Sau Paulo: Brazilian police today raided the offices of a company belonging to a son of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as part of an investigation into tax fraud.
The raid was part of a broader operation involving about 100 agents who descended on offices in the cities of Sao Paulo, Piaui and Maranho armed with arrest warrants and orders to seize documents and accounting records.
“We can confirm that in the offices LFT Marketing Esportivo a search and seizure was carried out by federal police in Sao Paulo, but no arrests were made,” a police official told AFP.
The company belongs to Luis Claudio Lula da Silva, son of the former Brazilian president from 2003 to 2010.
Brazil has been rocked this year by a massive corruption scandal at state oil giant Petrobras during the administrations of Lula and his successor President Dilma Rousseff.
That scandal involves bribes and high-level political payoffs paid by outside contractors who benefitted by winning inflated Petrobras contracts.
Lula himself has been summoned to make a statement in the Petrobras case, which is estimated to have resulted in a two billion dollar loss for the oil company over a decade.
Monday’s raid was aimed at a different scheme by companies to evade tax-related fines that reportedly cost the treasury USD 5.9 billion.
A police statement said its investigation indicated bribes were paid to manipulate cases and judgments heard by an administrative council in charge of imposing tax-related fines.
Those involved in the scheme were also alleged to have negotiated tax breaks for companies in the auto industry, the police said.