The Brazilian Confederation of Fishing and Aquaculture Workers (CBPA) – one of the associations under investigation for having earned 221.8 million reais within the INSS party – is headquartered in a 35 m² premises in the Banking South sector, in Brasilia, and has as its president a retiree already arrested for leading a criminal organization in the capital of the Republic.
In 2015, Abraão Lincoln Ferreira da Cruz was one of the 18 targets of Operation Enredados, launched by the Federal Police (PF). At the time, the investigation revealed a system of environmental crimes and crimes against public administration with ramifications in several states, with headquarters in Brasilia.
Abraão’s preventive detention was ordered on October 14, 2015. In the document, he is mentioned as the leader of the criminal organization that operated alongside the now-defunct Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture (MPA). Formal charges against Abraão included active corruption, crimes against the environment, issuance of authorizations in violation of environmental standards and crimes committed by an individual against the administration.
According to the operation, Abraão acted as leader of the group, along with other individuals, to obtain illicit administrative acts from the MPA. Actions included issuing a license for the sale of stingrays for ornamental purposes and increasing the storage capacity of these animals by orange companies.
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A frequent figure in Brasilia and at the National Congress, the president of the CBPA, Abraão Lincoln, makes a statement to the CPMI of the INSS this Monday (3/11)
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CBPA commented on Operation PF Without Discount
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On the CBPA website, the confederation describes the year of foundation and the mission of the confederation
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The president of the CBPA, Abraão Lincon, and the federal deputy Hugo Motta (Republicans), who will then preside over the Chamber.
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INSS Benefits Director André Fidelis alongside CBPA President Abraão Lincon (in blue in the photo) at a confederation event
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President of the CBPA
Antonio Cruz/Brazil Agency
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At the request of the defense, the president of the CBPA was released in January 2016. The case is still pending before the courts.
Four years later, in 2020, Abraão again became a defendant in a criminal case. This time, the man was reported to the electoral court for ideological lying.
Depending on the process to which the Metropolises If he had had access to it, the president of the CBPA would have received sums that were not declared in his accounts when he ran for the post of federal deputy in 2014.
According to the suit, he used third-party bank accounts, “for the purpose of concealing sums allegedly used in the election campaign,” a practice commonly known as “slush funds.”
The electoral investigation began after Operation Enredados took place. Initially focused on investigating environmental crimes and money laundering in the fishing sector, “Enredados” also ended up revealing elements that pointed to the practice of electoral crimes.
Abraham was sentenced in August 2025. He can still appeal the decision.
Arrest of the president
On November 4 of this year, Abraão Lincoln Ferreira da Cruz was arrested by the INSS CPMI for perjury.
That day, the union leader allegedly lied that he knew CBPA treasurer Gabriel Negreiros – who is the godfather of one of his grandsons. Throughout the session, Federal Deputy Duarte Jr. (PSB-MA) presented a photo of the child’s baptism and also said that Abraão Lincoln deposited 5 million reais into a Negreiros account.
“He (Abraão Lincoln) calls it an institutional relationship to deposit 5 million reais into the account of Gabriel Negreiros, who is nothing other than the godfather of his grandson. Is it an institutional relationship that he is the godfather of his grandson?” Duarte Jr asked.
After being pressured by the MP, Abraão Lincoln said he was confused when responding to CPMI rapporteur, MP Alfredo Gaspar, regarding the relationship with Negreiros. According to the commission, Abraão also lied on four other occasions.
The same day, the CBPA president posted bail and was released.
Bald INSS and political connections
Abraão Lincoln previously led the Republicans in Rio Grande do Norte and was a candidate for the party’s federal deputy in 2018.
He maintains relationships with party politicians, both regional and national. The influence also extends to the INSS itself.
In 2024, former benefits director André Fidelis took a per diem just to go to an entity party. Investigated by the PF, Fidélis was dismissed from his position in July last year, following information from INSS Farra.
The CBPA still appears as one of the entities that paid the lobbyist Antonio Carlos Camilo Antunes, Careca of the INSS, one of the kingpins of the scandal revealed by the Metropolises.
Only one employee
The report occurred at the location where the association’s headquarters are located. In the small commercial premises, only one employee generally appears. The schedule of the woman, named secretary, also attracts attention. According to witnesses, she stays at this address about two hours a day.
According to a report from the Controller General of the Union (CGU), the CBPA “does not have the infrastructure for location, recruitment, registration and even less provision of services” compatible with the registration of thousands of members, spread across more than 3,600 municipalities. Despite everything, in 2025, the association had 757,000 registered members.
According to the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI), which investigates fraud, of the 215 thousand retirees and retirees linked to the confederation who complained about reductions, 99% would not have authorized the entity to apply deductions from their benefits with the INSS.
Exponential growth
The CBPA was created in 2020. Two years later, it obtained a technical cooperation agreement with the INSS – which allows reductions on services, even without having members.
Despite the lack of employees, in 2023 the number of people linked to the CBPA increased from four, in May, to more than 340,000 members at the end of the year, which generated an annual turnover of 57.8 million reais.
In the first quarter of 2024, at the height of the wave of unjustified discounts, the number of members increased to 445,000 and revenue reached 41.2 million reais during the period.
During a session at the INSS CPMI, MP Alfredo Gaspar (União-AL) described, in a critical tone, the increase in the number of registrations of the association as a success. “In 2025, they had obtained 757 thousand registrations, which corresponds to more than 221 million reais over a period of two years,” said the parliamentarian.
According to information obtained by the Tácio Lohan section, from Metropolisesthe CGU suspects the confederation of having hired a telemarketing company to seek membership, which is prohibited, according to the terms of the technical cooperation agreement (ACT) with the INSS.
“Considering the month of 22 working days and 8 hours of daily work, the CBPA would have added 8,524.86 associative discounts per working day, or 17.76 discounts per minute,” underlined the organization.
“The CBPA does not have any employees registered in the RAIS (Annual Social Information List), but the amounts of the associative reductions added are so high that, even if the association claimed to have 100 employees, it is unlikely that the associative reductions of this amount would have been included in compliance with all legal and contractual formalities,” concluded the CGU.
According to the Union Comptroller General, the CBPA has also requested more than 40,000 times for the inclusion of reductions in benefits for deceased persons.
Party at the INSS
- The INSS scandal was revealed by Metropolises in a series of reports published from December 2023.
- Three months later, the portal showed that the revenues of entities offering discounts on retirees’ monthly contributions had skyrocketed, reaching 2 billion reais in one year, while the associations responded to thousands of lawsuits for fraud on policyholders’ memberships.
- The reports of Metropolises led to the opening of an investigation by the Federal Police (PF) and informed the investigations of the General Controller of the Union (CGU).
- In total, 38 articles from the portal were listed by the PF in the representation that gave birth to Operation Without Discount, launched on 04/23 and which resulted in the dismissal of the president of the INSS and then Minister of Social Security, Carlos Lupi.
The other side
THE Metropolises tried to contact the Brazilian Confederation of Fishing and Aquaculture Workers, as well as the president of the association by email and telephone, but did not receive a response until the last update of the text. The space remains open for future events
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