The Associated Press sets out how the collapse of Banco Master, a mid-sized bank shut down last November after a fraud investigation, has reached the Brazilian Supreme Court three weeks before a presidential election. According to documents in the investigation, Justice Alexandre de Moraes provided legal advice to the bank’s former head Daniel Vorcaro, who has since been arrested, and de Moraes’s wife held a 130 million reais contract to supply legal services to Banco Master. Justice André Mendonça, who was in charge of the case, is accused by colleagues of selectively releasing parts of it and slow-walking the portions touching Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, now the opposition presidential candidate, to coincide with the election; Mendonça denies bias. Each justice has now moved against the other, with Mendonça reported to want de Moraes suspended and de Moraes asking that Mendonça be investigated and possibly impeached by the Senate. The court met on September 15 to consider whether de Moraes should be investigated and postponed the question, possibly until December; Chief Justice Luiz Edson Fachin has removed Mendonça from the Banco Master case and ordered the file unsealed. The professional conduct at issue is what makes this more than a factional quarrel: a sitting justice is said to have acted as a legal adviser to a party under investigation, while a rival is accused of timing disclosure to electoral advantage. Candidates in the October election have promised to reshape the court, and the next president will appoint at least four justices.

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