Brazil’s Federal Police arrested a former IT chief of the Superior Court of Justice suspected of leaking sealed case data to lawyer Willer Tomaz, a friend of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. The warrant came from the Supreme Court, and Brazilian outlets report it was signed by Alexandre de Moraes.
BRASILIA — Brazil’s Federal Police arrested Humberto Fontoura Pradera on Tuesday, a former head of information technology at the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), on suspicion of feeding confidential case information to Willer Tomaz, a Brasília lawyer and a personal friend of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. The preventive arrest warrant came from the Supreme Federal Court, and Brazilian outlets including Revista Oeste and O Antagonista report that it was authorized by Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
The arrest is the second phase of what the police call Operation Linceu. The first phase, on Oct. 19, was a search of Pradera’s home in Brasília. Three days earlier, on Oct. 16, STJ president Luis Felipe Salomão had removed him from the court, where he had served as secretary of information technology and later as head of the court’s artificial intelligence office. The Federal Police say they are investigating breach of official secrecy, electronic embezzlement, active and passive corruption and money laundering.
What the police say they found
According to a police report cited by Metrópoles, messages show Pradera sharing with Tomaz information about “internal demands of the court,” case identifiers, a photo of a document on a computer screen and discussions about the possible effects of rulings. Tomaz denies any wrongdoing. His position, as reported, is that “advance knowledge of rulings at the Superior Court of Justice is not a crime, but a feature built into the court’s own system.” Pradera’s defense had not commented publicly at the time of writing.
The political weight of the case comes from the lawyer, not the clerk. Tomaz and Flávio Bolsonaro, who ran for president in October as the opposition’s candidate, are both under a separate Supreme Court inquiry on suspicion of money laundering, according to Metrópoles. Revista Oeste reports that Tomaz is also being investigated over billions in transactions tied to betting companies. No accusation in this new phase names the senator.
Why it matters
A leak of sealed data from one of Brazil’s highest courts is a serious matter, and if the evidence holds, it should be prosecuted. But the question for American readers is who is holding the pen. Once again the arrest order traces back to Moraes, the same justice who has jailed opposition figures, barred lawmakers from visiting a political prisoner and now appears himself in Federal Police reports on the Banco Master banker. A judge who is a subject of one police investigation is directing arrests in another that brushes against the main opposition leader.
That is the pattern critics describe as institutional capture: the same small group of justices investigates, orders arrests and decides, while the political target of the moment keeps showing up at the edge of every file. All of this happens under a Lula regime whose 2022 victory is still disputed by millions of Brazilians who allege electronic ballot fraud.
The record
Confirmed: the arrest of Pradera on Tuesday, the Oct. 19 search, his Oct. 16 removal by the STJ president and the list of crimes under investigation, all stated by the Federal Police and reported by Metrópoles, Revista Oeste and O Antagonista. Reported: that Moraes signed the warrant, based on Brazilian press accounts; the full decision has not been made public. Alleged: that Pradera sold or passed sealed information to Tomaz, which both deny or have not addressed. Not alleged by anyone in this phase: any act by Flávio Bolsonaro.
The opposition will read the case as one more file that lets the court keep a hand on Flávio Bolsonaro’s circle. Unless the decision and the evidence are made public, Brazilians have little way to tell a leak investigation from a political one, and that is exactly the problem.
The Watch Post Daily will continue to follow this story. Sources: Federal Police, Metrópoles, Revista Oeste, O Antagonista, Poder360.
Featured image: Alexandre de Moraes em sessão do TSE no dia 14.02.2023 by TSE – Tribunal Superior Eleitoral, via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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