HMO moguls make massive donation to Workers’ Party

In 2021, major HMO Hapvida was at the epicenter of Brazil’s central political fact of the year, the Senate’s Covid inquiry. Senators accused the country’s largest health insurer of pushing unproven “early treatment” against the coronavirus, touted by President Jair Bolsonaro, and which included ineffective drugs such as chloroquine. 

Essentially, Hapvida used patients as guinea pigs, the inquiry’s final report concluded.

At the time, The Brazilian Report revealed that the Koren family, which controls Hapvida, expanded their political ties with parties such as Progressives and Democrats — which are part of a group of rentier parties known as the “Big Center.” 

But like many major corporations in Brazil, Hapvida’s money was not bound by ideology — and the group also funded campaigns of the center-left Workers’ Party in the 2020 municipal elections.

Last April, four members of the Koren family donated a combined BRL 250,000 (USD 47,720) to the Workers’ Party — official data from Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court shows.

(Jun. 29, 2022 UPDATE: The electoral justice systems were updated since our story broke to include additional donations by members of the Koren family. With previous donations, they combine for BRL 1.25 million in contributions to Lula’s Workers’ Party.)

The money wired six months ahead of the most anticipated presidential election in decades was not for any particular campaign — but for the party’s ordinary expenses. These include Lula’s monthly allowances. 

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