Corruption is Everywhere > Politics in Brazil's Supreme Court

 

Brazil Supreme Court chief suspends colleagues' rulings amid election row

Americas

The chief justice of Brazil's Supreme Court stepped in Wednesday to halt conflicting rulings by two fellow judges as a dispute over alleged links between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and a banker accused of fraud deepened. The clash has spilled into the campaign for next month's presidential election, adding to tensions around the court.

Brazil's Supreme Court president attempted Wednesday to end a crisis in the court by suspending a series of conflicting rulings by rival judges that have dominated a bitter election campaign.

The court is reeling from a scandal involving the alleged links between leading Justice Alexandre de Moraes and a disgraced banker charged with massive fraud.

The case has descended into open warfare between Moraes, who famously led the coup investigation into far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, and fellow Justice Andre Mendonca, a Bolsonaro appointee.

On Tuesday, the country's top policeman, Andrei Rodrigues, got swept up in the infighting, when he was suspended by Mendonca, who accused the police of spying on him.

A day later a third justice, Flavio Dino, a former minister under incumbent president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, reinstated the head of the federal police.

The court's president Edson Fachin promptly waded into the dispute and suspended both rulings, according to a ruling seen by AFP.

Fachin gave Rodrigues 48 hours to provide information before deciding his fate.

The eruption in the court has overshadowed the run-up to next month's presidential election, in which Bolsonaro's senator son, Flavio Bolsonaro, is trying to unseat left-wing Lula.

WATCH MORE'Polarised Brazil': Lula remains a 'strong candidate' despite challenges of incumbency

Mendonca fired the opening salvo in the row by ordering the publication last week of text messages from banker Daniel Vorcaro to Moraes, asking for information about the case against him.

Moraes hit back, accusing Mendonca of abuse of power on the basis of confidential police intelligence reports, whereupon Mendonca suspended Rodrigues.

'Selective leaks'

The texts from Vorcaro, whose private bank Banco Master collapsed last year in a multi-billion-dollar pool of debt, have become fodder in the presidential race.

Lula on Wednesday said "greater transparency" was needed in the case, as well as an end to "selective leaks that impact the electoral race".

"It is urgent to fully lift the secrecy of the investigations into all those involved in the Master case, whoever they may be, no matter who it hurts. Brazil needs to know the truth," he insisted on X.

Vorcaro had boasted of having "friends in all branches of government" before becoming embroiled in one of Brazil's biggest-ever financial scandals.

The Master case is a "toxic" affair, a Supreme Court source told AFP, adding that police suspect the banker "put money into various places in order to later collect favours".

In the days leading up to his arrest in November, Vorcaro sent around 30 text messages to a phone number police say belonged to Moraes.

"Do you think I need to be out of the country as early as Monday?" he asked in one message, just before his arrest while boarding a private jet.

Flavio Bolsonaro has pounced on the texts to bash Moraes, a hate figure for the Brazilian and US right for having spearheaded the coup trial of his father.

A fraud-accused banker

Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of US President Donald Trump, is serving a 27-year jail sentence after being convicted of trying to cling to power after losing the 2022 election to Lula.

But Flavio Bolsonaro's own links to Vorcaro have been questioned after it emerged that the banker transferred millions of dollars to an intermediary at the senator's request.

The younger Bolsonaro said the money was intended for use towards a film about his father.

The scandal engulfing the Supreme Court has sown alarm in the Brazilian business community.

Some 3,000 business organisations released a manifesto on Wednesday, warning of an "extremely serious institutional crisis".

"If the legitimacy (of the judges) is questioned, everything else becomes uncertain: legal certainty, trust in institutions, and even social peace," they argued.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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Corruption Around the World > The SPLCs incredible corruption exposed

 

SPLC Top Dog Arrested for Fraud and Money Laundering

Aug 14, 2026 7:00 am By Robert Spencer1 Comment

I never thought I’d live to see even this much justice done.

Photo: Heidi Beirich, Screenshot

The former CFO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Heidi Beirich, was arrested on Wednesday on fraud and money laundering charges, and watching it all unfold from a great distance was like watching the sun break through the clouds after endless days of rain.

Heidi Beirich will likely never serve time in prison or face any other serious consequences for her crimes. Unlike her victims, she has endless amounts of ready cash and a massive number of friends in the deep state. The Wednesday arrest was nevertheless the public humiliation that has been needed for so long, as even a small counterbalance to the outsize influence the SPLC has enjoyed for so very long, absolutely unchallenged.

The popular X account “Insurrection Barbie” pointed out in April 2026 that the “SPLC’s hate map got hardwired into corporate America. Amazon’s AmazonSmile program used SPLC lists to exclude charities. PayPal, GoFundMe, Patreon, Airbnb, Eventbrite, Mastercard, Visa many used SPLC classifications to deplatform people and organizations. Bezos later admitted to Congress that Amazon’s reliance on SPLC was ‘an imperfect system’ and that he’d ‘like a better source.’”

Bezos may have told Congress that the SPLC was “imperfect,” but he never stopped relying on it. He still does to this day. I know this from bitter experience. Because the SPLC designated my organization, Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a “hate group,” it was banned from Amazon Smile years ago. That ban is still in place. Neither the SPLC nor Amazon allows any appeal of its sacred judgments. It would be like appealing against a divine oracle.

Amazon Smile was just the tip of the iceberg. Because the SPLC put me on its blacklist, I was also demonetized at YouTube and banned from PayPal, GoFundMe, and Mastercard, as well as Patreon, Zelle, and numerous other services. PayPal and Patreon relented after they heard from my attorneys. YouTube last year reversed itself without explanation. The others have remained impervious to all entreaties. GoFundMe is so vindictive that it doesn’t even allow me to donate to other people, as well as to receive donations myself. The SPLC’s hit pieces on me and my organization would show up at the top of all internet searches for my name and Jihad Watch, which led to incalculable reputational damage and an unknowable number of lost professional opportunities.

This is what the SPLC did to just one person, someone who was actually small potatoes and low down on their hit list. They did the same and much worse to higher-profile individuals and groups. And never did it cross anyone’s mind that the watchman might need watching, and that the SPLC might not be the absolutely impartial and trustworthy judge that everyone assumed it to be.

Henry Fernandez of the far-left, Soros-funded Center for American Progress was just one of the many who praised the SPLC, saying in 2018 that it was “the leading organization that identifies hate groups in the country.” Fernandez said of Beirich that “she is really probably the nation’s foremost expert on various forms of extremism, including the white supremacist, nativist and neo-confederate movements as well as racism in academia. Even if you don’t know who Heidi Beirich is, you actually do because she leads the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, which publishes the award-winning intelligence report. They’re the leading organization that identifies what hate groups in the country are.”

That’s what millions of people assumed until it came to light that the SPLC was funding the white supremacist groups it was claiming to fight, trumping up the threat that it was supposedly dedicated to eradicating in order to bilk donors out of massive amounts of money. Beirich was also apparently shoveling massive amounts of money at her neo-Nazi boyfriend.

“One of the most explosive allegations,” according to Fox News, “centers on a source identified as ‘F-9,’ whom prosecutors say infiltrated the neo-Nazi National Alliance and received more than $1.2 million from the SPLC during the period covered by the indictment. Prosecutors allege Beirich oversaw payments to F-9 while also having a romantic relationship with him, with the pair sharing a home and two bank accounts.” In infiltrating the Nazi group, F-9’s job was not, according to the indictment, to undermine it, but to prop it up so that the SPLC could have a foe to fight.

Reputations have been ruined. Solid organizations have been hamstrung or destroyed. The SPLC is likely responsible more than any other group for the ascendancy of the left and the decline of patriotic groups in the United States over the last two decades. The arrest of Heidi Beirich doesn’t provide redress for the massive injustices the SPLC has committed. But it sure is satisfying to see.

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Corruption is Everywhere > Evo Morales in contempt of court of child trafficking; Sara Duterte in trouble again in the Philippines; Poland's ex-justice minister flees to the US

 

Bolivian court: Arrest Evo Morales for skipping human trafficking trial

By Macarena Hermosilla

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales attends a public event in Chimore, Bolivia, in Feburary. Morales reappeared at the event in his political stronghold in the center of the country a little more than a month of not being seen publicly and amid differing reports about his health and whereabouts. File Photo by A/Jorge Abrego/EPA

May 11 (UPI) -- A criminal court in the Bolivian city of Tarija declared former President Evo Morales in contempt after he failed to appear for trial on charges related to the alleged trafficking of a minor.

The hearing, scheduled for Monday, was expected to begin the final stage of a case investigating Morales' alleged relationship with a 15-year-old girl in 2015, from which a child was allegedly born.

The contempt ruling triggered measures intended to ensure the appearance of the former leader of the ruling Movement for Socialism, or MAS.

Authorities issued an arrest warrant authorizing security forces to detain Morales anywhere in the country and prevent him from leaving Bolivia. The court also ordered freezing his bank accounts and precautionary registration of his assets.

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Prosecutors said they gathered more than 170 pieces of evidence in the case, which were expected to be presented during the trial.

After Morales and his legal team failed to appear in court, the judge applied Bolivian law that prohibits criminal trials in absentia.

"Because the accused failed to appear and did not legally justify his absence, this court issues a contempt ruling," the judge said, according to Bolivian newspaper El Deber.

The trial will remain suspended until Morales is arrested or voluntarily appears before the court.

Morales' defense team argued the case already had been addressed and resolved in 2020, adding the former president should not face prosecution again. His lawyers also claimed "there is no victim" and describe the charges as politically motivated, according to Chilean news outlet Emol.

Attorney Nelson Cox, a member of Morales' legal team, said insufficient security guarantees existed to transport the former president from the Chapare region of Cochabamba. He also described the case as a "political fabrication" intended to block Morales from running for office again, according to Bolivian broadcaster Unitel.

Prosecutors and lawyers representing the alleged victim criticized interruption of the trial.

"It is a mockery of the victims and the judicial system. The evidence is overwhelming and the accused must answer for his actions before the law," the regional prosecutor's office said.

Since October 2024, Morales has remained in the Chapare region, his main political stronghold, where he is protected by thousands of supporters and self-defense groups.

At that time, police were unable to execute an earlier arrest order after Morales supporters blocked roads for 24 days to prevent officers from entering the area where he remains sheltered.

The government of President Rodrigo Paz announced Tuesday it would seek information from U.S. judicial authorities to investigate Morales' alleged links to drug trafficking networks. Bolivian authorities are seeking to participate as a "victim" in ongoing U.S. legal proceedings to gain access to evidence.

One of the most significant cases involves former anti-drug chief Maximiliano Dávila, who was extradited to the United States in December 2024 and sentenced in March to 25 years in prison for conspiracy to import cocaine.

Morales has argued that Dávila's extradition is part of an effort to pressure him into testifying against the former president in exchange for legal benefits.

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte impeached for second time

By Joe Fisher    

The Philippine Congress voted to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte Monday for the second time for allegedly misusing public funds. File Photo by Rolex Dela Pena/EPA-EFE

May 11 (UPI) -- The Philippine Congress voted to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte Monday for the second time for allegedly misusing public funds.

The vote in the House of Representatives to impeach Duterte was lopsided, with 257 of 290 lawmakers voting in favor. Duterte's impeachment will now face a Senate trial. If Duterte is convicted, she will be immediately removed and barred from holding public office, ending her hopes of a presidential run.

If Duterte is not convicted, she would be protected from being impeached again for two years.

Duterte is a leading candidate for the 2028 election to be the next president of the Philippines.

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The Senate trial could begin as early as Wednesday.

The House voted in favor of impeaching Duterte last year but the procedure never advanced to the Senate because the Supreme Court blocked the impeachment.

Duterte refused to participate in committee hearings over the investigation into the allegations against her. Her attorneys said Monday after the House vote that "the burden now rests on the accusers to substantiate their claims."

The Senate is made up of 24 senators.

The allegations against Duterte center on her gaining wealth after becoming mayor of Davao in 2019, as well as her use of funds as vice president.

"Our vote today is not a declaration of guilt, it is a declaration that when serious allegations are raised against one of the highest officials of the land, Congress cannot look away," said Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr.

The misuse of public funds is not the only controversy to follow Duterte. Last year, she claimed to have arranged for former running mate President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to be killed if she were killed. This preceded the House's 2025 impeachment vote.

Marcos is not eligible to run for reelection in 2028 as he will meet his term limit.

Poland's wanted ex-justice minister flees Hungary for U.S.

By Darryl Coote    

Zbigniew Ziobro, seen here at a Law and Justice political party convention in October, said Sunday that he had fled Hungary for the United States. File Photo by Art Service Poland Out/EPA

May 11 (UPI) -- Poland's former justice minister, wanted on misappropriation-related charges, has fled Hungary for the United States, confirming in an interview with Polish media that he was in the country.

Zbigniew Ziobro's exact location in the United States was unknown, but TVN24 reported that the wanted former justice minister was photographed at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

He said he was in the United States in a Sunday interview with Poland's right-wing TV Republika broadcaster, clips of which Ziobro published to his social media accounts.

"I am not afraid of the court; an American court is certainly an independent court," the caption to the clip posted to Facebook read. "If they want to bring an extradition case, go right ahead."

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Ziobro is wanted in Poland, where prosecutors have moved to charge him with 26 offenses alleging that he failed to perform his duties and exceeded his authority as minister of justice and prosecutor general, positions he held from November 2015 until November 2023, according to a statement from the National Prosecutor's Office.

Prosecutors allege that he founded and led an organized criminal group and misappropriated or attempted to misappropriate money from the Justice Fund, a state fund intended to help crime victims.

Prosecutors moved in late October to strip Ziobro of his immunity. On Nov. 7, Poland's parliament agreed to lift that immunity, clearing the way for prosecutors to seek his detention and formally charge him.

But Ziobro was already in Hungary. A day before prosecutors moved to charge him, Ziobro said he had been "invited" to Budapest to show a film critical of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

In January, Ziobro announced online that he had accepted asylum granted to him by Hungary, claiming he's been a target of "Tusk's personal vendetta" and a victim of political persecution.

In April, opposition leader Peter Magyar and his pro-Europe center-right Tisza party defeated Hungary's longtime authoritarian-leaning prime minister, Viktor Orban.

Magyar vowed during his campaign that, if elected prime minister, he would extradite Ziobro, and he was sworn in on Saturday.

Following the news that Ziobro was no longer in Hungary, Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Zurek said his office would contact both the United States and Hungary "with questions" concerning the legality of Ziobro's departure from Hungary and entry into the United States, stating they had invalidated his travel documents, including his diplomatic passport.

"We count on your cooperation," Zurek said in a statement.

Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported that Ziobro received a visa that was personally approved by U.S. President Donald Trump, who is a close ally of Orban.

UPI has contacted the U.S. Embassy in Budapest for comment and confirmation.

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