Brazil Supreme Court justice unseals probe into Bolsonaro biopic, citing suspected criminal funding

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Sunday unsealed an investigation into the production of a film about former President Jair Bolsonaro , pointing in his decision to suspicions the movie’s financing had ties to a criminal network.

The suspicions laid out in Justice Flávio Dino’s decision may complicate matters further for Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, only weeks before October’s national elections in which he will challenge President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva .

Sen. Bolsonaro, the ex-leader's eldest son, is under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion for receiving millions of dollars from a disgraced banker to finance the biopic about his father, titled “Dark Horse.”

Dino, a Lula appointee who oversees one of the investigations into the film, said the hypothesis that there existed a sophisticated scheme for the allocation and diversion of public funds involving federal congressional budget amendments and the Sao Paulo city government had strengthened.

On Thursday, Brazil’s federal police targeted federal lawmaker and Bolsonaro ally Mário Frias in an operation.

Police seized documents from the film’s production company and from Frias, who sent about 2 million reais ($400,000) to a nonprofit linked to the film. They suspect a criminal organization channeled funds to companies that were irregularly subcontracted, without evidence that the contracted services were provided.

The judge said Sunday that there were strong indications that Frias, who held a cabinet position during Bolsonaro’s term, played a central role within the alleged criminal network.

The network may also have links to the criminal organization the First Command of the Capital , or PCC, Dino said. U.S. President Donald Trump declared the group a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year.

Frias denies wrongdoing. “I never allocated any congressional budget funds to finance or benefice the production of the film in any way,” Frias said Sunday in a post. He had previously described Thursday’s operation as a “smoke screen.”

Brazil’s Supreme Court has been embroiled in turmoil these past few weeks, with suspicions of graft, political bias and police interference looming over several of its members.

Dino recently clashed with Justice André Mendonca, who was appointed by Bolsonaro. On Tuesday, Mendonca removed federal police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and the force’s intelligence director, Leandro Almada, for allegedly leading illegal investigations against Mendonca.

Then on Wednesday, Dino overruled his colleague and restored the two senior police officials to their posts. Chief-Justice Edson Fachin later suspended their opposing decisions.

The chaos gripping the court stems from the collapse of Banco Master , a mid-sized bank worth up to $16 billion in assets, which was shut down last November after a sprawling investigation into a fraud scheme involving billions of reais.

Banco Master’s former CEO Daniel Vorcaro was arrested earlier this year. It has since emerged that he had links with many high-ranking politicians – including Sen. Bolsonaro – but also several Supreme Court justices, including Alexandre de Moraes who oversaw the case in which Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup.

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