The president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Edson Fachin, opened, on Thursday night (12), a Suspicion Claim against minister Dias Toffoli. The legal device is used to remove a judge, member of the Public Prosecutor’s Office or civil servant from the case who is suspected of being biased or involved in the case.
A Federal Police investigation into Daniel Vorcaro’s cell phone pushed Toffoli into a cloud of suspicion regarding his role in the case. The PF recovered conversations and found mentions of Toffoli. The device was seized during Operation Compliance Zero, launched to investigate fraud before Master’s liquidation.
According to the Federal Police, Dias Toffoli received money from the company held in the brothers’ name and sold part of the Tayayá resort to a fund linked to Daniel Vorcaro’s brother-in-law.
In view of the content revealed, the STF divided itself into three wings: The first, assessed that the minister should voluntarily withdraw from the case to preserve himself and the image of the court. The PF report was seen by this group as “the limit of the limit” for the minister to continue leading the investigations.
The other wing stated that the removal would weaken the court, which “cannot give in to external pressure, from anyone”, and therefore, the case should continue with Toffoli until the delivery of the PF’s final report, scheduled for mid-March.
A third group argued that it was up to President Edson Fachin to “seek an institutional solution”, which would involve listening to Toffoli’s explanations, listening to other ministers and making a decision in accordance with the opinion of the majority of the House.
Faced with pressure, it was exactly this path that the president of the court decided to follow: he met, this afternoon, with the other ministers and decided to open the procedure.
In an interview with presenter Paula Valdez on Tarde Band News, the professor of Constitutional Law at Universidade Federal Fluminense, Gustavo Sampaio, pointed out that the Compliance Zero investigations could take similar directions to the Lava Jato operation.
“This was the chronicle of a fact already announced, because we knew that this was going to become increasingly more complex and we know now. If the investigations are allowed to flow as they need to flow in an environment of functional autonomy of the Federal Police, much more will appear.
There is a possibility that major authorities in this Republic may appear within the scope of these investigations. To a certain extent, this operation initiated with Compliance Zero could be a turning point in the recent history of the republic. We may be facing an investigation with more capacity to produce new facts than Operation Lava Jato.”
Sampaio also defended the removal of Dias Toffoli from reporting on the Master Case at the STF.
“The environment of distrust is so intense that, for the good of the Federal Supreme Court, for the good of the judiciary and for the good of the minister himself, it would be good for him to divorce this report and for it to be redistributed to another minister of the court.” The jurist and former Minister of Justice, Miguel Reale Jr., also defended Toffoli’s suspicion.
“What is at stake is not the figure of A, B or C, it is the figure of the institution itself, which cannot be continuously victimized daily by news that discredits its integrity.
The situation, therefore, appears quite serious. There will be no solution to the issue with the simple dismissal of Minister Toffoli as rapporteur, because he would then continue to judge, even if not as rapporteur, this case. Leaving the rapporteur is not enough”, said the jurist.
Congress is also working to question Toffoli’s actions. Senator Eduardo Girão and federal deputy Marcel van Hattem, both from the Novo Party, presented a new request for the minister’s impeachment.
Also in an interview with Tarde Bandnews, Girão classified the case as the biggest fraud in the country’s financial system.
“We have now also entered with these new facts requiring the minister’s removal and I believe that society must continue and demonstrate in an orderly, peaceful, but firm manner so that the entire truth that comes to light is the biggest fraud in Brazil’s financial system, which does not just involve this case of the minister”.
In addition to the request for removal, Senator Alessandro Vieira (MDB-SE) filed this Thursday, 12th, a representation to the Attorney General’s Office for the body to present a request for suspicion of the minister to the Federal Supreme Court.
In the document sent to the PGR, the senator maintains that there is sufficient evidence to question the minister’s continued reporting on the case. “The existence of a commercial link in which the judge would appear, in theory, as a beneficiary of resources paid by the person under investigation would significantly mitigate the impartiality of Minister Dias Toffol”, states the author of the representation.
The representation also mentions decisions considered heterodox in the conduct of the case, such as the original determination of sealing and safeguarding electronic evidence in the Supreme Court itself and the imposition of restrictive deadlines on the actions of the Federal Police. For the senator, the set of facts requires firm action from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is responsible for initiating the allegation of suspicion when not declared voluntarily by the magistrate.
The request sent to the PGR requires the formalization of the allegation of suspicion before the STF, with the immediate removal of Minister Dias Toffoli from reporting on the Banco Master investigation.
THE OTHER SIDE
In a statement released today, Minister Toffoli released a statement admitting for the first time that he is, indeed, one of Maridt’s partners, but assured that he never received any amounts from Daniel Vorcaro or his brother-in-law.
Toffoli also said that he never had any friendship with the owner of Master. He once again defended the maintenance of the report, pointing out that Maridt’s departure from the company at the TAYAYÁ resort took place definitively in February 2025, nine months before Toffoli took over the Master case.
The minister also maintained that the request for suspicion presented by the Federal Police is based on “inclusions” and that the PF “has no legitimacy for the request”.
