The Federal Police are carrying out searches this Thursday (18) against Senator Weverton Rocha (PDT-MA) in a new phase of Operation Without Discount, which is investigating fraud in reductions on retirement and pensions of beneficiaries of the INSS (National Institute of Social Security).
Investigators executed 16 preventive arrest warrants and 52 search and seizure warrants. The action was authorized by the STF (Federal Supreme Court). The Weverton home is one of the search and seizure addresses. There was no action at the parliamentarian’s office in the Senate.
Weverton is the leader of the PDT in the Senate. He came into the crosshairs of members of the INSS CPI after advisors and others linked to him appeared in investigations into the fraudulent scheme carried out by the PF and the CGU (Comptroller General of the Union).
The investigation showed that businessman Antonio Carlos Camilo Antunes, known as Careca of the INSS, was already with Weverton Rocha.
At the ICC, Antunes, accused of being one of the operators of the scheme, said he went to a ribs barbecue at the senator’s house when he talked to him about regulating the sale of cannabis derivatives – in other words, a business representation activity unrelated to pension cuts.
INSS’s Careca also said he had been in the senator’s office on other occasions, but had not spoken to the politician. The interlocutor would have been Adroaldo da Cunha Portal, now executive secretary of the Ministry of Social Security, but who, at the time, worked in Weverton’s office. The visit was also said to have aimed to discuss the cannabis market.
A former Weverton councilor also appeared at the inquest. Gustavo Gaspar allegedly signed a power of attorney to manage bank accounts and gave it to Rubens Oliveira, identified as an operator of irregular discounts.
Weverton Rocha’s office has not yet commented on the operation and the suspicions raised during the investigation.
The PF’s action this Thursday takes place in Brasilia, São Paulo, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Minas Gerais and Maranhão. According to the PF, the objective is to deepen investigations and clarify the practice of crimes of insertion of false data into official systems, social security fraud, criminal organization and concealment of assets.
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