Brazil's Federal Police to send first INSS fraud reports to Supreme Court

The Federal Police (PF) said it will finish the initial investigations of Operation Sem Desconto – a probe into illegal discount schemes that siphoned an estimated R$6.3 billion from INSS pensions – and forward the first reports to the Supreme Court (STF) within the month. The operation, now in its ninth phase, has executed 419 search and seizure orders, detained 27 people and analyzed about 40 % of seized material.

PF officials stressed that the upcoming reports will cover the investigative strands with sufficient evidence of authorship and materiality, while other lines of inquiry, including a case involving businessman Fábio Luís Lula da Silva (“Lulinha”), will continue. Parallel to the PF’s effort, defense lawyers for the detained suspects have filed multiple petitions urging the STF to lift their preventive detention after six months.

Supreme Court minister André Mendonça is the rapporteur for the case, and the Prosecutor General’s Office will decide whether to forward formal charges after the reports are received.