{"id":97569,"date":"2026-02-18T09:41:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/murray.adv.br\/?p=97569"},"modified":"2026-02-18T09:41:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:41:33","slug":"supreme-court-flags-illegal-access-to-justices-tax-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/murray.adv.br\/en\/supreme-court-flags-illegal-access-to-justices-tax-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court flags illegal access to justices\u2019 tax data"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Information on relatives was also allegedly accessed and leaked by the Federal Revenue staff<\/em><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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02\/18\/2026\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Brazil\u2019s Supreme Federal Court (STF) said in a statement released Tuesday (17) that confidential tax data of its justices and their relatives were improperly accessed by employees of the Federal Revenue, the country\u2019s tax authority, and later leaked to third parties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Four suspects were targeted in a search-and-seizure operation carried out by the Federal Police at the order of Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The move split the court because it stems from the so-called \u201cfake news\u201d inquiry and ultimately involves all sitting justices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The STF did not identify the owners of the leaked data. Valor learned, however, that the illegally collected information allegedly concerned lawyer Viviane Barci, Justice Moraes\u2019s wife,\u00a0whose professional activities drew attention due to her law firm\u2019s contract with Master bank<\/a>, and a son of another justice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Search warrants were executed in the states of S\u00e3o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Bahia. Investigators and the Federal Revenue are still examining the motive, including whether it was political or part of a data-selling scheme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Search operation<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Those targeted by the Federal Police were Luiz Ant\u00f4nio Martins Nunes, a technician at the Federal Data Processing Service (Serpro) in Rio de Janeiro who was seconded to the Federal Revenue; Ricardo Mansano de Moraes, a tax auditor at the Federal Revenue since 2007; Ruth Machado dos Santos, a Social Security technician since 1994 who works at the Federal Revenue office in Guaruj\u00e1, on the coast of S\u00e3o Paulo; and Luciano Pery dos Santos, also a Social Security technician, working at a Federal Revenue office in Salvador.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Justice Moraes ordered precautionary measures against the employees. These include lifting their bank, tax and telecommunications secrecy; house arrest at night and on weekends with electronic ankle monitoring; a ban on leaving the judicial district where they live; immediate suspension from public duties, including prohibition from entering Federal Revenue and Serpro premises and accessing systems; among others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Valor was unable to reach the defense lawyers for the four employees before publication.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cVarious and multiple unlawful accesses to the Brazilian Federal Revenue system were identified, followed by the subsequent leaking of confidential information. Initial investigations demonstrate, as shown in a report sent by the Federal Revenue to the STF, the existence of a \u2018block of accesses whose analysis, by the responsible departments, identified no functional justification [for the accesses],\u2019\u201d the Supreme Court said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Revenue audit<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The information on the leaks was sent to Moraes by the Federal Revenue after he ordered the agency to track in its systems whether justices, their relatives and the attorney general, Paulo Gonet, had their data accessed improperly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Federal Revenue checked whether information had been accessed on the ten Supreme Court justices and on relatives such as parents, children, siblings and spouses. The audit covered about 100 individuals who may have had their information accessed unlawfully, Folha de S.Paulo reported.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tuesday\u2019s searches followed a request from the Office of the Prosecutor General (PGR). The agency said the conduct of the Federal Revenue employees may constitute the crime of breach of official secrecy. It added that other offenses may have been committed, since the tax information was allegedly used to create \u201cartificial suspicions\u201d against STF members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe case goes beyond individual breach of tax secrecy, since the fragmented and selective exploitation of confidential information of public authorities, disclosed without context and without judicial oversight, has been instrumentalized to produce artificial suspicions that are difficult to dispel,\u201d the PGR said in requesting the searches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Federal Revenue issued two statements on the investigation. In the first, it said it does not \u201ctolerate misconduct,\u201d especially involving tax secrecy, and noted it had already been investigating irregular access to data of justices and their relatives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOn January 12 this year, the STF requested that the Federal Revenue conduct an audit of its systems to identify irregularities in access to data of the Court\u2019s justices, relatives and others over the past three years. The work was included in a procedure that had already been opened the previous day by the Federal Revenue\u2019s Internal Affairs Office based on reports published in the press,\u201d one statement said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In a second note, the Federal Revenue clarified that no irregular access was identified to the confidential tax data of Attorney General Paulo Gonet and his relatives. \u201cThe Federal Revenue was asked to provide access data for all STF justices, the attorney general and their relatives. In other words, an audit of all was requested, but this does not mean that there was access to the tax data of all,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Internal backlash<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The tracking of potential unlawful breaches of secrecy comes amid the crisis triggered by the liquidation of Banco Master and investigations into an alleged multibillion-real fraud scheme at the bank, which are being handled by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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During the probe, O Globo reported that Master hired the law firm of lawyer Viviane Barci, Justice Moraes\u2019s wife, for monthly payments of R$3.6 million. The total amount, about R$130 million, was allegedly not paid due to the bank\u2019s liquidation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Behind the scenes, amid criticism in Congress that the case should not be used to overshadow the crisis facing the STF, members of the court disagreed over Moraes\u2019s order. Some said the decision lacks legal basis. \u201cThis is the same as breaching secrecy in one\u2019s own cause and rummaging through the lives of countless people,\u201d one justice said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Another justice said the order makes \u201cno legal sense.\u201d In his view, the decision is broad and covers all ten members of the current composition of the court. \u201cIf that is the case, who would be competent [to issue the order]? The Pope?\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A third justice said Moraes is merely seeking to determine whether there were unlawful breaches of secrecy against justices, which is not the same as accessing colleagues\u2019 tax data.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He noted, however, that the timing is far from ideal, as the STF has been in the headlines weekly and has not yet recovered from an internal crisis sparked by the possible recording of a secret meeting that discussed the rapporteurship of the Master case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Contacted, Justice Moraes did not comment on the remarks before publication.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In a statement, the National Association of Federal Tax Auditors of the Brazilian Federal Revenue (Unafisco) expressed \u201cconcern\u201d over the precautionary measures imposed on the suspects, arguing that the investigation remains at an early stage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe entity defends that any irregularities be rigorously investigated, but with observance of due process of law, the presumption of innocence and proportionality. Extreme precautionary sanctions require robust grounds and consistent evidentiary support, especially when there is not yet a definitive technical conclusion,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

*By\u00a0Tiago Angelo,\u00a0Beatriz Olivon,\u00a0Gabriel Shinohara,\u00a0Estev\u00e3o Taiar\u00a0and\u00a0Mariana Andrade, Valor\u00a0\u2014 Bras\u00edlia<\/p>\n

Source: Valor International<\/p>\n

https:\/\/valorinternational.globo.com\/<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Information on relatives was also allegedly accessed and leaked by the Federal Revenue staff     02\/18\/2026\u00a0 Brazil\u2019s Supreme Federal Court (STF) said in a statement released Tuesday (17) that confidential tax data of its justices and their relatives were improperly accessed by employees of the Federal Revenue, the country\u2019s tax authority, and later leaked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8106],"tags":[26770],"class_list":["post-97569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-murray-news","tag-supreme-court-flags-illegal-access-to-justices-tax-data"],"yoast_head":"\nSupreme Court flags illegal access to justices\u2019 tax data - Murray Advogados<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/murray.adv.br\/en\/supreme-court-flags-illegal-access-to-justices-tax-data\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court flags illegal access to justices\u2019 tax data - 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