Brazil's Federal Police are investigating whether businesswoman and lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger, a friend of Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the eldest son of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, acted to broker business with Correios, the state-owned postal company. The suspicion, reported by O Globo on Friday (28), stems from a draft contract and messages found on her phone, seized in an inquiry into alleged influence peddling in federal agencies. Roberta and Lulinha are under investigation, no formal charges have been filed in this matter, and both deny any wrongdoing.

The seized document involves RL Consultoria e Intermediações, a firm co-owned by Roberta, and Safe Consig Tecnologia da Informação, which builds platforms to manage payroll-deducted loans, a common credit product in Brazil where installments are discounted straight from salaries. Under the draft, Roberta's consultancy would be entitled to a 50% commission on Safe Consig's sales.

"As commission for the sales it makes, it shall be entitled to 50%, to be calculated on the total amount recorded in the contracting party Safe's financing system, more specifically on the net value," reads the excerpt reproduced by O Globo.

On May 13, 2024, Roberta forwarded the file to a contact with the message: "Saulo just sent it back to me revised. I'll sign it, ok?" Police are checking whether the Saulo mentioned is Saulo de Tasso Alves Caracas Dino, a Safe Consig partner. Reached by reporters, he said he was unaware of any contract between the two companies. Two weeks later, on May 28, 2024, Correios hired Safe Consig under a free-use agreement, at no cost to the postal company, to manage the payroll-loan margin of about 84,000 employees. Safe Consig is paid by the financial institutions that gain access to data on employees eligible for the loans.

Who signed, and what each side says

The contract was signed by Correios' then-president, Fabiano Silva, by finance, technology and information security director Maria do Carmo Lara Perpétuo, and by people management director Getúlio Marques Ferreira. According to O Globo, both directorates were held by appointees linked to Lula's Workers' Party (PT), and Fabiano is friends with Roberta and Lulinha and belongs to Grupo Prerrogativas, a lawyers' group close to the government coordinated by Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, the attorney defending Lulinha in the influence-peddling inquiry. All three have since left the company.

Fabiano confirmed knowing Roberta and Lulinha but denied meddling in the hiring: "Administrative procedures at Correios are followed. There is no friendship or favoritism inside the institution. There is internal governance, and it is followed." Maria do Carmo said the contract was drafted by the administrative area and that she "was never approached by anyone to ask for anything. I never had contact with Lulinha and Roberta." Ferreira did not respond. In a statement, Correios said they had no "knowledge of irregularities related to the hiring or the execution of the contract." Rodrigo Feitosa, the Safe Consig partner who formally signed the deal, denied any intermediation: "If anyone eventually discussed this subject, as mentioned in your message, it did not happen, under any circumstances, with due authorization from Safe Consig." Roberta's defense declined to comment on the Correios allegation.

Beyond the draft, investigators are reviewing a message, first reported by Estadão, in which Roberta mentions the postal company while listing ongoing business for a cybersecurity businessman: "I booked Geap for you next week too. Tomorrow, Julio. Ports and airports. Correios." The message does not mention Lulinha.

Case timeline

• May 13, 2024: Roberta sends a contact the draft granting her consultancy a 50% commission from Safe Consig;
• May 28, 2024: Correios hire Safe Consig under a free-use agreement;
• 2025 to 2026: Federal Police seize her phone in the influence-peddling inquiry in which Lulinha is also investigated; Roberta also appears in Operation Sem Desconto, which probes fraud involving deductions from INSS social security benefits;
• August 27, 2026: in a TV Globo interview, Lula says he does not know Roberta; the next day his campaign releases a statement saying photos of the two together do not imply a personal, professional or political relationship;
• August 28, 2026: O Globo reports that police are probing the lobbyist's dealings with Correios.

According to G1, investigators had already identified transfers from Roberta to Marco Aurélio Santana, known as Marcola, then the Presidency's chief of staff, as well as a draft contract to sell cannabidiol-based medicines to the Health Ministry. The Correios case is part of a broader inquiry into a possible network of contacts kept by the lobbyist and the president's son to facilitate private companies' deals with the federal government. The investigation remains open, with no public deadline; no indictments or charges by federal prosecutors have been brought on this point so far, and the probe alone does not establish any crime.