The Attorney General’s Office (AGU) announced this Saturday, the 20th, a new package of legal actions against eight entities accused of making undue discounts on benefits from the National Social Security Institute (INSS). Among the main targets of this new offensive is the National Confederation of Rural Workers and Family Farmers (Contag), an entity historically linked to the Workers’ Party (PT).
According to investigations by the Federal Police, this entity was the largest beneficiary of resources from undue pension deductions, having received at least R$2 billion between January 2019 and March 2024 (48% of the total that was illegally deducted from pensions).
The entity has been investigated by the Federal Police and the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) since the beginning of Operation Without Discount, the first phase of which was launched on April 23 of this year. Even so, it was only targeted by the AGU now, in the latest batch of actions presented to the Court.
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As Estadão showed, the AGU also took a long time to take action against a union that has the brother of the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on its board of directors, Sindinapi, which the AGU targeted only in September.
The delay falls on the management of the Union’s attorney general, Jorge Messias, appointed by President Lula for the vacancy opened on the Federal Supreme Court (STF) with the retirement of minister Luís Roberto Barroso.
Messias disregarded, in the first wave of legal actions in May, an internal alert issued a year and five months ago by prosecutors from the 4th Region (South). This technical document, revealed by Estadão, already mapped irregularities in the union linked to Frei Chico and suggested the suspension of agreements due to the “explosive increase” in legal demands.
At the time, Messias’ management claimed that the alert, which originated in a routine correction, did not bring together sufficient evidence, postponing action.
Complete list of new targets
This Saturday, in addition to Contag, AGU announced that it had filed lawsuits against:
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– Sinab: National Union of Retirees of Brazil;
– FITF/CNTT/CUT: Interstate Federation of Railway Workers;
– Contraf: National Confederation of Workers in Family Farming;
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– ASTRE: Association of Central-West Railway Traffic Servers;
– SindaPB: Union of Retirees and Pensioners of Brazil;
– United: Mongeral Aegon Longevity Institute;
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– Sintapi-CUT: National Union of Retired Workers, Pensioners and the Elderly.
AGU Balance Sheet
The AGU states that, taking together all the stages of the operation since the scandal came to light, it has already filed 37 precautionary actions.
The body asks for a total blockage of R$6.6 billion to guarantee compensation to injured retirees.
