Brazil’s Federal Police arrested hacker Walter Delgatti this week, after it was found that he had breached several terms of his parole agreement, as The Brazilian Report revealed earlier this year.
Mr. Delgatti rose to fame in 2019 after he broke into the Telegram accounts of prosecutors of Brazil’s world-famous anti-corruption probe, Operation Car Wash. He then leaked the information he obtained to The Intercept Brasil, which uncovered a series of irregularities in the investigation and destroyed the legacy of former judge Sergio Moro.
The Federal Police investigated Mr. Delgatti later that year as part of Operation Spoofing, and he was found guilty of hacking the phones of almost 200 public figures. He spent time behind bars before being released on parole, under the condition that he was not allowed to use the internet and could not change his address without informing the authorities.
In February, Mr. Delgatti admitted to The Brazilian Report that he attempted to hack into the phone of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the country’s top electoral judge. Remember the case (for Portuguese, click here):
We obtained audio messages in which Mr. Delgatti promised to pay BRL 10,000 in cash or Bitcoin for access to Justice Moraes’ phone, claiming the money would come from “people behind” the operation. The veracity of the audio was confirmed by Mr. Delgatti himself.
He also affirmed that he worked for loyalist pro-Bolsonaro Congresswoman Carla Zambelli, claiming to have an under-the-table contract with the far-right politician to provide social media management services — work that no doubt requires regular use of the internet.
According to G1’s Andréia Sadi, the arrest request issued by the Federal Prosecution Office in the Federal District explicitly quotes The Brazilian Report‘s story from February 7, with regards to Mr. Delgatti’s admission that he works for Ms. Zambelli.
Mr. Delgatti met with then-President Jair Bolsonaro on August 10 last year. Their meeting was reportedly arranged by Ms. Zambelli, who told the press that the conversation was to find weaknesses in Brazil’s electronic ballot boxes — part of Mr. Bolsonaro’s oft-repeated conspiracy theory that the country’s electoral system is rigged.
However, Senator Marcos do Val told Veja magazine in February that the president asked Mr. Delgatti to take the blame for the illegal wiretapping of Justice Moraes, which had allegedly already been carried out. The circumstances of this wiretapping and whether it actually took place remain unclear.Speaking to The Brazilian Report, Mr. Delgatti’s defense counsel assured it would request his release.
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