AGU reiterates that the government will pay compensation to victims of INSS fraud “as soon as possible”

The Attorney General of the Union, Jorge Messias, reiterated this Friday (30) that the government will pay for the compensation to the victims of the billion-dollar fraud of illegal INSS association discounts, but that it will seek reimbursement from the public coffers by the entities that are the target of the investigations.

There are at least 9 million victims of fraud with losses estimated at between R$2 billion and R$6 billion, which will be partly covered – approximately R$2.5 billion – by the seized assets.

“Clearly the government will not sit idly by while retirees are reimbursed by these entities. What will happen? The federal government will pay with federal funds and we will reimburse these entities through the sale of the frozen assets,” he told reporters earlier.

The statement was made during an event to launch the start of in-person assistance for retirees and pensioners who were victims of fraud by the Post Office . On this first morning alone, the state-owned company assisted more than 20,000 beneficiaries.

Government systems became unstable earlier due to the high demand, but were back to normal by early afternoon.

“As we have said since the beginning of the process, President Lula’s government has determined that all fraudulent entities must pay for their crimes and also pay for the financial damage,” added Messias.

The expectation, as reported earlier by Minister Wolney Queiroz, of Social Security, is to complete the compensation of the victims “as soon as possible”. Initially, the government was working with the expectation of paying off the losses by the end of the year.

However, it is still unclear where the money to compensate victims will come from, whether from INSS resources itself or through an extraordinary credit to be requested from Congress.

“As this is a legal process that takes time, the government will find a way to, with Treasury resources, reimburse retirees, which is the priority given by the president [...] And then, the government will find a way to be reimbursed for these resources”, stated Queiroz at the event.

He also pointed out that the government's objective is to “pay everyone” and “put them in jail, punish the fraudsters, permanently close the entities, the associations that committed fraud”.