Flávio Bolsonaro is a Brazilian senator and the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. In early December 2025 his father anointed him as his political successor for the October 2026 presidential election, after Mr Bolsonaro was convicted of a coup d'état and barred from running. The choice was poorly received: most of Brazil's centre-right parties said they would not back him, the real slumped and São Paulo's stock exchange fell sharply on fears that Lula da Silva would cruise to a fourth term.
On May 13th 2026 Intercept Brasil published text and voice messages showing Flávio had long-running dealings with Daniel Vorcaro of Banco Master, Brazil's biggest-ever bank fraud. Vorcaro had agreed to put $24m into "Dark Horse", a biopic of Jair Bolsonaro due to be released weeks before the election; around $10.6m had been paid before the bank collapsed. Flávio had publicly denied any links to Vorcaro for months. After the leak he plunged into second place on betting markets, the real and Bovespa fell 2%, and rival right-wing candidates such as Romeu Zema attacked him publicly. Some of the money flowed through accounts owned by a lawyer for his brother Eduardo Bolsonaro, who has been lobbying Donald Trump in Washington over their father's case.
When Flávio was a state legislator in Rio de Janeiro, he employed the wife and mother of Adriano da Nóbrega, a former police captain who ran a death squad and whose associates killed Marielle Franco, a city councilwoman. Nóbrega was killed in a shoot-out in 2020. Flávio says he was unaware that Nóbrega's relatives were on his payroll. Ronnie Lessa, the man who shot Franco, had a daughter who dated one of Mr Bolsonaro's sons.
QOTD: "It's been Monday all week today."