Federal deputies and senators who are part of the Mixed Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI) From the National Institute of Social Security (INSS) must hear, on Monday (1st), the testimony of investigative lawyer Eli Cohen, one of the first to investigate the discounts of associative tuition made, illegally, in the social security benefits of millions of retirees and pensioners from all over Brazil.
Cohen’s hearing is scheduled to start at 16h. The call was requested by parliamentarians from different parties and different ideological guidelines: Deputy Alfredo Gaspar (Union-AL), who is rapporteur of CPMI, and senators Fabiano Contarato (PT-ES) and Rogério Marinho (PL-RN).
Cohen began to find out on the subject in early 2021, after being sought by the manager of one of the dozens of entities authorized by the INSS to offer the possibility of their members to pay the associative tuition through the payroll discount, deducting the amounts directly from their retirement or pensions.
In proposing that Cohen is heard, the Senator Contarato pointed out that, “When working in legal proceedings linked to the calculation of fraud,” the lawyer gathered “relevant documentary evidence – including electronic messages, internal records and business communications – which indicate the misuse of secure retirees obtained from the INSS systems.”
>> Follow the channel of Brazil agency on WhatsApp
Deputy Alfredo Gaspar justified his request by highlighting that the facts found by Cohen in 2021 led him to conclude that the INSS’s retired fraud and pensioners would not be isolated irregularities, but a case of endemic fraud ”. Which, in the evaluation of Senator Rogério Marinho, makes it “essential that the lawyer be heard” by CPMI in order to “share his experience and [conclusões acerca do] modus operandi of associative entities ”.
Created in August this year, CPMI has 180 days to investigate cases of improper discounts. The work plan approved by the committee members establishes that it is up to the group, among other things, to investigate the operation of the fraudulent scheme, identify those involved and quantify individual and collective damages, proposing mechanisms for reparation and integral refund of illegally charged amounts.
