The Federal Police (PF) told the Federal Court (STF) that the former executive secretary of the Ministry of Social Security Adroaldo da Cunha Portal allegedly received R$50,000 in bribes from Antônio Carlos Camilo Antunesknown as INSS Baldand considered the main operator of the regime based on irregular associative reductions at the National Social Security Institute.
The information is contained in the minister’s decision André Mendoncawhich authorized the new phase of Operation Without Remission, launched this Thursday (18). Portal is under house arrest, must wear an electronic ankle bracelet, cannot leave the country or communicate with other people under investigation. He was also fired from Social Security by the minister Wolney Queirozafter the operation.
According to the police representation sent to Mendonça, the value of the alleged bribe appears in a spreadsheet found in the documents seized from Careca. According to the PF, the tool was used to control the financial movements of associations and companies, in addition to payments to natural and legal persons.
The company also identified that between October 2023 and January 2024, cash deposits into the Portal account totaled R$249,000, in addition to other suspicious manifestations involving the son of the former Executive Secretary of Social Security.
The company also reported that Portal served as an advisor to Senator Weverton Rocha (PDT-MA), from 2019 to 2023, and served on the party’s congressional leadership office. The parliamentarian was also the target of today’s PF operation, but was not arrested. The Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate has been designated as “political leadership”, “support”, “hidden partner” and “beneficiary” of the reduction program.
The PF even requested that Portal’s preventive detention be declared, but then requested that it be transformed into house arrest, since the former number two of Social Security would be a person suffering from a physical disability who “requires special and continuous care which cannot be fully ensured in a prison environment”.
In authorizing the house arrest and expulsion, Mendonça said the suspicious movements of large sums of money in his bank account indicate that there is “solid evidence of the practice of illicit acts with wide and very serious repercussions.” According to the minister, distancing was essential to avoid the potential prosecution of crimes.
“In the case of Adroaldo, in particular, this is an institutional position which, obviously, has an intimate thematic connection with the illegal acts currently being investigated. If he could be maintained in the role of Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Social Security, there would be a high risk of continuing to use public office to commit illegal acts, as well as to obstruct the ongoing investigation,” the magistrate wrote.
THE Value tries to contact Adroaldo Portal’s defense.
To reporters, the Minister of Social Security earlier told that before the operation he had no information about Portal’s involvement in the embezzlement. He assumed the role of executive secretary after Wolney’s departure and succeeded Carlos Lupi (PDT) as head of the department. Lupi was fired in May, after investigations revealed his alleged involvement in INSS fraud.
The federal prosecutor and Social Security legal advisor was appointed in Portal’s place.
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