After the Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, filed a request for investigation into the alleged actions of the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes to favor the interests of Banco Master, new requests to investigate the minister’s conduct were made by politicians. Moraes denies irregularities in the case.
Also at the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), Curitiba councilor Guilherme Kilter (Novo) filed a request for Moraes’ actions to be investigated. At the National Council of Justice (CNJ), a similar request was made by the deputy leader of the opposition in the Chamber, federal deputy Ubiratan Sanderson (PL-RS).
The requests were filed after the press revealed that Moraes spoke about the Master case with the president of the Central Bank, Gabriel Galípolo. The information was published by the newspaper The Globe and confirmed by Estadão. The law firm of Moraes’ wife, Viviane Barci, had a R$129 million contract with the bank.
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In just one day, Moraes would have called Galípolo six times to discuss the issue. For Gonet, however, there is no concrete evidence to confirm the suspicions that Moraes had pressured Galípolo about the inspection at the bank. Moraes denied the accusation and said that he only dealt with the BC president about the application of financial sanctions by the United States.
This was the first statement by the Attorney General of the Republic on the case. Gonet was appointed to command the Attorney General’s Office with the support of Moraes and maintains a good relationship with the minister, who was the rapporteur of the case for an attempted coup d’état, and with the STF.
Even so, councilor Guilherme Kilter states, in his request to the PGR, that the six calls from Moraes to Galípolo detail the “intensity of pressure exerted by the minister on the monetary authority”. “The minister, taking advantage of his high position and prestige, would have sponsored private interests before the public administration, configuring, in theory, administrative law.”
Provided for in the Penal Code, the crime of administrative advocacy consists of sponsoring a private interest using the status of a public official.
Kilter also says that there is an “evident” conflict of interest between the STF minister and the Master bank, due to the contract between Moraes’ wife’s law firm and the bank.
“The person in the news (Alexandre de Moraes) would have acted to defend the institutional interest of a bank that had a multimillion-dollar contract with his wife, so that the impartiality and interests of the administration involved in the Central Bank’s decisions would be unduly influenced by the private interest defended, causing shock that undermines impartiality”, states the councilor in the document.
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Representative Sanderson, in turn, requested the establishment of an investigative procedure “within the scope of the National Justice Inspectorate, the request for information, documents, communications records, agendas, messages and minutes possibly related to the facts narrated, as well as the hearing of people who can contribute to clarifying the facts”.
Sanderson recognizes that there is no evidence of Moraes’ interference in the Federal Police, the body investigating the Master case. But he highlights that information published in the press indicates that this may have occurred. Hence the need for “cautious and independent investigation”.
