Reported by Lisandra Paraguassu

(Excerpt shown below. To read full report, go to: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/brazil-investigate-suspected-fx-insider-trading-us-tariffs-2025-07-21/)

Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized an investigation into the alleged use of privileged information on foreign exchange transactions before the  announcement of the 50% U.S. tariff on all Brazilian imports in July, according to a Monday court filing.

On Saturday, the solicitor general’s office, known as AGU, had requested Supreme Court authorization to look into the trades after a news report suggested a significant volume of Brazilian reals were sold in anticipation of the tariff announcement, which could suggest insider trading.

The news report was based on a chart posted by Spencer T. Hakimian, founder at New York-based hedge fund Tolou Capital Management, that showed how the Brazilian real moved on July 9, when Trump announced a 50% tariff on imports from Brazil. He told Reuters on July 10 that he had no further data or information to back his comments. Tolou manages $82 million in a global macro hedge fund strategy.