Brazil Minister of Social Security in the youngest to cancel in the large pension fraud scandal

The Brazilian Minister of Social Security, Carlos Lupi, is a severe corruption scandal nine days after the unveiling of the police, which has cheated pensioners of USD 1.1 billion (829 million GBP).

The federal police claim that the National Social Security Institute (INSS) has not authorized deductions from payments to millions of pensioners in the past ten years.

The money was allegedly paid to several associations and unions, which then shared the result with corrupt government officials.

Lupi always contested misconduct and said he had ordered an investigation as soon as he heard of the allegations.

“I make this decision with the certainty that my name was never mentioned in the current investigation,” Lupi wrote to X when he announced his resignation.

“I hope that the investigation will follow their natural course, identify those responsible and strict those who used their positions to harm the working people,” he wrote.

Operation without a discount (Sem desconto In Portuguese), the Federal Police said in a statement.

Assets worth more than $ 177 million were confiscated – including luxury cars, jewelry and more than 200,000 US dollars in cash.

In the fraud, the registration of pensioners as members of the pensioner associations without their consent to register, but as a result, they had regularly deducted money from their benefits for the membership.

The police said that the program aimed at some of the poorest areas in the country in which it was unlikely that pensioners notice the fraud or complain about it.

The head of the In the Integration last week because of the allegations, and six public staff were removed from their places, the Federal Police said.

The investigators focus on more than 6 billion reals, of which they believe they were diverted between 2019 and 2024, but how much was taken illegally by this money remains unclear.

The director of Budget and Finance of InS, Débora Floriano, said a task force was being set up to return the lack of money, but at that time they are still trying to determine the size of the fraud.

Carlos Lupi is the second person in the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who loses her position due to allegations of corruption in less than a month.

At the beginning of April, the Minister of Communication Juscelino Filho resigned after he had charged bribes in 2022.

Lula himself spent 1.5 years in prison for corruption in 2018-2019, but the conviction was later thrown away so that he was able to lead and win his third term as Brazil's president.