The sister-in-law of Federal Supreme Court (STF) minister Dias Toffoli stated that her husband was never a partner in the luxury resort Tayayá, located in Ribeirão Claro, in the north of Paraná. The development, referred to by employees as the “Toffoli resort”, has a casino and gaming machines.
Documents indicate that the company Maridt Participações, of which the minister’s brothers are partners, held a third of the stake in the resort. The company’s headquarters are in a 130 square meter house in the Jardim Universitário neighborhood, in Marília, in the interior of São Paulo.
The property is also the residence of José Eugênio Dias Toffoli, brother of the minister and CEO of Maridt. His wife, Cássia Pires Toffoli, stated that she was unaware that the address served as the company’s headquarters and denied any link between her husband and Tayayá.
In an interview with the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, Cássia said that the house is her property and that it was financed with “her own money for 25 years”. According to her, rumors about an alleged connection between José Eugênio and the resort do not correspond to reality. “People keep inventing things, that José Eugênio is the owner of Tayayá”, he stated.
In 2021, Dias Toffoli’s brothers sold half of the stake they owned in the resort to a fund owned by businessman Fabiano Zettel, managed by the management company Reag. Zettel is the brother-in-law of Daniel Vorcaro, controller of Banco Master, an institution later liquidated by the Central Bank and investigated by the Federal Police.
At the STF, the investigation investigating alleged fraud involving Banco Master has Minister Dias Toffoli as its rapporteur. The case reached the Court after a request from Vorcaro’s defense. One day after the redistribution of the case, Toffoli traveled to watch the Copa Libertadores final, between Flamengo and Palmeiras, on the same jet as one of the lawyers linked to the defense of the bank’s investigators.
The aircraft belongs to businessman and former senator Luiz Oswaldo Pastore. Also on board was lawyer Augusto Arruda Botelho, defender of Luiz Antônio Bull, compliance director at Banco Master. To interlocutors, Toffoli stated that he did not deal with matters related to the investigations during the flight.
In February last year, the shares of the brothers and a cousin of the minister in the Tayayá resort were sold for more than R$3 million. The buyer was PHB Holding, owned by lawyer Paulo Humberto Barbosa from Goiás, who has already acted for J&F, owned by the Batista brothers, in tax cases.
In 2017, Dias Toffoli was honored by the Ribeirão Claro City Council with the title of honorary citizen, due to his role in establishing the resort. The minister still stays there.
Two years later, in 2019, Toffoli used a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) plane to travel to Ribeirão Claro, where he participated in the inauguration of the city’s electoral forum, named after Luiz Toffoli, the minister’s father. On that occasion, he also stayed at the Tayayá resort. The information was published by Folha de S.Paulo.
Still within the scope of the STF, Banco Master is represented in another inquiry by the office of lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes, wife of minister Alexandre de Moraes. The process investigates businessman Nelson Tanure, suspected of using privileged information in the capital market, a practice known as insider trading. The case is reported by Dias Toffoli.
When contacted by Folha, Viviane Barci’s office did not comment. This week, lawyer Walfrido Warde left Daniel Vorcaro’s defense at the STF, without detailing the reasons. The banker continues to be represented by names such as Pier Paolo Bottini and Roberto Podval.
Among STF ministers, the referral of the case involving Banco Master to the first instance is seen as a possible institutional solution for Toffoli. The minister, however, resists the idea and claims there is no reason for its suspension.
In the midst of the crisis, the president of the STF, Edson Fachin, interrupted his vacation and returned to Brasília. He has stated to colleagues that the code of ethics applicable to Court ministers is not a personal initiative, but the result of a “society demand”.
