even members of the Supreme Court.
Justice Andre Mendonca, who has overseen the case, swiftly complied with Fachin’s request, according to a court ruling seen by Reuters. It comes amid a deepening institutional crisis just weeks before a presidential election.
Brazil’s institutions have been rattled by the fallout from an expanding investigation into Banco Master and alleged ties between its former chief executive, Daniel Vorcaro, and senior government officials, as well as opposition politicians.
The country is in the midst of an unusually tight election campaign in which any major development could tip the balance in favor of either leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva or right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.
But Fachin’s move comes as he seeks to tackle a public clash between justices Mendonca and Alexandre de Moraes that thrust the court into one of its most severe internal crises in decades.
Mendonca earlier this month made public documents from the probe, including dozens of messages that police say Vorcaro sent to Moraes. The disclosures prompted calls for an unprecedented investigation into a sitting Supreme Court justice over allegations that Moraes acted as an adviser to the banker.
Moraes, in response, accused Mendonca of abusing his authority.
Fachin scheduled a full-court session for September 15, when the court’s 10-member bench is expected to discuss allegations regarding Moraes’ relationship with Vorcaro.
‘OPEN EVERYTHING,’ SAYS LULA
The institutional crisis added uncertainty to a closely contested presidential race, as Senator Bolsonaro’s supporters attempt to link Lula to Moraes, one of Brazil’s most polarizing figures, who aggressively pursued former President Jair Bolsonaro – the lawmaker’s father – over a 2023 coup plot and won his conviction last year.
Hours before Fachin’s decision, Lula publicly supported unsealing the investigation.
“I am in favor of opening everything,” he said in an interview with SBT. “Whenever there is an allegation involving the judiciary or politics, it should be made public so everyone knows what is happening… Investigate everything, disclose everything, regardless of who it hurts.”
While the Supreme Court already published thousands of pages of records about the probe, it was not immediately clear which portions of the investigation would remain under seal, or what the immediate legal and political implications of the move would be.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Ricardo Brito in Brasilia, Luciana Magalhaes in Sao Paulo; Writing by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Alex Richardson)
