Crisis at the STF exposes links between former Banco Master banker and ministers, generating requests for investigation and division in the plenary

The investigations into Banco Master for fraud in the financial system exposed connections between former banker Daniel Vorcaro and public figures, such as deputies, senators and magistrates, and culminated in a crisis that experts point out as unprecedented in the history of the STF (Supreme Federal Court).

The clash brings ministers Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça face to face, divides the plenary into wings, reignites the discussion about a code of ethics for the Supreme Court and has implications for the electoral dispute.

Less than a week before the act of September 7th, allies of Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) began to unite criticisms of Lula (PT) and Moraes under the motto "out, Lula; out, Moraes", and Bolsonaro supporters such as Eduardo Bolsonaro, Nikolas Ferreira and pastor Silas Malafaia intensified calls for impeachment and arrest of Moraes.

Lula, without mentioning the ministers, said this Friday (4) that "no one, in the name of democracy, can use the position they have for personal benefit." The PT member tries not to suffer image degradation due to the crisis in the STF, a Court with which he was close during the years of his current term.

Mendonça withdraws confidentiality from PF report on Moraes

The new chapter of the crisis began on Tuesday (1st), with the revelation that the owner of Master was in contact with a person identified as minister Alexandre de Moraes. The messages came to light after Mendonça asked for a statement from the PGR (Attorney General's Office) regarding a report sent by the Federal Police to the STF.

The dialogues, recovered from the banker's cell phone, indicate that he asked Moraes, two days before being arrested, on November 17, 2025, if he should leave the country. They also show that the minister made edits to a R$131 million contract between Master and his wife's law firm, Viviane Barci de Moraes, and that the two have met at least six times since 2024.

In Mendonça's assessment, the messages prove that the banker knew in advance of the decision to arrest him and sought "intervention with public authorities involved in the respective decision-making processes".

Gonet requests annulment of the report

The Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, reacted hours later asking for the PF report to be annulled. According to him, Mendonça "used the police" to "impose the investigation" of Moraes, carrying out "activities that were not reported to him".

A STF minister can only be investigated after authorization from his own court colleagues. For Gonet, the report produced by the PF at Mendonça's request constitutes, in itself, an investigation, and should therefore be invalidated.

Gonet, however, is also mentioned in Vorcaro's messages — one of the banker's lawyers even forwarded dialogues attributed to the attorney general to him, and Gonet's son appears in the material. He has not publicly commented on the quotes about him.

Mendonça welcomed Vorcaro for a conversation

On Wednesday (2), ICL Notícias revealed that Mendonça welcomed Vorcaro for a conversation in March 2025. The approach was articulated by lawyer Ciro Rocha Soares and federal deputy Cezinha de Madureira (PL-SP). Messages extracted from the Master's owner's cell phone show that he received a photograph from Ciro next to Mendonça and that the lawyer took the minister to a tailor's shop.

"Speak, Vorcarinho, working for you! I took André to Vasco now, to make a suit", said Ciro in an audio sent on February 8, 2025.

In a note, Mendonça stated that the meeting dealt with a process regarding court orders of interest to Master and that he voted against the businessman in the trial.

Experts interviewed by Folha assessed that Mendonça's conduct of directly determining to the PF the identification of Vorcaro's interlocutor, without taking the issue to the plenary, was also problematic, even though the majority recognizes that the investigation into Moraes should continue. There is no consensus among them on whether this makes the PF report null and void.

Moraes asks Fachin to investigate Mendonça

In response to Mendonça's action, Moraes asked this Thursday (3) the president of the STF, Minister Edson Fachin, to open an investigation into Mendonça for abuse of authority, administrative improbity and criminal liability in the conduct of the Master and INSS (National Social Security Institutes) cases.

According to Moraes, the colleague targeted targets "for personal and political reasons" — he himself and the president of the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre, would be the targets — and even threatened to remove the general director of the PF, Andrei Rodrigues, and Gonet.

On the same day, the president of the STF also ordered Mendonça and Moraes — in addition to the Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, and the Director General of the PF, Andrei Rodrigues, both mentioned in Vorcaro's message exchanges — to provide information within five days about the PF report that deals with the messages that had Moraes as an interlocutor.

Fachin withdraws request for fake news inquiry

This Friday (4), Fachin withdrew Moraes' request against Mendonça from the fake news inquiry —where it had been filed— and incorporated it into the same process that already dealt with the report on the messages.

It also opened a period of five working days for the PGR to comment on the admissibility of the request and another five for Mendonça to defend himself, if he wishes. According to the order, the measures do not anticipate judgment on the merits.

Alongside Lula at the Planalto Palace, Fachin defended, as a response to the crisis, the approval of a code of ethics for ministers and the end of the fake news inquiry —today reported by Moraes—, in addition to the modernization of the Justice system. "There will be no precipitation, but no omission either," he said.

Fachin defends the creation of the code, which is still the center of an internal disagreement in the court and is currently under the responsibility of minister Cármen Lúcia, who must deliver the first version of the text after the elections.

Plenary divides

According to Folha's investigation, the only certain support for Mendonça in the plenary, at this moment, is from minister Luiz Fux.

On Moraes' side are ministers Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin and Gilmar Mendes, who proposed to Fachin to veto PF delegates in ministers' offices, alleging the risk of interference in the investigations.

The doubts fall on minister Kassio Nunes Marques, minister Cármen Lúcia and Fachin himself. In the current division of the court, the three are in Mendonça's group — in defense, for example, of the implementation of a code of conduct. His interlocutors, however, say that alignment with the Master's rapporteur is not unrestricted.

The pro-Moraes wing advocates that Fachin temporarily remove Mendonça from handling the Master and INSS cases while the investigation into him continues, to avoid future nullities. People close to Mendonça reject the idea and demand that the end of the fake news investigation also enter into the negotiation.

When the crisis began

Questions about the court began in December 2025, when minister Dias Toffoli became rapporteur of the Master case at the STF after Vorcaro's defense asked that investigations into the former banker be taken to the Supreme Court due to his connection with politicians with jurisdiction by function prerogative, called special jurisdiction.

The judge's actions garnered criticism. In the same month that he took over supervision of the investigation, Toffoli ordered maximum secrecy to the former banker's defense request that the investigations be transferred to the STF, under the argument that the action was necessary to avoid leaks.

With the seizure of Vorcaro's cell phone, the PF had access to messages in which the Master's owner and his brother-in-law, Fabiano Zettel, discussed payments to a company that has Toffoli as a partner. The corporation points to a direct conflict of interests, although the minister states that the amounts received are legal and declared.

The PF pointed out on February 11, after finding mention of Toffoli in the dialogues between Vorcaro and Zettel, the magistrate's suspicion as rapporteur of the investigations into the Master.