Brazil Court Unseals Probe Into Bolsonaro Biopic Financing

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has unsealed an investigation into the production of a film about former President Jair Bolsonaro, citing suspicions that the movie's financing was linked to a criminal network.

The decision by Justice Flávio Dino could complicate the position of Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president's eldest son, just weeks before October's national elections in which he is set to challenge President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The senator is under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion over allegations that he received 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 had strengthened that a sophisticated scheme existed for the allocation and diversion of public funds involving federal congressional budget amendments and the São Paulo city government.

On Thursday, Brazil's federal police targeted federal lawmaker and Bolsonaro ally Mário Frias in an operation. Officers 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. Investigators suspect a criminal organization channeled funds to companies that were irregularly subcontracted, without evidence that the contracted services were provided.

Dino said 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 known as the First Command of the Capital, or PCC, the justice 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," he said in a post, having previously described Thursday's operation as a "smoke screen."

The Supreme Court has been embroiled in turmoil in recent weeks, with suspicions of graft, political bias and police interference looming over several of its members. Dino recently clashed with Justice André Mendonça, who was appointed by Bolsonaro. On Tuesday, Mendonça removed federal police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and the force's intelligence director, Leandro Almada, for allegedly leading illegal investigations against Mendonça. The following day, 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, as well as 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.