Lula’s Infiltration of the Military Supreme Court: The Verônica Sterman Scandal Exposes Rotten Institutions
By Hotspotnews
In yet another brazen display of political favoritism, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva placed Verônica Abdalla Sterman on the bench of the Superior Tribunal Militar (STM), Brazil’s highest court for military justice. This appointment, pushed by top PT figures including Gleisi Hoffmann, was never about merit, experience, or strengthening the armed forces. It was about embedding loyalists in positions of power. Now, fresh revelations confirm what conservatives have long warned: the left’s project to capture and weaken Brazil’s institutions continues unchecked, with no real consequences for those involved.
Sterman, a São Paulo lawyer with deep ties to the Workers’ Party, was formally indicated by Lula in March 2025—symbolically on International Women’s Day—and took her seat later that year after Senate approval. She had previously defended high-profile PT clients, including Gleisi Hoffmann and her ex-husband, former minister Paulo Bernardo, in Operation Lava Jato cases. Both were ultimately absolved in those proceedings. In her inauguration remarks at the STM, she openly thanked these very clients. This is not the profile of an impartial jurist selected for her legal acumen or commitment to military honor. It is the résumé of a political operative rewarded for services rendered.
The latest scandal centers on payments received by her former law firm, Abdalla Sterman Advogados. Between October 2024 and February 2025—mere months before her nomination— the firm received a single transfer of R$700,000 from ACX ITC Serviços de Tecnologia. This company is no ordinary client. It forms part of a sprawling network of entities linked to Antônio Carlos Camilo Antunes, known as the “Careca do INSS.” Investigations tied to the INSS Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPMI) have exposed this network’s involvement in massive money laundering and fraud schemes that siphoned billions from Brazil’s retirees and pension system. The registered owner of ACX ITC has admitted under police questioning that he acted merely as a “laranja”—a front man—who sold his personal data for a paltry R$5,000 to facilitate the company’s creation. These are classic hallmarks of shell companies used to obscure illicit funds.
Sterman’s office claims the payment covered three legal opinions on criminal matters. Yet no public court records show her firm actively litigating on behalf of ACX ITC or its associated entities. The timing is damning: the money flowed in while she was still a private attorney, immediately preceding her elevation to one of the most sensitive judicial posts in the country. This was not an innocent transaction discovered after the fact. It was a glaring red flag ignored—or deliberately overlooked—by those who control the nomination process.
The consequences extend far beyond one individual. The STM handles critical matters involving discipline, hierarchy, and national security within the armed forces. Placing someone with such questionable financial entanglements and overt partisan history on this bench risks politicizing military justice at a time when Brazil’s sovereignty and the integrity of its institutions are already under strain. It sends a chilling message to honest officers and patriots: loyalty to the current power structure matters more than clean hands or professional excellence. Public trust in the judiciary, already battered by years of selective prosecutions and institutional activism, erodes further. Victims of the INSS fraud schemes—ordinary Brazilians who saw their retirement savings plundered—receive yet another insult as alleged enablers of those schemes ascend to high office.
This episode also highlights the broader leftward capture of Brazil’s elite institutions. Lula’s governments have systematically favored ideological allies in courts, regulatory bodies, and now even the military judiciary. Appointments are no longer about competence or constitutional fidelity; they are about consolidating power and ensuring favorable rulings when politically inconvenient cases arise. The STM, once a respected guardian of military tradition and order, becomes another theater in the cultural and political war against traditional Brazil.
Why has there been no meaningful punishment or accountability? The answer lies in the entrenched protection mechanisms of the current regime. Once confirmed by a compliant Senate and installed on the bench, Sterman enjoys the institutional armor afforded to superior court justices. Investigations into pre-appointment conduct move at a glacial pace when the subject is politically connected. The same system that aggressively pursued opponents during Lava Jato and beyond now shields its own. Media outlets aligned with the government downplay or contextualize the story as routine legal work, while opposition voices struggle against institutional inertia and selective outrage.
There is no swift removal process for such figures without overwhelming political will—which is absent in a divided Congress where many prioritize survival over principle. The executive branch that nominated her has no incentive to investigate its own handiwork. Regulatory bodies and prosecutors, many appointed or influenced by the same networks, lack the independence or courage to pursue aggressively. This is not justice; it is a two-tiered system where allies enjoy impunity and dissenters face lawfare. Conservatives have long documented this pattern: corruption and ethical lapses by the left are excused as “technicalities” or “political persecution,” while any association with the right triggers immediate hysteria and institutional mobilization.
Brazil deserves better. The armed forces represent the last line of defense for constitutional order, sovereignty, and the values that built this nation—faith, family, and fatherland. Infusing their highest court with figures tied to questionable money flows and partisan defense work undermines that foundation. True accountability would require independent scrutiny, possible removal proceedings, and a fundamental reform of nomination processes to prioritize merit, transparency, and proven integrity over political patronage.
Until Brazilians demand and achieve such reforms, scandals like the Sterman affair will continue to multiply. Each one chips away at the pillars of the Republic. The conservative vision for Brazil remains clear: restore institutions to their proper role as servants of the people and the Constitution, not instruments of ideological domination. The time for polite silence has passed. The rot must be exposed and excised if the nation is to recover its honor and security.