On Thursday, Brazil’s Federal Police arrested the Deputy Minister of Social Security, Adroaldo Portal, as part of an anti-corruption operation that has been investigating since the beginning of the year millions of irregular diversions in the pension system.
The operation, authorized by the Supreme Court, includes 16 preventive detention orders and 52 searches in the states of São Paulo, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Minas Gerais, Maranhão and Brasilia, the Federal Police indicated in a statement.
One of the targets of those raids was Senator Weverton Rocha, of the Democratic Labor Party (PDT, in its Portuguese acronym), suspected of participating in the scheme uncovered at the National Institute of Social Security (INSS).
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Rocha said in a note that he received “with surprise” the registration of his residence and made himself available to the authorities.
The case refers to a millionaire fraud detected at the beginning of this year within the INSS and which may reach 6.3 billion reais (today about 1.15 billion dollars).
According to the authorities, that money would have been diverted from the accounts of retirees and pensioners between 2019 and 2024, although it is suspected that these fraudulent practices may have started even earlier.
The money was deducted directly from the payrolls through various methods, which included even the payment of unsolicited credits, and was diverted through companies or organizations that had agreements with the INSS to offer advantages or discounts on some services to retirees.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended this Thursday, in a press conference, investigating “all people involved”, amid police suspicions regarding Fábio Luís da Silva, one of the president’s sons.
“No one will go unpunished. If there’s a son of mine involved in this, he will be investigated,” he guaranteed.
According to the local press, Fábio Luís da Silva maintained a business relationship with one of the key players in the plot, the businessman Antônio Camilo Antunes, known as the ‘Bald Man of the INSS’, who allegedly made a series of payments to a “friend” of the progressive leader’s son.
The Federal Police began their investigation based on approximately 130,000 complaints from retirees who had funds stolen from their accounts, although they suspect that the number of fraud victims may be greater and exceed four million.
The scandal was also the subject of a parliamentary inquiry and led last May to the resignation of the then Minister of Social Security Carlos Lupi, although he is not among the suspects.
Following Thursday’s operation, the current head of that office, Wolney Queiroz, dismissed his second-in-command, Adroaldo Portal, who will be under house arrest, as determined by the Justice Department.
“The Ministry of Social Security and the INSS will continue to actively collaborate with investigations and act to recover the resources diverted by this scheme,” the portfolio indicated in a statement.
