U.S. Treasury Removes Sanctions on Brazilian Justice and Wife

On Dec. 12, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control removed Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, his wife Viviane Barci de Moraes, and the Lex Institute from a U.S. sanctions list, multiple U.S. news outlets reported. The trio had been added to the list on July 30, 2025 under Executive Order 13818, the authority used in Global Magnitsky style actions.

The July designation accused Justice de Moraes of serious human rights abuse and of abusing his judicial position. U.S. Treasury and State Department statements at that time alleged that he authorized arbitrary pre trial detentions, repeatedly subjected individuals to long preventive detention without bringing charges, suppressed freedom of expression, and weaponized courts against political opponents. The initial releases also said de Moraes directed federal police raids, froze assets and revoked passports of critics, and issued orders to U.S. social media companies to remove or block hundreds of accounts including some belonging to U.S. persons.

De Moraes, appointed to Brazil’s highest court in 2017, has been a central figure in politically charged investigations and prosecutions, including leading proceedings involving former President Jair Bolsonaro. Associated Press file photography records showed he was sworn in as the court’s vice president on Sept. 29, 2025. Reports variably described the Lex Institute as an organization led by Viviane Barci de Moraes or as a holding company connected to the couple.

News accounts cited no detailed U.S. explanation for the Dec. 12 delisting. Treasury and State Department releases from July 30, 2025 set out the grounds for the designation, but the public reporting assembled on Friday did not include a comparable statement explaining why OFAC concluded the listing should be reversed. In Brazil, reports said Eduardo Bolsonaro reacted to the removal, saying he “received the news of the sanctions being lifted from de Moraes ‘with regret.’”

Analysts said the abrupt reversal underscores broader tensions in U.S. foreign policy between human rights enforcement and diplomatic calculations. Removing a high profile judicial figure from a sanctions list without a public explanation risks raising questions about the consistency and predictability of the Global Magnitsky program, which many investors and partner governments monitor as a rule of law signal.

For markets and investors, the immediate impact may be muted given the political rather than economic nature of the designation, but the episode highlights a source of political risk for Brazil. Sovereign bond spreads, foreign direct investment decisions and currency flows are sensitive to perceptions of institutional stability and rule of law. Investors will likely watch sovereign spreads and the real closely in the short term for any reassessment of Brazil risk.

Domestically, the removal is likely to reverberate through Brazil’s polarized political landscape where judicial actions and accusations of political targeting have been central themes. Washington’s next public steps, including any explanatory statement from Treasury or State, will be closely watched for what they reveal about the interplay between human rights accountability and geopolitical diplomacy.