Senator Damares Alves (Republicans-DF) filed with the office of Attorney General Paulo Gonet an application for the Federal Prosecutor to seek the termination of the 12 associations involved in irregular discounts on the payroll payroll and INSS pensioners. She also asks that the whole assets of the entities be confiscated by the Union ‘in order to ensure the compensation of the victims.
The estimated fraud of R $ 6.3 billion was revealed in the operation without discount, triggered two weeks ago by the Federal Police and the Comptroller General of the Union. The scandal led to the fall of minister Carlos Lupi (Social Security) and the president of the INSS Alessandro Stefanutto. They emphatically deny connection with the scheme.
Damares is one of the authors of the request to install the mixed parliamentary committee of inquiry to investigate the deviations in the INSS.
Among the unions cited by the Senator Bolsonarista in the petition Gonet is the National Union of Retirees, Pensioners and Elderly of Força Sindical (Sindnapi), whose vice presidency is exercised by Friar Chico, brother of President Lula.
According to investigators of the unconsequent operation, the Frei Chico Union was the third entity that raised the most with illegal discounts, between 2019 and 2024 – revenue jump of R $ 100 million in three years, according to the Federal Court of Audit audit.
“As for the leaders of the entities represented, which are included in the passive pole of the civil action to be filed and all the assets that have acquired illegally be reversed in favor of the Union,” says an excerpt from the request.
Operation without discount was triggered by PF and CGU on April 23 against INSS fraud Photo: PF/Disclosure
At the top of the list is the National Confederation of Family Farmers and Rural Family Entrepreneurs of Brazil (Contag), which accumulated R $ 2 billion, with illegal discounts of retirement in the period, says Damares,
Damage to the treasury
The text filed by the senator points out that the Union is elaborating a plan for reimbursement with public resources to INSS retirees and pensioners. For Damares this is a contradiction, since the treasury was also harmed. ‘
“It turns out that the truly surrounded resources of our old men did not have as its final destination the public coffers, but the pockets of this true gang, which used the vulnerability of the INSS to commit the crimes reported in the operation without discount,” he says.
The parliamentarian also says that in addition to the INSS retirees and pensioners, ‘the union was impaired, as it had the credibility shaken by an unprecedented crisis.
Dissolution
Regarding the dissolution request, Damares justifies that the associations ‘diverted from the purpose for which they were created, since instead defending and ensuring the rights of the policyholders, they committed crimes against them’.
‘Acts of corruption are incompatible with the very existence of such entities,’ says Senator Damares Alves Photo: Edilson Rodrigues/Senate Agency
It points out that the entities claim to have not been profitable, but they would have exponentially increased the assets from improper discounts’.
Damares cites Article 5, XIX, of the Constitution, to support the request for extinction of associations and unions. “From the moment criminal practices are found through private associations, especially when they reach the dignity of members and those who promised to defend, action is made by extinction.”
For the senator, ‘are incompatible with the very existence of such entities the practice of acts of corruption, subtraction of third party resources, as evidenced in the operation without discount.’
The petition to prosecutor Paulo Gonet also lists the Association of Mutualist Retirees for Collective Benefits, the Association of Retirees and Pensioners of Brazil, the Association of Retirees and Pensioners, the Brazilian Confederation of Fisheries and Aquaculture Workers and the National Confederation of Rural Workers Farmers and Family Farmers.
The senator also calls for the extinction of the Universe Association of Retirees and Pensioners of the General Regimes of Social Security and the National Union to Aid for Public Servants.
Prevarication
On Tuesday, 6, the senator filed a representation with the Attorney General’s office in which former Minister Carlos Lupi (Social Security), his successor, Wolney Queiroz, and former INSS president Alessandro Stefanutto are investigated for prevarication. Stefanutto also denies involvement with the fraud.
The criminal denunciation that Damares took to PGR is signed by lawyer Marco Vinícius Pereira de Carvalho. The document attributes to Lupi, Wolney and Stefanutto ‘Dolosa omission conduct’ in the calculation of reports of irregular discounts on the payroll of INSS insured. “Even in the face of robust evidence of irregularities, the former minister, the current and the former president of the INSS did not take action to cease discounts, ensure the compensation of the victims and also lead to the punishment of those responsible.”
“It is inadmissible for public servants to be omitted by so much corruption,” he says. “As public servants, they had a duty and obligation to act with ethical conduct, dignity, decorum, zeal, effectiveness and with respect to moral, legal and constitutional principles. ‘
The prevarication is described in Article 319 of the Penal Code as the practice of delaying or failing, improperly, an act of office, or practicing it against express provision of law, to satisfy personal interest or feeling ‘.
In representation to the PGR, the senator maintains that Lupi, Queiroz and Stefanutto participated as members of the National Social Security Council (CTPS) meetings, June 2023, when the case was denounced by a counselor, and April 2024, when the analysis of irregular discounts on the INSS insured leaves was based.
The measures, according to Damares, would only have been taken after the Federal Police and CGU triggered the operation without discount. The investigation unveiled the entire scheme that damaged thousands of retirees.
For Damares Alves the ‘conduct of ignoring the alerts about the large volume of unauthorized discounts contributed to the fraud to be continued and its potential harmful to gain superlative contours, with ultimate damage to the public coffers’.
“This conduct favored the perpetuation of this harmful criminal scheme that hurt the dignity of the elderly and other vulnerable beneficiaries of the INSS,” he says.
