The Federal Supreme Court of Brazil ordered the confiscation of the passports of Flávio Bolsonaro and prohibited him from leaving the country as part of a criminal investigation into alleged money laundering, according to Time magazine's report on Tuesday.
The measure was issued by the magistrate Alexandre de Moraes and was made public on Monday, just one day after Bolsonaro lost the second round of the presidential elections against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro, senator and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is being investigated for alleged connections with attorney Willer Tomaz, whom authorities accuse of having moved over 1 billion dollars through a fraudulent scheme, according to reports by the New York Times.
The investigation began as part of a federal operation launched in April 2025 regarding unauthorized deductions from pension payments in the Brazilian social security system, which led to an examination of alleged money laundering activities involving betting platforms and financial transactions linked to Tomaz.
The Federal Police discovered that Bolsonaro would have had "master user" access to bank accounts of Alcazar Holdings, a company registered in Madeira, Portugal, and owned by Tomaz.
In May 2025, a collaborator of Tomaz requested the bank to remove that access. Both deny having joint accounts or any financial ties of any kind.
Bolsonaro also did not submit his documents within the 24-hour deadline set by the court, prompting the Federal Police to cancel them on Tuesday. De Moraes also prohibited him from contacting Tomaz and activated a migration alert to prevent him from leaving the country.
The senator described the measure as an attempt at political intimidation and, in a video posted on social media, stated: "It wasn't me who lost. The system won."
The judicial decision comes at a time of intense political tension in Brazil. Bolsonaro initially refused to acknowledge the electoral outcome and announced that he would request the annulment of the elections, although his Liberal Party ultimately recognized Lula's victory this Tuesday.
In the runoff on October 25, Lula received 64,256,232 votes (51.79%) compared to 59,826,041 for Bolsonaro (48.21%), a difference of over 4.4 million votes.
President Donald Trump, ally of the Bolsonaros, questioned the legitimacy of the Brazilian elections without providing any evidence: "I didn't take sides, but it seemed like another rigged election," he stated. The Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin responded that those statements were "completely mistaken."
The Supreme Federal Court granted a two-hour extension to the voting hours on Sunday, citing transportation issues. Less than 0.03% of the total votes—fewer than 35,000 ballots—were recorded during those additional two hours.
The Bolsonaro family has a significant judicial history. Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced in September 2025 to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting to carry out a coup following the 2022 elections, a sentence he is serving under house arrest due to health issues.
His other son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, was sentenced in June 2026 to four years and two months in prison for judicial coercion, having attempted to pressure the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Brazilian judicial authorities; he resides in Texas and has not been extradited.
Lula will begin his fourth presidential term on January 5, 2027, becoming the first president of Brazil to serve four terms.
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