Supreme Court Minister releases former INSS Solicitor-General indicted for R$ 11.9 million embezzlement
André Mendonça replaced the detention of Virgílio Antônio with electronic monitoring. An accountant from Conafer and two former members of the Bolsonaro government were also benefited.
Supreme Court releases ex-legal chief of INSS arrested in Operation No Discount
Minister André Mendonça of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) ordered on the evening of Tuesday (8) the release of Virgílio Antônio Ribeiro de Oliveira Filho, former Solicitor-General of the National Social Security Institute (INSS). According to agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br, Virgílio has been indicted by the Federal Police (PF) for involvement in the embezzlement of association contributions deducted from pensions and retirement benefits.
The detention was replaced by the adoption of electronic monitoring. Mendonça also imposed a prohibition on communication with other suspects and a ban on access to INSS premises and Dataprev, the public company responsible for the agency's database.
Virgílio had been arrested in November of last year as part of Operation No Discount, which investigates fraud in deductions of contributions to associations of retirees and pensioners that functioned, in practice, as shell institutions.
In early August, the PF indicted the former Solicitor-General on suspicion of having received R$ 11.9 million from irregular deductions in retirement benefits. The amounts allegedly reached him through his wife, from companies linked to the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (Contag).
Mendonça justified the decision by arguing that, with the PF's investigative phase concluded, there would be no grounds for maintaining the detention. The minister assessed that the restrictions imposed were sufficient to prevent the suspect from committing further crimes.
Using similar reasoning, Mendonça also ordered the release of Samuel Bomfim Júnior, accountant at the National Confederation of Family Farmers and Rural Family Entrepreneurs (Conafer), who will also use electronic monitoring.
In the case of two suspects linked to the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro, the use of electronic monitoring was revoked: José Carlos Oliveira, former Minister of Social Security, and Pedro Corrêa Neto, former Secretary of Innovation at the Ministry of Agriculture.
José Carlos Oliveira — also identified as Ahmed Mohamad Oliveira — appears in an PF report as the recipient of R$ 100 thousand in bribes paid by Conafer using funds diverted from INSS retirement benefits. In exchange, he allegedly facilitated the entity's interests with the federal government.
Source: Google News BR — Crime