Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), clarified on Tuesday (April 21, 2026) that the restrictions imposed on the use of financial intelligence reports from Coaf (Financial Activities Control Council) apply only to future acts and do not affect investigations already in progress.
The decision is a follow-up to the injunction, when Moraes established stricter criteria for sharing so-called RIFs (Financial Intelligence Reports). Now, the minister has established that these rules are prospectively effective — that is, they come into effect as soon as the decision is published, with no automatic effect on previous procedures. Here’s the . (PDF – 122 kB).
In the order, Moraes declared: “The preliminary measure […] has prospective effectiveness (ex nunc), not automatically applying to past acts regularly carried out before its pronouncement”. The minister also stated that the objective is to provide legal certainty and avoid widespread impacts on ongoing investigations.
The March injunction had established a series of requirements for access to Coaf reports by authorities such as police, Public Ministry and CPIs (Parliamentary Commissions of Inquiry). Among the main points defined by the minister are:
- need for a formal procedure to be initiated, such as an investigation or PIC (Criminal Investigative Procedure);
- objective identification of the person being investigated;
- direct relationship between the requested report and the object of the investigation;
- prohibition of using data as the first or only investigative measure;
- prohibition of generic or exploratory requests;
- application of the same rules to court decisions and CPI requests;
- nullity of evidence obtained in disagreement with the criteria.
The minister also reinforced that failure to comply with these requirements makes the reports illegal, invalidating the evidence and derived elements, in accordance with the Constitution.
In the new decision, Moraes stated that the definition of effects only for the future “harmonizes with the principles of legal certainty” and avoids compromising advanced stage processes. Despite this, he highlighted that the validity of the evidence can be analyzed on a case-by-case basis by the Judiciary.
The order was urgently forwarded to the courts, Public Ministries, public defenders’ offices and the Central Bank, in addition to determining immediate communication to Coaf to comply with the new guidelines.
The issue is under analysis by the Supreme Court in an appeal with general repercussion, which discusses whether it is legal to use Coaf reports in criminal investigations without judicial authorization or without the prior opening of formal proceedings.
Read more:
