With the articulation of the government base, the INSS CPI rejected in this Thursday’s session a request to summon José Ferreira da Silva, Frei Chico, brother of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to testify. Frei Chico is vice-president of the National Union of Retirees of Força Sindical (Sindnapi), whose addresses were the target of search and seizure warrants in Operation Without Discount, which investigates a billion-dollar fraud scheme at the National Social Security Institute (INSS). Unlike other Sindnapi leaders, Frei Chico is not mentioned in the investigation.
The request was overturned by 19 votes to 11.
— Frei Chico joined this union in 2024. The Federal Police say that these irregularities began in 2019 during the Bolsonaro government. He has never had any administrative or financial role, he has no economic ties with this union. He was not mentioned in the investigation by the Police and CGU (Comptroller General of the Union) — stated the government leader at the CPI, deputy Paulo Pimenta (PT-RS). The opposition stated
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With the same votes as those in government, the CPI also rejected the breaches of confidentiality by publicist Danielle Miranda Fonteles and her company. She received R$5 million from lobbyist Antônio Carlos Camilo Antunes, known as the “bald guy from INSS”, between November 2023 and March 2025
According to the defenses of Antunes and Fonteles, the payment was made for the purchase of a property in Trancoso (BA) in a negotiation that ended up not materializing. The case was revealed by “ Veja ” magazine and confirmed by GLOBO. Danielle has already provided services to PT electoral campaigns, such as the election of former president Dilma Rousseff, in 2010.
The commission, on the other hand, approved the breach of bank secrecy by lawyer Eli Cohen from January 2015 to October 2025. The lawyer was the author of the first complaints against three associations involved in the case. In a statement to CPMI at the beginning of September, he detailed how the scheme worked and raised suspicions against INSS directors.
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— This crime could not have been carried out if you did not have in your pocket the president of the INSS, the entire INSS Benefits Department and, in my opinion, a Minister of Social Security — said Cohen, at the time.
Before the start of the session, the base and opposition parliamentarians reached an agreement to withdraw the requests for breaches of fiscal and telematic secrecy from former Social Security Minister Carlos Lupi. The requests included the INSS institutional email and Lupi’s personal cell phone, but were not put to a vote.
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This Thursday, the CPI will hear advisor Cícero Marcelino de Souza Santos, from the National Confederation of Family Farmers and Rural Family Entrepreneurs (Conafer), another association involved in the scandal.
He is being investigated for receiving atypical transfers from the entity, according to financial intelligence reports from the Financial Activities Control Council (Coaf). Conafer received a transfer of R$13 million on June 7, 2023. On the same day, the association made payments of around R$900,000 to several companies – among them there were companies that had Souza Santos or his wife as partners.
In notes released to the press, Conafer always denied irregularities and stated that the transfers were part of the “normal flow of its contractual obligations”.
