A consortium of municipalities in the interior of São Paulo spent R$1.6 million in 2025 with the STF (Supreme Federal Court) and the head of the PGR (Attorney General’s Office).
According to documents obtained by SheetR$348,183.50 was spent on a joint lecture by , Minister of the STF, and the Attorney General of the Republic, on April 28 last year, at the headquarters of Cioeste (Intermunicipal Consortium of the Western Metropolitan Region of São Paulo), in Barueri (SP).
The contract for the lecture includes, in addition to remuneration for speakers, costs such as accommodation, travel, staff, tax and social security expenses, platform for registration, certificates and even notepads and pens, without making the value of each item explicit.
Another R$1,228,665.78 was paid to —created by , also a Supreme Court minister. The company says it was hired to carry out a one-year continuing training program. This contract was reported in early April by Carta Capital magazine.
The expenses of the São Paulo municipalities for Gilmar and Gonet’s lectures and the classes at the institute linked to Mendonça are rare examples in which this information becomes public.
The hiring is not irregular, since the Federal Constitution and the Organic Law of the Judiciary allow ministers of the Supreme Court and other authorities to be paid to give classes and lectures.
None of them, however, are obliged to disclose who they are hired by and the amounts received. The exceptions are cases of public contracts, such as this one.
When contacted, the two ministers and the attorney general denied any irregularity in the payments.
In recent months, especially after the Banco Master scandal, demands for transparency mechanisms regarding these payments have grown, amid questions about conflicts of interest that may involve court ministers. Currently, the STF, proposed by the president of the court, Edson Fachin.
Cioeste is a consortium formed by 14 municipalities in São Paulo to carry out contracts and provide services. City halls finance the operation of the entity.
Gilmar stated that the amount committed by the consortium corresponds to the lecture and its operational costs, and not to the “individual payment received by the minister, which was a small fraction of the amount indicated in the document”.
He did not want to say what this fraction would be and highlighted that all amounts received by him were “duly declared to the Federal Revenue Service”.
Under reservation, two members of the Supreme Court told the Sheet that the actual payment for lectures does not usually exceed R$50 thousand.
This value, however, was assessed as surprisingly low by a person from the speaking market interviewed by the report, also anonymously, and who works in the business and entertainment sector.
This agent said that company executives usually charge between R$100,000 and R$200,000 to participate in this type of agenda. Famous actors and former reality show participants charge at least R$50,000.
Other notes show, for example, that a master of ceremonies received R$48,000 to participate in a consortium event.
Gonet was questioned by Sheet several times, through his advisor, since April 24th, but he did not respond until the publication of this text.
The two’s joint lecture took place at the seminar “The challenges of the municipal federative entity and legal security”, for around 200 people.
The payment note records the transfer of R$348,000 for the event, without detailing the amounts allocated to Gilmar and Gonet.
Payment was made to ABFP (Brazilian Training and Research Association), which intermediated the deal. The company operates in the lecture business and is chaired by Zilmar Santana. He was also contacted since April, by cell phone and email, but did not respond about the value of the transfers to ministers.
At the event in Barueri, Gilmar defended the creation of municipal guards and described the seminar as “a useful debate on this varied topic”.
Gonet spoke about the relationship between law and freedom, the importance of legal certainty and the existence of clear laws to guarantee stability. He also defended an update to labor laws, which “are almost a hundred years old”, to cover app-based workers.
Both the contract with Gonet and Gilmar and the one with the Mendonça institute were signed in 2025, when the consortium was chaired by the current mayor of São Roque, Guto Issa (PSD).
“All prices are compatible with values practiced in the market, including other contracts carried out. Legal dictates were strictly followed, in particular the guidelines of the Tenders and Contracts Law for measuring the regularity of prices and other aspects of contracting services”, stated Issa.
When contacted, the Mendonça institute stated that the minister only participated in the opening class of the course, for which he was not paid.
According to the institution, two seminars, six free courses, a corporate course, more than 3,000 class hours with around 30 teachers have already been held, and two more corporate courses are planned to be held. In total, 423 professionals have already been trained in law and public administration — at a cost of around R$105,000 for the entity.
The minister said that he “exercises, alongside his judicial function, teaching activities, as expressly permitted by Brazilian legislation to members of the judiciary.”
A Sheet questioned whether part of the profits from Iter’s R$1.2 million contract with the consortium had been donated to the “consecration of an altar to God”, as the minister promised in February this year.
“The institute is still in the structuring phase of its activities and has not made a profit so far, which is why there has been no distribution of results or donations to be made”, replied Iter.
