Lucas Soares

Como é possível que Paulo Gonet -- a pessoa mais incriminada pelas revelações de hoje, depois de Moraes -- continue a atuar neste caso como se fosse uma autoridade neutra? Ele está investigando a si mesmo! Ou melhor: bloqueando uma investigação sobre si mesmo.

No matter how accustomed you think you are to scandals, the one engulfing Brazil's authoritarian censorship judge, Alexandre de Moraes, is stunning:🇧🇷 Banco Master is a Brazilian bank that exploded in growth since 2017. The whole thing became a massive fraud that destroyed billions in wealth and deposits. It all collapsed, and its founder/CEO (Daniel Vorcaro) was arrested trying to board a private jet to Dubai (Vorcaro became notorious for the most opulent life imaginable, which often benefited Brazil's leading political and financial figures). Despite the destruction of the fraud, Banco Master has received bizarrely favorable treatment from Brazil's Supreme Court. One of the court's judges flew in a private jet to Peru to watch a soccer match along with the Lula-appointee lawyer representing the bank and then, just a couple of days later, put the whole case under "complete secrecy" -- so nobody knows who is involved or how. Then a contract was discovered whereby the corrupt Bank committed to pay the law firm of Moraes' wife and kids a total of $28 million over 36 months (a sum of $780k/month: obscene and unheard of even for Brazil's best lawyers, let alone for Moraes' wife and kids). Then Globo reported that Moraes had called the Central Bank several times to talk about a sale for which Banco Master needed regulatory approval (other than his wife's very lucrative interest in the bank, he'd have no reason or basis to intervene in the bank's affairs this way). It was also reported this week by Globo that Moraes attended a small, male-only party at the $9 million mansion of the bank's chief, Vorcaro, along with less than two dozen top Brazilian political and financial elites. [Moraes and his wife bought a new mansion in Brasilia a few months ago for $2.9 million.] The lead prosecutor chosen by Lula has shockingly announced that he finds nothing "illicit" about this $28 contract between the bank and Moraes' family (😂). The Brazilian establishment, led by Globo, cheered for years as Moraes seized absolute and tyrannical powers: so that he could imprison Bolsonaro and crush his movement with censorship, prison and exile. Any real questioning, let alone criticism, of Moraes was treated as "an attack on Brazilian democracy" and criminalized with censorship and often imprisonment. Now that they think that Moraes has fulfilled his mission, Globo and company want those tyrannical powers returned. But as history shows, very few humans voluntarily give up absolute power. So now it's open season on Moraes: better late than never, but hardly for noble reasons. He or those close to him are leaking to government-funded blogs that he is planning a "heavy" response and has a "thirst for vengeance," so we'll see if the creators of Frankenstein can cage their monster, or if he will eat them.