SÃO PAULO—Brazilian police searched the homes of several prominent businessmen allied with President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday as the Supreme Court probes the men for discussing a possible power grab in the event the conservative leader loses October’s presidential election.
A team of 35 police officers carried out search warrants across five states to gather evidence. Legal and political analysts said the operation was likely to inflame tensions over allegations of antidemocratic behavior on both sides of the political divide in this polarized country.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who heads the country’s electoral court, also ordered police to access the banking records of the businessmen and ruled their social media accounts should be suspended, according to a person close to the investigation.
The operation is part of a wider continuing investigation by Mr. Moraes into Mr. Bolsonaro and several of his supporters for allegedly spreading false information via social media about the integrity of the voting system and inciting violence ahead of October’s vote. Mr. Bolsonaro has denied those accusations, saying his concerns over voter fraud are based on a continuing police investigation into alleged hacker attacks on the electoral court.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes is probing the spread of false information about the integrity of the nation’s voting system.
Photo: Ton Molina/Fotoarena/Zuma Press
Brazil’s Metrópoles news site reported last week that business leaders allied with the president had begun openly discussing ways to prevent former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his leftist Workers’ Party, or PT, from returning to the presidency if he wins.
“I prefer a coup to the return of the PT—a million times over,” one shopping mall owner allegedly wrote last month in a message to other businessmen in a private WhatsApp group, reproduced by the site. “And clearly no one will stop doing business with Brazil, as happens with other dictatorships in the world.”
With less than six weeks to go until the first round of voting on Oct. 2, the political left and right are locked in a bitter battle in which they accuse each other of overstepping democratic norms.
Political opponents of Mr. Bolsonaro, a former army captain who served under Brazil’s 1964-85 dictatorship, have accused the president of plotting to seize power with the help of the military if he loses to Mr. da Silva, as polls suggest he will.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist, is leading conservative President Jair Bolsonaro in polls ahead of October’s election.
Photo: miguel schincariol/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Mr. Bolsonaro, who publicly supports Donald Trump and calls him a friend, has said he fears October’s election will be plagued by fraud. He said in a television interview late Monday that he will only accept the results if the vote is “clean.” His allies have accused the Supreme Court and other institutions of abuse of power, alleging that the judges are siding with the political left to boot the conservative out of government and censor his supporters.
The Supreme Court has rejected those accusations, saying that it intends to play a minimal role in the elections. Mr. de Moraes and the other justices declined to comment.
Vera Chemim, a São Paulo-based constitutional lawyer, said she didn’t believe the conversations published in the press were enough to charge the men with the alleged crime of forming a criminal organization, given they were informal chats in a private group.
“We’re in a dangerous situation here, putting the freedom of expression at risk,” said Ms. Chemim, blaming polarization on both the political left and right.
About half of Brazilians said they fully trust the country’s electronic voting system, while 32% said they had some faith in it, according to a recent poll by Datafolha, a polling firm. One in five Brazilians said they didn’t trust it.
Department store boss Luciano Hang, one of Brazil’s richest men and a fervent backer of the president, was among those targeted in Tuesday’s operation, along with the head of a popular restaurant chain and real estate group, according to the person close to the investigation.
Representatives for those targeted in the operation either condemned the move or didn’t comment. Mr. Hang elaborated in a statement, saying that police arrived at his office at 6 a.m. and seized his mobile phone. He added that his messages in the group made no reference to a coup or the Supreme Court.
“As far as I know, in Brazil, it’s still not a crime to have a thought or an opinion,” Mr. Hang said in a statement. “In my messages in a private WhatsApp group, it is clear that I have NEVER, at any time, talked about a coup.”
Mr. Bolsonaro’s office didn’t respond to requests for comments.
One of the president’s sons, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a federal lawmaker, wrote on Twitter that “this is clearly an operation to intimidate any public figure from positioning themselves politically in favor of Bolsonaro or against the left.”
He added that “this is an attack on democracy in the middle of an electoral campaign. Censorship! There’s no other word for it.”
In other messages cited by the Metrópoles news site, several of the businessmen targeted in the operation attacked the Supreme Court.
“The real coup was releasing the prisoner,” said one member of the WhatsApp group, referring to Mr. da Silva.
The former president was jailed for more than a year over corruption before being released in 2019 on the basis of a new Supreme Court ruling. Another entrepreneur wrote that Mr. Bolsonaro should have installed a dictatorship immediately after taking office.
Write to Samantha Pearson at samantha.pearson@wsj.com and Luciana Magalhaes at Luciana.Magalhaes@wsj.com
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