PF and CGU carry out operation against fraud of BRL 21 million in Fies

The Federal Police (PF) and the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) carried out an operation, on the morning of this Wednesday (12), to investigate fraud committed, between 2017 and 2021, against the Union through undue repurchases of securities funds from the Higher Education Student Financing Fund (Fies). The action is part of the False Guardianship Operation and at least 20 colleges are the target of the action.

According to the corporation, 77 federal police officers carry out search and seizure warrants in the Federal District and in seven states: Goiás, Mato Grosso, Sergipe, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Bahia. An order and blocking of assets worth R$ 21 million was also issued.

According to the PF, investigations point out that those involved entered false data into the program’s computerized system to buy public Fies bonds illegally.

“In addition to the undue registration of injunctions, inconsistencies were also identified regarding the extemporaneous registration of financing with the purpose of benefiting students individually. In one of the cases, an outsourced employee of the National Education Development Fund (FNDE) improperly altered her own financing process and that of her partner”, says the corporation.

The PF also reported that “there are indications of activity by members of law firms specializing in Educational Law”. According to the corporation, “lawyers, representatives of sponsors who benefited from fraud, worked with FNDE servers in order to enable the reactivation/undue release of CFT-E repurchase processes”.

The investigation responds to a request from the Ministry of Education (MEC), which is responsible for Fies, for the CGU to investigate the performance of civil servants and outsourced employees in the scheme. Most suspects are assigned to the FNDE, which is responsible for executing and transferring resources to Education programs.

Fies was a program created in 1999 by the Ministry of Education (MEC) to subsidize tuition at private universities. The government pays student fees at private institutions of higher education, and the student’s debt to the government will be paid upon graduation.