Brazil Police Launch New Raid in Tax-Data Leak as Lula Sends Messias’s Supreme Court Nomination to Senate

Overview

• Federal police opened a new phase of Operation Exfil on Wednesday with one preventive arrest and six searches in Rio and São Paulo to investigate illegal access to tax records of Supreme Court justices and their relatives, in actions authorized by the court.
• The tax‑data inquiry began in January on an order by Justice Alexandre de Moraes after Brazil’s revenue service flagged irregular logins, and a February sweep had already targeted four Receita officials with electronic monitoring and work suspensions.
• Casa Civil confirmed Wednesday it sent Jorge Messias’s nomination to the Senate after about a 24‑hour holdup, setting up Constitution Committee hearings as allies work to overcome resistance from Senate President Davi Alcolumbre.
• Also on Wednesday, federal police carried out Operation Inauditus into an alleged “sale of sentences” at Maranhão’s state court, executing 25 search warrants and one preventive arrest under Superior Court of Justice orders with judges and staff removed from duties and assets frozen up to R$50 million.
• A 54.63% jump in jet fuel prices announced by Vibra Energia is pushing the government to weigh relief such as zeroing the IOF tax for airlines and cutting PIS/Cofins on the fuel, while a U.S. House panel’s report and a State Department statement raised fresh concerns about court orders affecting online speech.