Messages obtained by Brazil's Federal Police show that lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger asked Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the eldest son of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to intervene in favor of business interests of Antônio Camilo Antunes, known as "Careca do INSS" (the INSS bald man, a nickname tied to the scandal over illegal deductions from pensioners' benefits at the social security institute), with the Ministry of Health. The revelation comes from reporter José Marques of Folha de S.Paulo, who accessed sealed material from the preliminary investigation and the Federal Police representation sent to Justice André Mendonça of the Supreme Court (STF). Mendonça authorized the opening of a formal inquiry on suspicion of influence peddling. None of the contracts discussed in the conversations was ever signed.

The dialogues revolve around attempts to sell cannabidiol-derived substances and dengue test kits to the ministry. According to the Federal Police, Roberta was looking for a "solution to capitalize" the Careca do INSS and pressed the ministry's then executive secretary, Swedenberger do Nascimento Barbosa, known as Berger. "[We have to] run so Berger buys this soon", she wrote about the dengue kits. Police noted that the lobbyist said she had a deadline because "Fábio is leaving", a reference to Lulinha's move to Spain in 2025.

The timeline of the messages

• March 2024: in a message to Marco Aurélio Ribeiro, known as Marcola, Lula's former chief of staff, Roberta writes about Berger: "But are you going after him because I made Gustavo invest in the cannabidiol company lol".
• May 2024: she tells Marcola they have "to put Fábio on top of Berger lol". Marcola replies: "ok".
• October 2024: five months later, the lobbyist and Marcola arrange a barbecue, and she asks him to bring Berger, at Lulinha's request.
• November 2024: "Fabio is in Portugal and woke up today asking me to tell you to put pressure on Berger about the requests", she writes to Marcola.
• January 23, 2025: in messages to Gustavo Gaspar, a former aide to Senator Weverton Rocha (PDT-MA), Roberta says the Careca do INSS was pressing to close the deals quickly, that she had discussed the matter with Lulinha and that it would be good for "Fábio to get moving". For the Federal Police, "the demands made by Antônio depend on Fábio's intervention".

The Careca do INSS was one of the main targets of Operation Sem Desconto (No Discount), which investigates a suspected scheme to divert money from retirees and pensioners through illegal deductions from social security benefits. Gaspar was also arrested in the operation and is under house arrest. Veja magazine, which reviewed the full inquiries after Mendonça ordered the breach of Roberta's phone secrecy, reported that the Federal Police concluded the lobbyist kept an informal partnership with Lulinha and businessman Fernando Bittar to prospect business inside the government. "I am Fábio", she summed up to an interested businessman, according to police. The Federal Police treats the findings as evidence of corruption, criminal organization, influence peddling, administrative advocacy and exploitation of prestige. Everyone named is under investigation; no formal charges or convictions have been brought so far.

What the defense says

Lawyer Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, who represents Lulinha, says his client "never, at any moment, made any intervention or held any meeting" in favor of the Careca do INSS's businesses. "There is nothing in the case files that disproves that. What the Federal Police has is a jigsaw puzzle of assumptions, with inconclusive inferences", the lawyer said. The defense adds that Lulinha began preparing his move to Spain in 2024, has professional ties to a Spanish company with no direct or indirect relationship with the Brazilian government and lives "exclusively from the result of his work". The lawyers of Roberta Luchsinger and Antônio Camilo Antunes did not respond to requests for comment. Roberta's defense had previously said it would not comment on an inquiry under seal.

The inquiry is proceeding under seal at the Supreme Court, with no known date for the next decision. It will be up to the Federal Police to conclude the investigation and, if it finds sufficient elements, send the final report to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, which will decide whether to file charges.