Zona de Azar Brasil – Brazil: CPI Hears Goiano Club Director Who Denounced Game Manipulation

Brazil.- August 2, 2024 www.zonadeazar.com The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on the Manipulation of Games and Sports Betting meets on Wednesday (7), at 2 pm, to take three statements. Among them, the president of Vila Nova Futebol Clube, Major Hugo Jorge Bravo. He was the first sports director to denounce suspicions of manipulation of match results. After hearing that a player was lured and was being threatened by gamblers, Bravo gathered evidence, which was presented to the Public Ministry of Goiás (MP-GO).

Operation Maximum Penalty, by the Goiás MP, began at the end of 2022, after the complaint that midfielder Marcos Vinicius Alves Barreira (known as Romário), then a Vila Nova (GO) player, had accepted an offer of R$ 150 thousand for committing a penalty in the game against Sport, in Series B of the Brazilian Championship. He would have received a down payment of R$10,000 and would receive the other R$140,000 after the match, with the penalty committed.

The president of Vila Nova sought to identify the people involved and began work to produce evidence to lead the MP to investigate the criminal group, accused of offering money to football players to receive punishments on the field. The members of the alleged scheme would profit from sports betting sites.Bravo was invited to testify in a request presented by senator Jorge Kajuru (PSB-GO), who chairs the CPI (REQ 21/2024).

Integrity standards

Through video conference, the commission will also hear from the president of SIGA Latin America, Emanuel Medeiros, who will speak about the entity’s global experience in independent certification of integrity standards in sport. The entity has partnerships with the Union of European Football Associations (Uefa) and the Liga Portugal. In Brazil, the company is a partner of the São Paulo Football Federation.

Recently, SIGA signed a cooperation agreement with the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) for the implementation of the SIGA Independent Rating and Verification System (SIRVS). The partnership also includes sharing knowledge and implementing best governance practices for the integrity of sports betting. CPI rapporteur, senator Romário (PL-RJ) is the author of the invitation for Medeiros to testify at the commission (REQ 44/2024).

Betting booths

The commission will also hear from the president of the Administrative Council of Santa Casa Global Brasil, Ricardo Gonçalves. He was summoned to clarify complaints and information published by the Portuguese and Brazilian press, specifically by the newspaper Expresso and the magazine Piauí. According to these media outlets, the Brazilian branch of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, which operates lotteries and betting stands in Portugal, has a debt of approximately R$200,000 with the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), the largest criminal organization in Brazil.

This debt would be related to Santa Casa operations in São Paulo, where the institution was trying to establish a state lottery concession. Santa Casa’s internal documents revealed that the organization was extorted by the PCC, resulting in the aforementioned debt. Although an internal audit by Santa Casa Global did not specifically mention this debt, other irregularities were reported to the Portuguese Public Ministry.

Gonçalves was summoned to testify at the commission through a request (REQ 81/2024) presented by senator Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ).

The CPI meeting will be in room 2 of the Senador Nilo Coelho Wing.

Agência Senado (Reproduction authorized upon citation from Agência Senado)

Source: Senado Agency

Editó: @_fonta www.zonadeazar.com