Flavio Bolsonaro faces corruption probe weeks before Brazil election

The investigation came to light as Brazil’s Supreme Court unseals files related to the Banco Master corruption scandal.

Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro is facing a corruption investigation just weeks before the country's election [File: Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters]

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.

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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.

随着巴西最高法院解封与 Banco Master 腐败丑闻相关的档案，这项调查也随之曝光。

巴西总统候选人弗拉维奥·博索纳罗在距离该国大选仅几周之际面临腐败调查。[图片：Alexandre Meneghini/路透社]

巴西总统选举中领先的右翼候选人弗拉维奥·博尔索纳罗参议员，因与卷入一起影响广泛的腐败丑闻的声名狼藉的银行家有联系而正在接受调查。

巴西最高法院周五解封了法庭文件，文件显示最高法院大法官安德烈·门多萨 (Andre Mendonca) 于 7 月应联邦警察的要求，对这位参议员展开了调查。

巴西最高法院因法官之间的争执而陷入混乱（共3条，第1条）

巴西最高法院内部矛盾加深，司法部门暂停联邦警察局长的职务（共3条，此为第2条）

巴西最高法院因政治混乱加剧而提前关闭（共3条记录，此为第3条）

根据文件显示，调查人员正在调查这位参议员是否与破产贷款机构 Banco Master 的前负责人 Daniel Vorcaro 有关，参与了腐败、洗钱和逃税活动。

沃卡罗于今年3月被捕，他被指控策划了巴西历史上最大的诈骗案之一，受害者估计有80万银行客户。据联邦警方称，这起诈骗案涉案金额约为23亿美元。

警方表示，从沃卡罗的手机中提取的数据显示，他在 2025 年向一个与弗拉维奥·博尔索纳罗的兄弟爱德华多·博尔索纳罗有关联的美国基金转移了约 1200 万美元。

据称这笔钱是为 2026 年上映的电影《黑马》准备的，该片以讨喜的方式描绘了爱德华多和弗拉维奥的父亲、前总统雅伊尔·博尔索纳罗。

根据法庭文件，调查人员正在努力查明资金来源、进行转账的公司以及最终受益人。

文件中包含的一张截图还显示，巴西前立法者爱德华多曾就管理美国基金向沃卡罗提供建议。

“他们想把这笔钱说成是贿赂款，但事实并非如此，”爱德华多周五告诉路透社。“那是谎言。”

他表示，这些资金转移是为了保护资金免受最高法院大法官亚历山大·德·莫赖斯的干预，德·莫赖斯经常受到右翼批评。

德莫赖斯法官负责审理了2025年针对雅伊尔·博尔索纳罗的刑事案件，博尔索纳罗因策划未遂政变被判处27年监禁。之后，这位法官还参与了另一起案件，该案导致爱德华多·博尔索纳罗因寻求外国干预巴西政治而被定罪。

丑闻或将影响选举

今年 5 月，巴西媒体 Intercept Brasil 公布了弗拉维奥·博尔索纳罗和沃卡罗之间的泄露信息，两人之间有关关系的指控开始浮出水面。

弗拉维奥·博索纳罗否认有任何不当行为，称他只是在为父亲的电影寻求私人投资。他将在10月4日的大选中挑战现任总统路易斯·伊纳西奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦。

目前预计这场选举将进入第二轮投票，因为两位候选人在选前民调中均未获得绝对多数支持。

弗拉维奥·博索纳罗和卢拉都发表声明，呼吁对这起不断发酵的丑闻保持完全透明，该丑闻涉及巴西政府各部门的政治人物。

弗拉维奥·博索纳罗周五在一次竞选活动中表示：“要对所有人和事进行透明的调查。把调查结果公之于众，让媒体和民众看到。让我们看看谁是对的。”

卢拉周四在接受电视采访时也呼吁对此事进行全面调查。

“要调查一切，公开一切，无论会伤害到谁，”卢拉说。

对弗拉维奥·博尔索纳罗的调查是在最高法院首席大法官埃德森·法钦本周下令解封整个 Banco Master 案件后曝光的，此举公布了数千页法庭记录。

本周，法院本身一直在努力应对其成员卷入 Banco Master 丑闻一事。

9月1日，博索纳罗任命的法官门多萨大法官公开了一系列文件，这些文件显示沃卡罗曾向他的同事、最高法院法官德莫赖斯寻求建议。

德莫赖斯反驳说，门多萨滥用了他在政府中的职位，擅自解封了这些文件，并在没有检察官或警察在场的情况下，寻求与沃卡​​罗进行私人会面。

法院将于下周决定是否对德莫赖斯展开调查。

新解封的文件的更广泛影响尚不清楚，案件的部分内容，包括对参议员博尔索纳罗的调查，仍在警方调查中，因此仍处于封存状态。