PJ arrests 45 people for diverting pensioners' pensions

The Judicial Police launched an operation on Wednesday morning, arresting 45 people suspected of having diverted hundreds of thousands of euros in social benefits, namely pensioners' pensions, CNN reported and Observador confirmed. The criminal group illegally accessed pensioners' accounts in Social Security Direct and changed the destination account numbers.

More than 500 victims have already been identified.

The PJ was alerted to the criminal scheme by the Social Security Institute itself, which detected illegal access to the platform that manages social benefit payments. The suspects accessed the accounts and exchanged the bank accounts — in which people received monthly social benefits — for accounts held by frontmen.

At issue is the diversion of old-age pensions, unemployment benefits, sickness benefits, social integration income and family allowances.

During the “Constellations” operation, which has been running since June 2024, 51 house searches were carried out in Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, Setúbal and Bragança. “ 531 victims have been identified so far, many of them particularly vulnerable, who needed that income for their survival, amounting to the loss suffered of around 228 thousand euros”, indicates the PJ in a statement.

The detainees are 35 men and 10 women, aged between 18 and 39. The suspects are linked to each other.

The suspects now detained are accused of the crimes of criminal association, computer fraud, computer forgery and illegitimate and improper access.