Gilmar Mendes pushes sugar-mill case to full court amid scrutiny of Master links

Gilmar Mendes pushes sugar-mill case to full court amid scrutiny of Master links
Justice Gilmar Mendes has asked the Supreme Federal Court’s Second Panel to decide whether a dispute over compensation for sugar and ethanol mills should be transferred to the full 11-member court. The underlying question is whether each company must undergo an individual expert assessment to demonstrate its actual losses from government price controls in the 1980s and 1990s, even where compensation criteria were set in final judgments.

Mendes’s stated case is institutional: he says the full court should standardize application of Theme 826, a precedent under which compensation depends on technical proof of concrete economic harm. The proposal is scheduled for a virtual Second Panel session from September 25 to October 2; the transfer would occur only if the panel agrees.

The move, however, is unfolding amid reporting on Banco Master’s former stake in credits tied to the litigation and on messages involving its former controller, Daniel Vorcaro. One report says materials recovered by federal police included a fee arrangement involving lawyer Camilla Ramos in 12 sugar-sector compensation cases, while messages linked her and federal judge Newton Ramos to references to a so-called “Turma do KN,” associated in the conversations with Justice Kassio Nunes Marques. Nunes Marques has denied acting to benefit Vorcaro or the bank.

Mendes has countered that scrutiny of his April 2024 meeting with Vorcaro overlooks his voting record. He said he opposed payment in the Destilaria Alcídia case, where he was in the minority, and that he has consistently rejected compensation without individual proof of losses. In his account, that position ran directly against the interests advanced by Master-linked lawyers.

The dispute therefore combines two distinct questions. Legally, the court must define how far final judgments can limit renewed fact-finding on damages. Politically, the case is being watched for whether the court can resolve a potential public liability estimated at up to 145 billion reais while addressing concerns raised by the disclosed financial and professional connections around it.

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