AGU requests the freezing of assets of 14 more people investigated for fraud at INSS

The Attorney General's Office asked the Federal Court, this Friday the 9th, to freeze the assets of six more companies and eight people investigated for irregular discounts on benefits for retirees and pensioners of the National Institute of Social Security ( INSS ). The agency filed a request to change the precautionary action filed on Thursday the 8th against the associations under investigation.

The measure responds to a request from the Office of the Comptroller General of the Union, which identified the need to include new legal entities and individuals in the request for the unavailability of assets and financial resources. Based on Law No. 12,846/2013, known as the Anti-Corruption Law, the Office of the Comptroller General also requested the blocking of financial activities and the suspension of the bank and tax secrecy of those investigated.

The companies and their partners mentioned in the new request are accused of being intermediaries for the payment of undue benefits to public agents linked to the INSS and other individuals related to them. To date, the AGU reported, the transfer of undue amounts to these public agents is estimated at 23.8 million reais.

“The ongoing investigations reveal strong evidence that the companies mentioned directly participated in the intermediation of millions in amounts,” the AGU reported in the supplementary petition. “This financial engineering supported the criminal scheme, which consisted of passing on amounts unduly discounted by the associations and paying illicit advantages to public agents who allowed or facilitated these discounts.”

Regarding the freezing of assets of the partners of the aforementioned companies, the AGU bases its argument on the fact that “legal entities were used as an instrument for illicit practices of a criminal, administrative and civil nature, serving as a means to obtain advantages from resources unduly extracted from the benefits of retirees and pensioners”.

In the case of public agents investigated in Operation Sem Desconto, the AGU instituted preparatory proceedings to file a lawsuit for administrative misconduct.

In the original petition for the precautionary action proposed on Thursday, the AGU requested, in addition to the 23.8 million reais, the blocking of 2.56 billion in movable and immovable assets and the breaking of banking and tax secrecy of 12 associative entities and their directors.