Government appoints defendant for reckless management of pension funds to the Social Security body

Economist Alcinei Cardoso Rodrigues, who responds to a criminal action and a procedure for reckless management of resources from pension funds such as Petros and Funcef, was appointed by the government to a position at the National Superintendence of Complementary Pensions (Previc), responsible for overseeing closed supplementary pension entities.

The nomination was signed on April 12 by the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, and made public this week in an investigation by the newspaper O Globo. According to the publication, Rodrigues was appointed to the position of director of standards at Previc, with the attribution of proposing improvements to the guidelines of the social security sector in the body in which he responds to a procedure.

The procedure investigates suspected irregularities in Caixa’s employee pension fund, Funcef. He is also a defendant in a criminal lawsuit in Federal Court for reckless management of resources from the Petrobras employee fund, Petros.

The latter was the target of Operation Greenfield, an offshoot of Operation Lava Jato in Brasília, in 2019. Rodrigues and six other people were denounced for having approved a contribution of BRL 85 million by Petros to a holding fund between 2008 and 2019. 2014, generating losses for the fund. “It did not observe the due legal dictates”, said the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) at the time.

The irregularity at Funcef investigated by Previc points to an investment in the Fundo de Investimentos em Participações (FIP) Sondas that would also have caused losses to employees. Rodrigues and other managers were fined R$40,300 at the end of last year.

Rodrigues denied involvement in the cases, said that the processes have not yet been completed and claims to trust in the acquittal.

Previc said that the economist meets the requirements of unblemished reputation and training compatible with the position. “It should be noted that there was no final and unappealable decision in the Judiciary for any of the processes mentioned in order to remove the unblemished reputation and the presumption of constitutionally guaranteed innocence”, said the body.

The Civil House did not comment on the appointment.