Brazil's Supreme Court is preparing to debate new controversy. The Court will look at the ruling of its president, Dias Toffoli, who has paralyzed investigations that used data from a control body, such as the former Coaf, without prior judicial authorization.
The case is scheduled for the 21st. Toffoli is the rapporteur. The result interests Senator Flavio Bolsonaro (PSL-RJ), son of President Jair Bolsonaro. Flavio is the author of the request that motivated Toffoli's decision to suspend criminal investigations.
Since Toffoli's decision, an investigation by Rio de Janeiro's prosecutor about Flavio has been paralyzed.
He is suspected of having appropriated part of the salaries of his former cabinet's workers in the Legislative Assembly.
The suspicions originated in the movement of R $ 1.2 million in the accounts of Fabrício Queiroz, Flávio's former advisor at the Assembly. This was considered atypical by the former COAF, which was renamed the Financial Intelligence Unit.
By asking the Supreme Court to suspend the investigation against Flavio in Rio, the defense hitchhiked an extraordinary appeal that was pending in court and discussed the sharing of data from the IRS with the prosecution for criminal purposes without prior judicial authorization.
Flavio's defense argued that prosecutors had breached confidentiality without judicial control.
In response to the request of the president's son, Toffoli extended the discussion on data sharing to all control bodies (IRS, COAF, and the Central Bank) and extended the scope of his decision to all investigations with similar characteristics.
Sergio Moro even went to the Supreme Court to report his dissatisfaction, saying it could endanger the fight against money laundering in the country.
By the end of October, at least 700 investigations had been halted by Toffoli's ruling, according to a survey by the Attorney General's Office. Most were crimes against the tax order (307), such as evasion, and money laundering (151).
Toffoli says he seeks to build a solution with BC President Roberto Campos Neto to establish a confidential data transfer procedure compatible with the Constitution.
The idea is to prevent abuse while at the same time nodding to control technicians in agencies whose work has been limited.
Last month, audios emerged in which Queiroz shows concern about the Rio Prosecutor's Office.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon