Brazil's Federal Police found messages on the phone of lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger recording cash payments to two officials at the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight Against Hunger, the cabinet that runs the Bolsa Família welfare program. According to a report by TV Globo's Jornal Nacional aired on Thursday night (24), the transfers took place in June 2023, in deposits of 20,000 reais each. Six months later, the ministry awarded a contract worth more than 31 million reais to a technology company represented by the lobbyist.
Investigators extracted the exchanges as part of a probe into suspected influence peddling involving Luchsinger and Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, a son of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Both are targets of inquiries at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court. In March 2023, Ulisses Barbosa, the lobbyist's driver and personal aide, wrote: "I brought the suitcase. One side has the 500k, 500 thousand. The other side has what was left in the suitcase, about 90 thousand".
The June 2023 payments
According to the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, cited by G1, part of that money was delivered to businessman Fernando Bittar, a former business partner of Lulinha. The messages also record an order from Luchsinger for the driver to hand Bittar 193,000 reais. On June 2, 2023, the lobbyist asked:
"Go to my room, in my wardrobe, on the top shelf there is a bag with money. Take 60 thousand, please, to make some payments for me."
She then guided deposits of 20,000 reais into at least three accounts. Nearly three hours later the driver wrote: "I'm at the bank already. Above 50 thousand a day, per taxpayer ID, the clerk said the Central Bank starts watching. It triggers a kind of alert. Just letting you know...". Luchsinger replied: "Ok. Go ahead". The Federal Police identified photos of two deposit slips for 20,000 reais each: one to Rannier Costa Ciriaco, deputy executive secretary of the ministry, and one to José Martinho Ferreira, head of the ministry's ceremonial office.
Later contracts and the responses
In December 2023, the ministry hired 3Structure, a company owned by technology businessman Cleber Ribas and then represented by Luchsinger, for more than 31 million reais. A 2 million reais amendment followed in November 2025, and a new contract of 19 million reais in April 2026. The ministry denied any favoritism in the procurement, which used an electronic auction, and said the two named officials have no connection to the technology area and took no part in the bidding.
According to the website Brasil em Folhas, the inquiry overseen by Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça examines whether Lulinha acted in dealings of the state technology firm Dataprev to benefit Ribas. The site also reports that the ceremonial office chief had been arrested in 2014 carrying 180,000 reais while working as a driver for Wellington Dias, the current minister. Lulinha's lawyer, Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, told the site his client does not know the nature of the payments and has no ties to any irregularity, while Luchsinger's defense said it would not comment on "illegal leaks on the eve of an election". G1 reported no response from the defenses of Ciriaco, Ferreira, Ribas, Barbosa and Bittar.
None of those named has been charged. The inquiries remain open at the STF, and the decision on any indictment belongs to Brazil's prosecutor general. The disclosures come ten days before the first round of the presidential election, in which President Lula is running for reelection.