Brazil's crisis-hit Supreme Court probes judge's ties to jailed banker

Brazil's Supreme Court on Tuesday began examining one of its top justice's ties to a jailed banker, in an unprecedented crisis that has eclipsed the country's presidential election campaign.

Alexandre de Moraes, considered one of the most powerful figures in Brazil, led the coup trial which convicted former president Jair Bolsonaro in 2025, and is now in the spotlight in the crisis linked to a fraud case which has rattled the corridors of power.

The 57-year-old justice was present for the plenary session which was being broadcast live on television and YouTube.

The crisis is one of many erupting from a scandal around a once little-known banker whose arrest last year for fraud has unveiled a web of questionable ties that has ensnared judges, lawmakers and even right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro.

Daniel Vorcaro was charged with fraud after the collapse of his private bank Banco Master, in a case that has led to a cascade of revelations that have dominated headlines ahead of the election.

The probe has also triggered an unprecedented feud in the Supreme Court, which is overseeing the police investigation.

Two weeks ago, justice Andre Mendonca, who was appointed during the Jair Bolsonaro presidency, unsealed a police report linked to the Vorcaro investigation.

It revealed messages sent by Vorcaro to a number attributed to Moraes, in which the banker sought the justice's help in the fraud investigation against him.

Court president Edson Fachin summoned Tuesday's session to examine the validity of the police report and potentially decide whether to open an investigation into Moraes.

Early Tuesday, Moraes asked Fachin to annull the proceedings, saying they had been "deliberately steered" by Mendonca to frame him for "political and electoral purposes."

The court's headquarters in Brasilia stepped up security for the session, deploying armed guards and bomb-sniffing dogs.

"This plenary session is more important than the World Cup final," Sostenes Cavalcante, leader of Bolsonaro's Liberal Party leader in the Chamber of Deputies, said Monday.

The crisis has dominated the campaign ahead of October 4 elections, expected to be a knife-edge race between leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Flavio Bolsonaro, who is one of Jair Bolsonaro's sons.

Lula has called for transparency so that those responsible are held accountable, while Flavio Bolsonaro has lashed out at Moraes.

The senator and eldest son of the former far-right president, is under investigation for suspected corruption and money laundering regarding the financing of a film about his father, for which he received funds from Vorcaro.