Socialist President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday publicly denied knowing a businesswoman embroiled in his son’s ongoing corruption probes despite extensive photographic evidence suggesting otherwise.
Several of the candidates running against Lula in the October presidential election published old photos showing Lula alongside the businesswoman, debunking the president’s claims.
President Lula’s oldest son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, is currently being targeted by three different probes on allegations of corruption and influence peddling at Brazilian federal government institutions, including Brazil’s National Social Security Institute (INSS). The younger Lula is commonly referred to by the nickname Lulinha (“Lil’ Lula”).
Some of the broader INSS corruption allegations against the president’s son involve businesswoman and lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger. An investigation conducted by Brazil’s Federal Police (PF) reportedly found chat messages in Luchsinger’s phone suggesting that she and Lulinha maintained a “permanent acting and coordinated action nucleus” to secure deals with public institutions.
Additionally, some of the messages obtained by the PF in the investigation reportedly state that Luchsinger told another Brazilian businessman that President Lula had “offered” her a government position. According to the alleged contents of the messages, she declined the offer to focus on her “partnership” with Lulinha. Per O Globo, some of the messages also suggest that Luchsinger received large sums of cash to cover flight ticket expenses for Lula’s son. Both Lulinha and Luchsinger have reportedly denied any wrongdoing.
According to CNN Brasil, the messages also suggest a link between Luchsinger and Marco Aurélio “Marcola” Santana Ribeiro, President Lula’s former chief of staff. Santana Ribeiro, who is also a target of the broader corruption probes, has been described as one of Lula’s closest advisers.
On Thursday, President Lula held an interview with TV Globo as part of the ongoing 2026 presidential campaign in which he is seeking reelection for a fourth term. Asked for comment on the allegations that he “offered” a government position to Luchsinger and asked if he ever met her in the Brazilian presidential palace, the incumbent president said that he “does not know” the businesswoman nor had he ever seen her in the past.
“The only thing missing was for her to say that I offered her the Ministry of Defense; the idea that the navy and air force operating here are under her command is utter nonsense,” Lula prefaced.
“I don’t know this woman. I’ve never seen her in my life. I’ve never spoken to her. She’s never been anywhere near me,” he asserted.
Despite Lula’s claims, multiple Brazilian outlets pointed out the two appear in numerous photos together published on social media since at least 2018.
One such photo, published on Luchsinger’s personal Instagram account in 2022, shows her and Lula. The photo’s accompanying text reads, “Happy birthday to the guy who will make Brazil happy again!!! Congratulations, Presidente Lula!!!”
According to Poder 360, Luchsinger published several photos on her personal Instagram account over the past years showing her not just next to President Lula, but also with First Lady Rosângela Lula da Silva, Brazilian government ministers, and justices of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) such as Alexandre de Moraes, Flávio Dino, and Cristiano Zanin.
Conservative senator and presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro published a video containing a montage of some of the social media photos and wrote, “Lying is all he [Lula] knows.” The video concludes with a brief snippet of the credits of the 2007 action movie Transformers featuring the song “What I’ve Done” by Linkin Park. The song and credits have been extensively used in memes in the past.
Other Brazilian presidential candidates, such as Romeu Sema and Renan Santos, also published old photos of Lula with Luchsinger on their respective social media accounts.
Speaking with G1 on Friday morning, Luchsinger affirmed that she asked Lula’s former chief of staff to support a proposed deal for the supply of medicinal cannabidiol to the Brazilian government, but “did not make payments” in exchange for the alleged support. Influence peddling for a medicinal cannabis contract for the Brazilian social security is one of the allegations of the three ongoing probes against President Lula’s son.
The Brazilian businesswoman claimed to G1 that she became friends with Lulinha long before Lula became reelected in 2022.
“Fábio and I are friends. Very close friends. Renata, his wife, [is] my best friend. We’ve thought about doing things together outside the public eye, but we know that anything he does will always be viewed negatively. Fábio is my friend first and foremost, even before his father is president,” Luchsinger reportedly said.
Unnamed sources from the ruling radical leftist Workers’ Party (PT) reportedly affirmed to G1 that Luchsinger approached the party and Lula’s son in 2017, during a time in which President Lula was on trial for corruption. She reportedly became closer to Lulinha following President Lula’s imprisonment and, in 2018, Luchsinger ran as a state deputy for the PT in São Paulo, but was not elected.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.