The former legal coordinator of the National Union of Pensioners and Pensioners (Sindnapi), Tonia Galleti, received 11.6 million reais in several bank accounts last year. In just one of them, a joint account at Banco Itaú, BRL 6.9 million was transferred last year.
The amount is inconsistent with Tonia Galleti’s income tax return. To the Federal Revenue, she declared income of R$487,800 last year – R$69,900 received from legal entities and the rest from various sources (rent, investments and legal fees, among others).
Sindnapi is one of the entities investigated as part of the INSS frenzy. Linked to the Força Sindical central, the entity has as vice-president the trade unionist José Ferreira da Silva, Frei Chico, older brother of President Lula (PT).
The entity was founded and managed by Tonia Galleti’s father, trade unionist João Batista Inocentini, known as João Feio, until his death in August 2023. At the time of his death, Lula issued a note of condolences.
Information on Tonia Galleti’s financial transactions was sent by the Federal Revenue Service to the CPMI of the INSS in Congress and seen by the Chronicle.
Contacted, Tonia Galleti recognized the bank account. According to her, it is a joint account with her husband, lawyer Carlos Afonso Galleti Júnior. According to her, however, the information provided by the IRS is incorrect. The volume processed was reportedly less than 6.9 million reais last year.
Tonia also said her income came from legal activities and was properly taxed (more on that below).
As the column from October this year showed, the union paid at least 8.2 million reais to companies owned by family members of directors of the entity, including Tonia Galleti.
Information on these payments is contained in another document, the Sindnapi Financial Intelligence Report (RIF).
One of these companies is Gestora Eficiente. The company, now deactivated, belonged to the wife of the president of Sindnapi, trade unionist Milton “Cavalo” Baptista de Souza, and the husband of Tonia Galleti.
The company was responsible for processing retirees’ files and transmitting the data to the INSS so that remittances could begin. In commissions alone, this company earned at least 4.1 million reais. In other words, every time a retiree received a reduction in their benefits, Gestora Eficiente received a commission.
The union accumulated complaints and lost 98% of its members
In October this year, Tonia Galleti made a statement to the INSS CPMI. She he justified the amounts received from Sindnapi by claiming that his family worked.
“When you say ‘ah, I don’t know how many millions for your family… Damn, my family worked! Well, you could say it’s a certain immorality… ‘ah, the whole family shouldn’t be there’. But it’s not a crime,” she said.
“Because there’s work. Between the service contract, the invoice issued and the amount received, man, there’s a lot of work. I worked, Your Honor, ten, twelve hours a day. Because, if I had an executioner boss, that guy was my father,” Tonia said.
Despite Tonia’s testimony at CPMI, Sindnapi exponentially increased discounts for retirees between 2020 and 2024, after signing a partnership with BMG bank. Values increased from R$23 million in 2020 to R$154.7 million in 2024, an increase of 563.9%. The entity and the BMG bank accumulate thousands of complaints for “liaison” on Reclame Aqui.
Since investigations into Operation Sem Desconto began in April this year, the entity has lost 98% of its members. The number of subscribers who paid the entity increased from over 317,000 to around 5,000 currently.
The decline in membership occurred after the INSS launched a mechanism to facilitate the reversal of unjustified reductions. Since May this year, it has been possible to cancel discounts via the Meu INSS application or by calling 135.
Tonia Galleti: income is legal and has been taxed
The column reached out to Tonia Galleti and Sindnapi for comment. The entity said it would not comment, since Tonia no longer works as Sindnapi’s legal coordinator.
Tonia Galleti said that the figures communicated by the IRS to the INSS CPMI do not correspond to its bank statements. “The total amount transferred to my account does not reach a third of that presented by the Revenue,” he said.
“All my resources are subject to control and have been correctly submitted to tax, in addition to being of absolutely legal origin, the fruit of law and teaching,” he said.
Read Tonia Galleti’s full statement below:
“The numbers you sent me do not match my bank statements. I looked month by month throughout 2024 and in no month is there any proximity to the numbers presented by the Federal Revenue Service. I don’t know what they consider credits. For me, these are amounts that go into the account and, in my case, come from the practice of law.
This current account in reference is a joint account, on which my husband and I receive commissions. In my case, I still get paid for the courses I teach at colleges. To give you an idea, in June 2024, R$101,730.64 entered my account, while the IRS released R$395,248.14.
The month in which the most money arrived in my account, due to the sale of a studio, R$409,000 entered, while the IRS recorded R$943,000 in the document you presented to me. The total amount transferred to my account is less than a third of that presented by the IRS.
Regardless, I did not have access to the full documents nor do I understand the metrics used by the IRS, but, without a doubt, these resources were not entered into my checking account.
In addition, all my resources are subject to control and have been correctly submitted to tax, in addition to being of absolutely legal origin, the fruit of the law and teaching.
I remain at your disposal to clarify any other situation, especially since I was the one who denounced this entire situation and, now that the union no longer wants my services, I feel more comfortable speaking to you in the press.
In fact, I don’t understand why I became a “target”. I believe you have followed all my work over the years and I am still here. I have thousands of pieces of evidence and documents from all the work I have done over 20 years, which will be presented in due course by lawyers in the appropriate places.
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