One of the main leaders of the evangelical bench, federal deputy Silas Câmara (Republicanos-AM) participated in the signing of an agreement between the INSS and the Brazilian Confederation of Fisheries and Aquaculture Workers (CBPA), one of the entities investigated for alleged fraud in pension discounts. Since that agreement, CBPA received R$221 million transferred by INSS, between March 2023 and April 2025 — the month in which Operation Without Discount was launched, which uncovered irregularities in these entities.
Silas accompanied the president of the CBPA, Abraão Lincoln Ferreira da Cruz, in meetings with the INSS leadership at the beginning of 2021, still during the government of Jair Bolsonaro. In May of that year, he attended the ceremony in which, according to the Official Gazette, a “protocol of intentions (…) was signed with the purpose of effecting discounts on the social security benefits” of CBPA members, in the amount of up to 2.5% of the benefit.
“The technical cooperation agreement with the INSS will bring a new moment for more than 1 million artisanal fishermen and women in the country”, wrote Silas, after the ceremony at the INSS alongside Lincoln.
Opportunity with security!
The agreement was implemented in July 2022, and discounts began to occur in March 2023, already during the Lula government. Between June and July of that year, CBPA went from having 35 thousand members with discounts on their salaries to more than 220 thousand. With this, the entity jumped from around R$30 thousand to R$7.5 million received from the INSS per month. At the beginning of 2025, the value rose to R$9.5 million per month.
When the Federal Police and the General Comptroller of the Union launched the investigation, CBPA had 442 thousand members who had their salaries deducted by the INSS and passed on to the entity. The CGU interviewed a sample of 32 CBPA members in 2024, and none of them said they had authorized the discounts. According to the CGU, the entity linked to Silas Câmara was unable to clarify the situation of any of these associates.
Million-dollar contracts
The case came into the focus of the INSS CPI after a statement by Abraão Lincoln, president of the CBPA, in November. Documents sent to the CPI and collected by GLOBO show that, since the end of 2023, the CBPA signed contracts with companies owned by Silas Câmara’s family, to which it transferred R$1.8 million.
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The first contract was with Network Multimídia, which received R$30,000 to publicize, in August 2023, the “Grito da Pesca”, a CBPA event that had the Amazon deputy as a kind of “ambassador”.
Then, between July 2024 and March 2025, CBPA transferred R$1 million to Network Filmes, a company almost homonymous to the first. Network Filmes’ partner is Kethlen Brito, sister-in-law of Heber Câmara, the deputy’s son. Heber introduces himself as CEO of the “Network Group”. Network Multimídia is in the name of Maria Soraia Costa, Heber’s mother-in-law.
Last year, CBPA also transferred R$30,000 to Rádio Morena FM, which was run by Elienai Câmara, another son of Silas.
There was also a contract between CBPA and Conektah Estilos Digitais, a company that figured in the reporting of Silas Câmara’s campaign in 2022. The company raised R$800,000 from CBPA, under the pretext of “airing radio programs” about the entity in Amazonas.
When contacted by GLOBO, Silas Câmara did not comment. In a letter sent to the INSS CPI, the deputy’s defense said that “there is no factual basis or minimum evidence that allows us to consider” that the companies were used “for irregular purposes”. The defense also said that the “family relationship (…) does not, in itself, imply irregularity”
CBPA also hired another of Silas’ daughters, lawyer Milena Ramos Câmara, for the legal sector. She was previously legal coordinator of the evangelical bench, which was chaired by Silas in 2019 and 2023.
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Accused by ex-wife
Mother of Milena and Heber, also federal deputy Antonia Lucia (Republicanos-AC), who separated from Silas in 2024, accuses her ex-husband of “spending the money from the fishermen’s party through illicit means”. On social media, Antonia mentioned Silas’s actions, in 2025, to allow entities such as CBPA to continue intermediating the transfer of defense insurance. The benefit is paid by the INSS during periods of the year when fishing is not permitted.
On the networks, Silas himself exposed his collaboration with Abraão Lincoln, from CBPA, to modify a provisional measure by the Lula government that transferred the responsibility for registering defense insurance to city halls. In 2025, Amazonas had 83 thousand beneficiaries of defense insurance, most of them registered by the CBPA and associations linked to it.
“We are against setting precedents that weaken the actions of representative entities,” said Silas at the time.
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CBPA did not return GLOBO’s contacts.
Context
Brother of pastor Samuel Câmara, main name of the Assembly of God in the North region, deputy Silas Câmara was not the only evangelical leader dredged by the INSS CPI — which will be resumed this week with testimony from Daniel Vorcaro, from Banco Master. The mention of pastors and churches in the CPI, suspected of benefiting from fraudulent discounts, caused controversy between Silas Malafaia and Senator Damares Alves (Republicanos-DF), in a sample of divisions that could reach the polls this year.
Malafaia, leader of another branch of the Assembly of God — but with a history of alliances with the Câmara family in the church —, was not pleased to see Damares remember, in recent interviews, that the investigations focused on “great pastors”. Damares, an ally of former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, also suggested that there would be pressure to hush up the case in churches.
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Although he is not one of those mentioned, Malafaia is suspicious of Damares’ intentions. The senator supported Michelle in seeking the Presidency; the pastor preferred the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas.
Damares usually faces consolidated leaders: in 2019, she became Bolsonaro’s minister against fellow evangelical Magno Malta, to whom she had been an advisor. Last year, she asked pastor Mário de Oliveira to step down from command of the Quadrangular Church, of which she was once part, after being accused of sexual abuse.
Damares’ firecracker also hit pastor André Valadão, leader of Lagoinha, another church to which the senator was once linked. Valadão, who supports Flávio Bolsonaro for the Presidency, was cited in the CPI for suspicions involving Vorcaro’s brother-in-law, who is also from Lagoinha.
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Irritated, Valadão said that Damares “took the bait from the left” by citing him and denied irregularities. The senator chose a curious way to apologize to the pastor: after calling him a “long-time friend”, she said that the Valadão church is “sought after by very rich people”. “The poor give me flour, bananas as gifts, this is my audience,” said Damares.
The INSS CPI became an example that the great evangelical leaders, previously united with Bolsonaro, today no longer think so alike.
