Lulinha calls Lula after PF points out possible escape attempt

Amid the government’s apprehension about a possible arrest request, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, called his father, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, last week to speak, according to the PT’s allies, about his situation and his stay in Spain, where he lives. A Federal Police (PF) report pointed to signs that Lulinha’s departure from Brazil to Europe could constitute an escape attempt.

Amid the tension at Palácio do Planalto with the case and the revelation of Lulinha’s closeness to Antônio Carlos Antunes, the INSS’s Careca and one of the protagonists of the scandal, Fabio Luís’ defense made him available to give testimony.

Lulinha’s interlocutors say that the president’s son had been looking for properties in Madrid to live in since 2023, when he traveled to the country to see houses to live in.

According to Fábio’s defense, he had pre-registration for his children in 2024, when he moved to Spain with his family, around a year before the operation against INSS fraud was launched.

In a PF report sent to the office of minister André Mendonça, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the PF points out the possibility of evasion from the country. Fabio Luís has already had his confidentiality broken after Mendonça’s order.

“From an investigative point of view, we assert that Lulinha traveled abroad, with no expected return, which denotes possible evasion from the country, considering it is associated with the facts associated with the main operator of billion-dollar fraud (Careca do INSS) against millions of retirees in Brazil”, says an excerpt from the PF report.

According to Fábio Luis’ interlocutors, Lulinha had the initiative to call her father with the aim of talking about the circumstances surrounding her planning to move and stay in Spain.

Lula was aware of the move by Fábio Luis, his wife and children to Spain, in mid-2024, and dealt with the matter privately, even among close people.

In previous calls, according to allies, Lula had told Fábio Luís to give all the explanations to the authorities and to try to defend himself.

— The thesis that he had gone to live in Madrid to escape the investigation is pyrotechnic, fanciful and indecent. He established negotiations with Madrid from 2023, in 2024 he had already looked for properties, pre-registration was practically underway. If there is an intelligence department in any body, it didn’t work, because it didn’t detect this movement — argues Lulinha’s lawyer, Marco Aurélio de Carvalho.

As O GLOBO showed, Lula’s allies have advocated that the president’s son return to Brazil before being called by the Federal Police to testify, with the argument that Lulinha should anticipate the order and return to Brazil to prevent the opposition from using as a political weapon during the electoral race the fact that Lula’s investigated son lives abroad.

The investigation into suspected links between Lulinha and characters involved in INSS fraud is one of the opposition’s main bets to wear down the president.

Lulinha’s defense has already admitted to the STF that the president’s son took a trip to Portugal alongside the “bald INSS”. The trip would have been paid for by Antônio Carlos Antunes, according to reports already gathered in the investigation and Lulinha’s own defense.

Lulinha’s defense claims that the displacement was punctual and unrelated to the scheme being investigated. According to the defense, the trip to Portugal would have taken place in November 2024 with the intention of the businessman visiting a factory producing products based on cannabidiol, but it did not generate commercial links or negotiations.

Lulinha’s defense also claims that he offered to show his accounts even before the INSS request for breach of confidentiality and points out that his financial transactions have no relation to fraud at the institute.