卢拉之子涉医用大麻案被查，在巴中资合规风险升温

Brazil’s Federal Police (PF) requested, and Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice André Mendonça authorized, the opening of a new investigation into alleged influence peddling involving businessman Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, President Lula’s son, widely known as Lulinha. The case is an offshoot of Operation Sem Desconto (No Deduction), which is investigating an alleged scheme involving fraudulent deductions from the pensions of beneficiaries of Brazil’s National Institute of Social Security (INSS). In this line of investigation, the Federal Police are examining Lulinha’s activities in the medical cannabis sector. One of the suspicions is that the president’s son was a silent partner of businessman Antônio Carlos Camilo Antunes, known as “Careca do INSS,” in a company called World Cannabis. The information was first reported by Folha de S.Paulo and confirmed by Valor. Head of social security agency ousted in fraud probe Former social security chief let pension fraud continue despite alerts Lula’s son admits Portugal trip paid by pension fraud suspect Investigators are seeking to determine whether corruption and influence peddling occurred in connection with the authorization to market medical cannabis products. The Federal Police had already mapped evidence suggesting that Lulinha lobbied the Ministry of Health, when it was headed by Alexandre Padilha, in an effort to secure approval for the Unified Health System (SUS) to purchase cannabidiol-based medicines supplied by World Cannabis. The proposal ultimately did not move forward. In the new request, however, investigators also allege that the president’s son may have sought to influence officials within the Presidency. Speaking Thursday (30) night on the Inteligência Ltda. podcast, President Lula again said his son would receive no special treatment if charged. “He has no right to make mistakes. If he is tried, he will have to come here. He will have to prove he is innocent, just as I did [in the Operation Car Wash investigations, which uncovered corruption schemes in Brazil]. And if he is guilty, he will have to pay the same price everyone else pays when they make a mistake,” Lula said. The president added that Lulinha has been used to attack him politically since 2006 and reiterated that he would not interfere in the ongoing investigation. “If my son is accused of anything, he will be treated like anyone else’s son. There will be no privileges. I will never ask a judge or a police officer not to do the right thing,” Lula said. The Federal Police submitted the request to open the new investigation to the Supreme Court on July 24. The case was assigned to Mendonça, who authorized the inquiry on Thursday. Investigators are examining whether Lulinha acted together with businesswoman Roberta Luchsinger to advance World Cannabis’s interests within the federal government. All of those involved have consistently denied any wrongdoing. Luchsinger has already testified to the Federal Police about her relationship with Lulinha and denied transferring money to him. She received R$1.5 million from Antunes to provide consulting services on the regulation of Brazil’s cannabidiol market and was responsible for introducing him to Lulinha. The bank records of both Luchsinger and Lulinha have already been disclosed under court order. In her testimony, Luchsinger said Antunes had long been a well-known businessman in the pharmaceutical industry and that she provided consulting services to him “related to the regulation of Brazil’s cannabidiol market, for which she was duly compensated.” Contacted by Valor, Luchsinger’s legal team said it would comment only after gaining access to the case files. Guilherme Suguimori, Lulinha’s attorney, said he could not comment on a case to which he had not yet been granted access, but criticized the decision to open another investigation involving his client. “A new investigation unrelated to Operation Sem Desconto would show that investigators failed to find what they were unjustifiably looking for—namely, any connection between Fábio Luís and the INSS fraud. That would not be surprising, because Fábio has never had any connection with this scandal.” According to the lawyer, the new investigation could itself be unlawful. “The report immediately raises suspicions of illegality. If they wanted to find something and failed, they cannot simply create a new theory and start over, dragging this story out until the election. They look for ‘x’; when they cannot find it, they look for ‘y’; and if that fails, they will create ‘z.’ A criminal investigation is not an exercise in trial and error. This amounts to what we call a fishing expedition, which is unlawful and would expose the political motives behind this unusual course of action,” he said. Federal Police challenged Mendonça’s decisions The new investigation comes one week after the Federal Police asked the Federal Attorney General’s Office (AGU) to review recent decisions by Mendonça in the investigation into the alleged INSS fraud scheme. According to Valor, seeking the AGU’s intervention was the only course of action the Federal Police considered available after decisions by the justice that investigators viewed as attempts to interfere with their work. The Federal Police asked the AGU to consider challenging two of Mendonça’s orders: one requiring the force to submit to the Supreme Court all documents related to the INSS fraud investigation, and another requiring that the justice be notified in advance of any decision to remove or replace the officers leading Operation Sem Desconto. Within the Federal Police, the measures were viewed as an unprecedented form of interference and as a sign that the justice was exceeding his judicial role by acting almost as an investigator. Before those rulings, the Federal Police had also expressed concern over Mendonça’s first order after taking over the Master case, which barred confidential information from being shared internally with the force’s senior leadership. The measure was seen as targeting Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and created internal unease, as the agency’s leadership believes internal information-sharing is essential to managing the multiple operations under its responsibility. In that instance, however, the Federal Police did not seek the AGU’s intervention. On the other hand, Valor has learned that officials in Mendonça’s chambers were concerned about delays in some investigations and suspected that the Federal Police might be shielding Lulinha. The replacement of Guilherme Figueiredo Silva, the officer leading the investigation involving the president’s son and then head of the Federal Police’s unit for combating social security crimes, also reportedly caused friction with the justice. Officially, the change was attributed to “administrative reasons,” as the Federal Police transferred Operation Sem Desconto investigations to the Special Investigations Service (SINQ), the unit responsible for cases before Brazil’s higher courts. Mendonça did not respond to Valor’s request for comment. (Mariana Andrade contributed reporting) Case is an offshot of Federal Police’s Operation Sem Desconto, investigating alleged fraudulent deductions from Social Security pensions Gustavo Minas/Bloomberg