The president of the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI), senator Carlos Viana (Podemos-MG), stated that the new phase of Operation Without Discountwhich the Federal Police (PF) and the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) launched this Thursday (13), affected key people in the criminal scheme that, for years, allowed the illegal discounting of association fees for millions of retirees and pensioners of the National Social Security Institute (INSS) throughout Brazil.
“Today, the operation put in jail the main nucleus of all INSS embezzlements; of the gang that took Brazilian pensions by storm”, Viana declared to journalists, shortly before the start of the 25th meeting of the commission, which will hear testimony from lawyer Eric Douglas Martins Fidelis, son of the former director of INSS Benefits, André Fidelis.
According to investigations, Eric’s law firm received around R$5.1 million from directors of entities investigated as part of Operation Without Discount.
The new phase of the operation, launched this morning, had as one of its main developments the arrest of former INSS president Alessandro Stefanutto. A career federal prosecutor, he headed the Specialized Federal Prosecutor’s Office at the INSS between 2011 and 2017.
Meeting of the INSS Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI) to hear the former president of the institute Alessandro Antonio Stefanutto. Photo: Lula Marques/ Agência Brasil Archive
On July 11, 2023, Stefanutto assumed the presidency of the municipality upon recommendation of the then Minister of Social Security, Carlos Lupiwho resigned after the scandal. He was removed from office by court decision on the same day that the PF and CGU carried out the first phase of Operation Without Discount, in April this year, was exonerated.
The new stage of Operation Without Discount also reached the Former Minister of Labor and Social Security in the Bolsonaro government José Carlos Oliveira; federal deputy Euclydes Pettersen Neto (Republicanos-MG) and state deputy Edson Cunha de Araújo (PSS-MA).
Pettersen is mentioned in the PF and CGU investigations for allegedly having sold a plane to one of the associative entities investigated. Araújo is vice-president of the Brazilian Confederation of Fisheries and Aquaculture Workers (CBPA).
Other parliamentarians
According to the president of CPMI, Pettersen and Araújo are not the only parliamentarians investigated on suspicion of involvement in fraud involving association fees.
“There are other parliamentarians who are also involved and who, at the right time, in accordance with their responsibilities, will give statements to the STF”, stated Viana, claiming that he was unable to provide further details in order not to hinder the ongoing investigations.
According to Viana, in line with the facts already established by the PF and the CGU, the members of the CPMI consider that those responsible for the scam against those insured under the General Social Security Regime were divided into three categories:
- First Echelon: includes politicians who, according to Viana, would have received payments from the second echelon to help, encourage, appoint or maintain corrupt civil servants in key positions at the INSS and the Ministry of Social Security.
- Second Level: formed by public servants who, according to the senator, became corrupt and acted to maintain the deviations, moving between different government administrations.
- Third Echelon: made up of operators and “oranges” who carried out withdrawals and direct diversion of money. He stated that the majority of this group were arrested at this stage.
“Now we want to know who helped, who indicated, who appointed and what they received so that this scheme could continue to work and how politicians benefited in this story”, concluded Viana.
