Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino ordered federal police on Tuesday to investigate whether foreign money, services or other benefits supported Senator Flávio Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign, including through contacts involving an American conservative donor network co-founded by U.S. Vice President JD Vance.

The inquiry will examine dealings involving Rockbridge Network and Brazilian businessmen, political advertisements paid for through overseas social media accounts, and allegations that internet companies manipulated the distribution of electoral content.

Dino also directed investigators to examine whether discussions about campaign support were connected to foreign interests in Brazil’s rare earths and critical minerals. The order came two days after Bolsonaro lost the presidential runoff to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by approximately 4.43 million votes. The financing allegations remain unproven.

Bolsonaro reportedly leaves for U.S.

Two unnamed sources cited in published reporting said Tuesday that Bolsonaro had left Brazil for the United States. His destination, arrival time and any intention to seek asylum remained unclear.

Other sources said his passports had been canceled after he missed a 24-hour deadline to surrender them. A senior federal police official said authorities had no record of his departure through a regular immigration checkpoint. Bolsonaro’s lawyer and the U.S. Embassy in Brazil had not responded to requests for comment cited in the report. It remained uncertain how he could enter the United States with canceled travel documents.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes imposed the travel restrictions in a separate Supreme Court investigation into suspected money laundering and illegal transfers of money abroad involving Bolsonaro and lawyer and businessman Willer Tomaz. Moraes also prohibited contact between the two men.

The investigation concerns suspected financial dealings involving the betting industry. Preliminary police findings described Bolsonaro as a possible beneficiary of resources from Alcazar Holdings, a company based in Madeira, Portugal. Moraes had previously ordered the freezing of up to R$6 billion in assets belonging to Tomaz. Bolsonaro denies wrongdoing. He said police served him with the passport order on Monday as he left a visit to his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, in Brasília.

The senator questioned the timing of the restrictions, which followed his election defeat. He said the decision relied on remarks by his brother Eduardo Bolsonaro, who had publicly argued that Flávio should leave Brazil if he lost.

Eduardo lives in the United States. Before the runoff, he told a USian podcast that he favored his brother leaving the country in the event of defeat.

Police to examine Rockbridge contacts

Dino’s order identifies contacts between Rockbridge representatives and Brazilian businessmen Tallis Gomes and Pedro Sang for investigation. Police must determine whether those contacts produced money, services, personnel or other campaign benefits, who supplied them and who paid.

Investigators must also examine the participants and purpose of meetings between Rockbridge representatives and Brazilian businesspeople. The Supreme Court will supervise the inquiry because members of Congress may be involved.

Rockbridge brings together conservative USian donors, investors and political figures. It was co-founded by Vance and investor Chris Buskirk and has become an influential meeting place for Republican donors, including figures from the technology industry. The allegations reached Dino through submissions by Lula’s Workers’ Party and complaints raised by rival presidential candidate Renan Santos, of the Missão party. Santos publicly accused Bolsonaro’s campaign of benefiting from Rockbridge-linked assistance associated with prospective mineral deals.

The Workers’ Party sought to bring the allegations into ADPF 1,178, an existing constitutional case concerning Brazilian sovereignty. Dino rejected the party’s request to join that proceeding and ordered police to investigate the electoral claims separately. The original case was brought by the Brazilian Mining Institute, Ibram, and concerned litigation in foreign courts over damage suffered in Brazil. Dino decided the electoral allegations required their own police and administrative proceedings.

Brazilian electoral rules prohibit candidates and parties from receiving donations of foreign origin, directly or indirectly. The prohibition covers money, advertising and services with an economic value. Article 31 of Electoral Court Resolution 23.607 applies according to the origin of donated resources, regardless of the donor’s nationality. Investigators will therefore have to trace any alleged assistance through intermediaries to its original source.

Gomes has acknowledged being a Rockbridge member but denied managing or representing the organization. He denied belonging to Bolsonaro’s campaign, raising funds for candidates, or receiving, intermediating or offering domestic or foreign resources for electoral purposes. He described his political statements as personal opinions. Sang said he encountered Rockbridge through André Marinho in October 2025 while exploring opportunities to attract technology investment to Brazil. He said the initiative did not advance, had been suspended since May, and never resulted in him becoming a member or formal representative.

Previously published documents described proposals for a Brazilian operation and a technology council. Sang acknowledged that a council proposal had been prepared but said it never became an operating project.

Mineral deals under scrutiny

Police will investigate whether the reported campaign-financing discussions involved proposed concessions or other business opportunities concerning Brazilian minerals.

A memorandum prepared by André Marinho outlined a possible Brazil–United States partnership over critical minerals and rare earths under a Bolsonaro administration. Reported proposals included faster environmental licensing, preferential commercial treatment for partners aligned with the United States and financing from USian institutions.

Marinho described the document as a personal exercise in hypothetical scenarios. He denied preparing it for a campaign or Rockbridge and denied presenting it to U.S. authorities. Dino instructed investigators to establish who made any proposed offer, who received it, how it was communicated and what was expected in return.

Brazil holds an estimated 21 million tonnes of rare earth reserves and ranks second globally behind China. These elements are used in permanent magnets, wind turbines, electric vehicles, electronics and defense equipment.

The country’s reserves have attracted attention from governments and companies seeking supplies outside China, which dominates much of the processing industry. Developing Brazilian deposits requires investment in extraction, separation and refining, as well as infrastructure and environmental approvals. Despite its large reserves, Brazil’s production remains modest. The National Mining Agency reported output of 326 tonnes of rare earth oxide concentrate in 2025, with four areas under active extraction, all in Goiás.

The agency also identified thousands of areas undergoing mineral research. Its figures show why licensing, financing and access to processing technology feature prominently in proposals for expanding the industry.

Mineral resources belong to the federal government, and extraction requires authorization under Brazilian law. Dino’s decision also calls for scrutiny of restrictions on foreign purchases of rural land if evidence of such transactions emerges.

The advertising allegations concern foreign social media profiles allegedly paid to publish Portuguese-language material aimed at Brazilian voters.

Complaints submitted to electoral authorities described posts highlighting Polymarket predictions favorable to Bolsonaro. Police must identify who commissioned the advertisements, who financed them, where the funds originated and whether people or organizations in Brazil knowingly participated.

The posts used prediction-market figures to promote Bolsonaro’s electoral prospects. The investigation concerns the payments and people behind that advertising, alongside the content distributed. Brazil announced the blocking of Polymarket and other prediction-market platforms in April 2026. Dino’s order separately directs police to investigate intentional disparities and algorithm manipulation by internet companies seeking to favor or harm candidates.

Lula’s campaign accused Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, of restricting its advertising and content while giving Bolsonaro favorable treatment. Among the complaints were obstacles to buying Instagram advertisements, difficulties finding Lula’s account and recommendations directing users toward Bolsonaro-related content. One episode cited in accounts of the decision involved restrictions on Lula’s Instagram advertising for almost 24 hours on October 9. His campaign estimated that the interruption prevented advertisements from reaching approximately 1.3 million people.

On October 15, electoral-court Justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze ordered Meta to ensure equal treatment of the candidates in content distribution, searches and artificial-intelligence tools. The order provided for a daily fine of R$500,000 for noncompliance. Meta’s independent Oversight Board subsequently criticized the excessive application of fraud policies to Lula’s advertising accounts. It said the matter should have been escalated to specialist reviewers and called for public measures showing how effectively Meta’s election safeguards worked. Meta denied political bias and deliberate interference. It attributed incidents to technical disruptions, fraud protections and gaps in safeguards for political image generation.

The company said its systems blocked explicit references to either presidential candidate but did not always recognize prompts combining a common first name with an electoral number. That explanation addressed complaints that its artificial-intelligence tools treated requests referring to Lula and Bolsonaro differently.

Meta also said a disruption affecting Instagram Reels view counts occurred internationally and did not interrupt content distribution. Another technical problem temporarily affected the creation of advertisements from existing Instagram posts.

The company told electoral authorities it had introduced human review of automatic restrictions on presidential campaign advertising accounts, with reviews to take place within two hours.

Bolsonaro drops voting challenge

Lula received 64,256,232 votes in Sunday’s runoff, approximately 51.79% of valid votes. Bolsonaro received 59,826,041, or about 48.21%. Bolsonaro had finished ahead in the first round on October 4, receiving approximately 47.03% against Lula’s 45.16%.

After the runoff defeat, Bolsonaro initially said he would seek annulment over a decision extending voting hours. Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin had authorized additional time following complaints about transport problems affecting voters. Zanin later clarified that the extension applied to polling stations still operating. It did not authorize reopening stations that had already closed. Bolsonaro’s own side had also requested extra voting time in municipalities affected by heavy rain and other disruption.

Analyses of electoral-machine records identified approximately 34,000 to 35,500 votes after the normal 5 p.m. closing time, far below Lula’s winning margin. Most were recorded shortly after 5 p.m., when voters already waiting in line would ordinarily still be entitled to cast ballots. Electoral Court President Kassio Nunes Marques confirmed the result and said the voting process remained secure.

By Monday, Bolsonaro’s campaign officials were reported to have abandoned the proposed challenge to the validity of the voting itself. The senator instead announced that he would seek the removal of Lula’s ticket over alleged abuses of political and economic power during the campaign.

His Liberal Party acknowledged Lula’s victory while calling for explanations about the election. By Tuesday, Bolsonaro had already fled Brazil for the United States after missing the court’s deadline to surrender his passports.