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The Federal Police command replaced two delegates who were involved in investigating the Banco Master case at the Federal Supreme Court (STF). The change, which came to light on Monday (9/11), generated negative reactions from wings of the PF itself and civil society entities.
The change drew attention because it happened days after delegates sent reports to the PF management about the alleged connection between three STF ministers and banker Daniel Vorcaro, the former Master controller who is in prison on suspicion of crimes against the national financial system.
The connection between ministers and the banker was the trigger for a serious crisis involving the STF on the eve of the elections.
The delegates replaced were Daniel Cola and Wadson Cajé. They were assigned to the PF's General Coordination for the Repression of Corruption, Financial Crimes and Money Laundering.
They worked with the STF in investigations involving Master and worked in investigations such as the one investigating crimes related to the bank and fraud at the National Social Security Institute (INSS).
The general tone of the criticism is that the change of delegates represents a "serious" episode of attempted interference in the progress of investigations involving STF ministers.
"Any change in the conduct of criminal investigations raises suspicion, but, in the case of the biggest case of financial corruption and the Brazilian Judiciary, this change raises serious suspicions", says Bruno Brandão, executive director of Transparency International in Brazil, to the report.
The position is similar to that of the National Association of Federal Police Delegates (ADPF), which said, in a statement, that it considers the episode "especially serious due to the precedent it may represent." For the association, the measure would threaten the autonomy of PF members to conduct investigations.
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When contacted by BBC News Brasil, the PF did not comment. In a note released on Monday (9/11), the corporation said that "the leadership and coordination functions carried out in the Federal Police are not to be confused with the final activities of conducting investigations and do not imply any change in the teams responsible for ongoing investigations".
Suspicions of involvement of STF ministers in the Master case
Credit, Luiz Silveira/STF
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The replacement of delegates was revealed by the UOL portal on Monday (11/9). The PF has not yet announced who will replace them.
Wadson Cajé and Daniel Cola had already become nationally known in September for being two of the delegates who prepared a report requested by André Mendonça with information about Alexandre de Moraes' possible involvement with Daniel Vorcaro. At the time, Mendonça was the rapporteur for Operation Compliance Zero.
The report detailed the contacts allegedly maintained between Moraes and Vorcaro via text messages, calls and personal meetings. The document also mentioned the fact that Moraes had access to a R$129 million contract between Vorcaro and the law firm of his wife, lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes. After receiving the document, Mendonça asked for an investigation to be opened against his colleague.
The report was the trigger for a crisis in the STF.
According to Moraes, the document violated legislation because the PF could not carry out an investigation against a STF minister without the consent of the Court's plenary.
Moraes reacted and presented a request for an investigation against Mendonça based on another report, with information from the PF intelligence sector, about alleged irregular conduct by Mendonça in conducting the Compliance Zero operation.
Amid the exchange of accusations between the two ministers, the president of the Court, Edson Fachin, called a session to vote on the investigation requests against Moraes and Mendonça, which ended without a concrete result.
Fachin then took on the responsibility of reporting on the Compliance Zero operation and that was why, on October 2, the minister authorized the PF to prepare another report with mention of all ministers who might have had a connection with Vorcaro.
According to the newspaper O Globo, the team led by Cajé e Cola prepared three different reports, with mentions of ministers Kassio Nunes Marques, Dias Toffoli and Alexandre de Moraes. Also according to the newspaper, the general director of the PF, Andrei Rodrigues, was not satisfied with the documents and ordered that they be redone.
BBC News Brasil asked the PF the reasons for replacing the delegates and whether the PF ordered the documents to be rewritten, but received no answers.
Behind the scenes, the decision was interpreted as retaliation for the actions of the two delegates.
A person who followed the Compliance Zero investigations at the STF told BBC News Brasil that the replacement of the two delegates is being seen as an attempt to block investigations against members of the Court.
Credit, Anadolu via Getty Images
According to her, the two delegates would be recognized for being "professional" and "competent" and there would be no reason for them to be exchanged in the middle of investigations into the case.
A PF source interviewed by BBC News Brasil in a reserved capacity, however, said that the replacement of the two delegates was due to a breach of trust with the corporation's leadership.
According to this source, the reports prepared by the team at Fachin's request would have gone beyond what had been determined by the magistrate and would not have been limited to just mentioning the alleged links between ministers and Vorcaro. Furthermore, the three documents would make interpretations about possible interests and contacts allegedly maintained between magistrates and the banker.
There was also some strangeness at the top of the PF, according to this source, about the fact that the documents only mentioned Nunes Marques, Moraes and Dias Toffoli and left out ministers Luiz Fux, André Mendonça and Gilmar Mendes — whose names also appear in messages extracted from Vorcaro's cell phone seized by the PF.
Still according to this source, one of the fears of the PF leadership was that the reports delivered by the team would be used as a pretext to cancel the rest of the investigations.
Comparisons with the PF change carried out during the Bolsonaro government
On the other hand, civil society entities assessed the exchange of the two delegates as a serious episode and comparable to another case in which police officers were replaced in the midst of investigations involving people with privileged jurisdiction: the change of command of the Rio de Janeiro PF determined in 2019 by then president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
That year, delegate Ricardo Saadi commanded the PF Superintendence in Rio amid investigations seen, at the time, as potentially unfavorable to senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ).
In August 2019, the government changed command of the Superintendence, claiming that the change was a result of Saadi's performance in the position.
In 2020, however, the video of a Bolsonaro government ministerial meeting showed the then president mentioning the case and citing the episode as a demonstration that he could change command of the PF to protect his family.
"I'm not going to expect to screw my whole family, or my friends, because I can't change someone from security at the end of the line that belongs to our structure. Go change! If you can't change, change his boss! Can't you change his boss? Change the minister! And that's final! We're not here to play around," said Bolsonaro.
For Bruno Brandão, today's episode refers to the change of the PF Superintendence in Rio in 2019.
"Yes, there is a parallel between what happened in Rio, under another government, and what is happening now. These situations need to be clarified because there can be no protection against investigation in any case," he said.
The ADPF note on the episode says that the justifications for replacing the two delegates would not have been convincing and that it would be necessary to preserve the functional independence of the delegates.
"For the Association, the justifications presented by the Federal Police are insufficient to clarify the circumstances of the removals and the determination to redo documents produced as part of the investigations", says the text.
The ADPF emphasizes that the conduct of investigations must respect "the technical-legal autonomy of the responsible police authorities".
Also according to the entity, "investigative autonomy cannot depend on the position or influence of the people mentioned in an investigation."
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