Last Minister of Social Security who abandoned the scandal with large pensions

The Minister of Social Security of Brazil, Carlos Lupi, resigned nine days after police revealed a major corruption scandal that deceived pensioners of $ 1.1 billion (829 million pounds).

Federal police argue that in the last decade, the National Institute of Social Security (INSS) has made unauthorized deductions from payments made to millions of retirees.

The money is believed to have been paid to several associations and alliances, which then share profits with corrupt government officials.

Lupi has always denied any misconduct and said he had ordered an investigation as soon as he heard about the allegations.

“I make this decision for sure that my name was not mentioned at any time in continued investigations,” Lupi wrote to X when he announced his resignation.

“I hope that investigations follow their natural course, identify those responsible and punish, with rigor, those who have used their positions to harm working people,” he writes.

Operation without discount (Discount In Portuguese) have observed 700 federal agents to issue 211 search orders in Brazil, Federal Police reported in a statementS

Assets worth over $ 177 million have been seized – including luxury cars, jewelry and over $ 200,000 in cash.

The fraud claims to register retirees as members of the pension associations without their consent, but as a result, they regularly deducted their membership benefits.

Police have said the scheme is aimed at some of the most overwhelming areas of the country, where pensioners are unlikely to notice the fraud or complain about it.

The InSS leader resigned last week for charges, and six government officials were removed from their posts, Federal police said.

Investigators focus on more than 6 billion real ones who believe they have been diverted between 2019-2024, but how many of this money has been taken illegally remains unclear.

The Director of the Budgets and Finance of Ins, Deborah Floriano, said a working group would be set up to return the missing money, but at this stage they were still trying to determine the amount of fraud.

Carlos Lupi is the second person in the government of President Luis Inasio Lula da Silva, who has lost his position due to accusations of corruption for less than a month.

In early April, communications minister Juselino Filho withdrew after being accused of bribe in 2022 in 2022.

Lula himself spent 1.5 years in prison in 2018-2019 for corruption, but later the sentence was discarded, allowing him to run – and win – his third term as president of Brazil.