Senator Flavio Bolsonaro under investigation for ties to disgraced banker in Brazilian corruption scandal

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, a leading right-wing candidate in Brazil’s presidential election, is under investigation for his ties to a disgraced banker involved in a wide-reaching corruption scandal.

Brazil’s top court unsealed court documents on Friday showing that Supreme Court Justice Andre Mendonca opened an probe into the senator in July, at the request of federal police.

According to the documents, investigators are looking into whether the senator engaged in corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in connection to Daniel Vorcaro, the former head of failed lender Banco Master.

Vorcaro was arrested in March and stands accused of engineering one of the largest fraud scandals in Brazilian history, with an estimated 800,000 bank clients among its victims. The fraud, according to federal police, was valued at roughly $2.3bn.

Police said data extracted from Vorcaro’s cellphone showed that he transferred about $12m to a US-based fund linked to Flavio Bolsonaro’s brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, in 2025.

The money was allegedly for the 2026 film Dark Horse, which portrays Eduardo and Flavio’s father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, in a flattering light.

Investigators are seeking to establish the origin of the funds, the companies that made the transfers and the ultimate beneficiaries, according to court documents.

A screenshot included in the documents also suggests that Eduardo, a former Brazilian legislator, advised Vorcaro on managing the US-based funds.

“They want to frame this as bribe money, which it isn’t,” Eduardo told Reuters on Friday. “That’s a lie.”

He said that the transfers were intended to shield the funds from interference by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a frequent target of right-wing criticism.

De Moraes oversaw the 2025 criminal case against Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting an attempted coup. Later, the justice also participated in a separate case that resulted in Eduardo Bolsonaro’s own conviction for soliciting foreign interference in Brazil’s politics.

Scandal threatens to affect election

Allegations of ties between Flavio Bolsonaro and Vorcaro emerged in May, when the publication Intercept Brasil published leaked messages between the two.

Flavio Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing, saying he was simply seeking private investment for his father’s film. He is challenging incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for the presidency on October 4 in the general election.

The race is currently expected to head to a run-off, with neither candidate receiving an outright majority in pre-election polls.

Both Flavio Bolsonaro and Lula have issued statements calling for full transparency in the mushrooming scandal, which has involved political figures across Brazil’s government.

“Investigate everything and everyone with transparency,” Flavio Bolsonaro said during a campaign event on Friday. “Show it to the press, show it to the people. Let’s see who is right.”

In a television interview on Thursday, Lula likewise called for a full probe into the matter.

“Investigate everything, disclose everything, regardless of who it hurts,” Lula said.

The investigation into Flavio Bolsonaro came to light after the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Edson Fachin ordered the full Banco Master case to be unsealed this week, releasing thousands of pages of court records.

The court itself has been grappling this week with its own members’s involvement in the Banco Master scandal.

Justice Mendonca, one of Jair Bolsonaro’s judicial appointees, unsealed on September 1 a series of documents purporting to show Vorcaro seeking advice from de Moraes, his colleague on the court.

De Moraes shot back that Mendonca had abused his position in the government by unsealing those documents and seeking a private audience with Vorcaro, without prosecutors or police present.

The court is set to decide whether to launch an investigation into de Moraes next week.

The broader implications of the newly unsealed documents remain unclear, with parts of the case, including the probe into Senator Bolsonaro, still sealed as police investigate.