Brazil's top court authorizes influence-peddling probe into Lula's eldest son

Friday, July 31st 2026 - 18:35 UTC No charges have been filed. The authorization opens the preliminary evidence-gathering stage, after which prosecutors will decide whether to bring an indictment Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice André Mendonça authorized the Federal Police on Thursday to open an investigation into Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, the eldest son of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, over indications of influence-peddling and corruption. No charges have been filed. The authorization opens the preliminary evidence-gathering stage, after which prosecutors will decide whether to bring an indictment. The 51-year-old businessman, known as Lulinha, is presumed innocent. Investigators suspect he acted, together with businesswoman Roberta Luchsinger, on behalf of the firm World Cannabis, linked to lobbyist Antônio Carlos Camilo Antunes, to facilitate the supply of medicinal cannabis-based products to the public health system. The approaches are alleged to have reached the Health Ministry and the presidential office. According to a witness statement taken by the Federal Police, Luchsinger introduced the lobbyist to the president's son. The deal never materialized. The police request was filed in late July, during the judicial recess. It was initially reviewed by Alexandre de Moraes, on duty as acting court president, who sought an opinion from the Prosecutor General's Office. That office concluded that banking secrecy disclosures had revealed conduct unrelated to the earlier investigation into the national social security institute and recommended drawing a new rapporteur, which produced Mendonça. Camilo Antunes already faces charges in that separate case, which concerns the diversion of up to 6.3 billion reais, some 1.24 billion dollars, in deductions applied to retirees and pensioners. Fábio Luís da Silva's links to the lobbyist were examined in that file, in which he is not listed as a subject of investigation. His lawyers argue the new investigation stems from the failure to find irregularities in the earlier case. One of them, Guilherme Suguimori Santos, told Folha de São Paulo that a fresh theory cannot be constructed to start over and stretch the matter until the elections. The president said he would not intervene. If his son is accused of anything, he will be treated as anyone's son, with no privilege, and he would never ask a police chief or a judge not to do their job properly, Lula said on the podcast Inteligência Ltda, adding that his son would have to prove his innocence, although the burden of proof rests with the prosecution. Brazil votes on October 4, with the campaign formally beginning in mid-August. Lula is seeking a fourth term and polls give him a narrow lead over Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, whose father is imprisoned over the coup plot.