A medical student who claimed she was impoverished in order to get a scholarship was busted after her lavish lifestyle was exposed.
Gabriella de Arruda was granted a full scholarship to attend the Evangelical University of Goiás in Brazil in 2020 after her and her family claimed to be earning minimum wage.
However she was busted when an audit of her social media accounts revealed she was actually living lavishly – going on luxurious vacations around the world and partying on boats and at music festivals.
The city of Anápolis, which administers the scholarship fund, stopped making payments towards de Arruda’s tuition earlier this year and she was unable to register for classes and cover monthly payments of 47,300 Brazilian reals – about $8,570.
The student filed a lawsuit against the university and the city, and had the scholarship reinstated after a court issued an injunction.
The judge removed the court order after noticing discrepancies with de Arruda’s, according to Brazilian news outlet Metropoles, which reviewed the court documents.
Lisboa performed a social media search and found de Arruda’s TikTok account, where a September 2023 post highlighted her trip to Italy, with stops in Rome and Venice.
A second TikTok video from May 2023 featured a quick trip to Rio de Janeiro.
Other posts on the popular social media platform showed de Arruda partying with her boyfriend on a yacht and attending the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro.
The judge also discovered that de Arruda’s mother, Priscilla de Andrade, is the same lawyer who signed her daughter’s lawsuit documents.
She earns 8,496,10 reals [around $1,520] as an attorney and an additional $4,400 reals [about $800] as an employee of the state of Goiás. The totals are well more than three minimum wages that her parents declared in her daughter’s scholarship application.
A Brazilian judge found that medical school student Gabriella de Arruda lied about living in poverty on an application that awarded her a full scholarship to attend the Evangelical University of Goiás
Gabriella de Arruda lost her scholarship earlier this year and was unable to register for the semester. The tuition at the private university costs 47,300 Brazilian reals – about $8,570 – a month
Lisboa found that a business owned by de Arruda’s mother was listed under the same address as the student, whose records show she was living with her maternal grandparents when she applied to the scholarship.
The judge’s findings also showed that the student’s father was partner at a real estate company.
He also learned that de Arruda’s father, Tiago de Arruda, had been employed by the city agency that administered social insurance program under the administration of former Mayor Roberto Naves.
In addition, the judge discovered that de Arruda’s maternal grandfather, Marcos Andrade, is the managing partner of a company that sells construction accessories and supplies, and has a capital of 100,000 reals [around $18,000].
The company’s headquarter address matched the address for the student’s home and his daughter’s business.
Lisboa forwarded the results of his investigation to the Goiás state prosecutor’s office, which could decide if it wishes to proceed with the case and report the family to the federal finance agency, the equivalent of the IRS in the United States.
The Anápolis City Hall informed Metropoles in a statement that they had set up a committee to go over the scholarship program’s measures.
De Arruda with her boyfriend while attending the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro
Gabriella de Arruda was accepted into the medical school program at the Evangelical University of Goiás on a full scholarship in 2020
Gabriella de Arruda’s TikTok followers were left wondering how she could afford traveling if her family only lived off three minimum salaries
‘Since the municipality lacked a database to certify that the recipients met the criteria, only after the committee’s work is completed will it be possible to determine the program’s future course,” the city said in a statement.
De Arruda’s TikTok was flooded with messages from curious followers who wanted to know who she maintained a lifestyle of travel while making a living with three minimum salaries.
‘My dream is to have the minimum wage that these people have,’ one person said.
‘These 3 minimum wages were anything but minimum,’ another commented.
‘The 3 minimum wages are received in dollars, they forgot to do the conversion,’ one of her TikTok followers added.
