The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Goiás (MP-GO) launched on Tuesday (14) the operation “Maximum Penalty” to comply with arrest warrants and search and seizure in Goiás, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to to dismantle a criminal association specializing in the manipulation of football match results to favor sports betting. According to the investigations, the criminal group would have acted in at least three matches of the Brazilian Championship Series B, held at the end of 2022: Vila Nova x Sport, Tombense x Criciúma and Sampaio Corrêa x Londrina. The fraudulent scheme would involve, among other actions, the co-option of athletes who would commit to committing penalties in the first half of the games, receiving in return about R$ 150,000 per bet. The MP-GO calculates that the amounts involved in the crime exceed the amount of R$ 600 thousand. It is estimated that the bettors would make a profit of approximately R$ 2 million. The case was reported to the MP-GO by the Goiás club Vila Nova, whose president Hugo Jorge Bravo revealed details of the operation, in a press conference last night (14). According to the manager, midfielder Marcos Vinícius Alves Barreira, better known as Romarinho (who had his contract terminated with the club from Goiás in November last year, due to serious indiscipline) accepted R$ 150,000 to commit a penalty in the first stage of the confrontation between Vila Nova and Sport, on the 6th of November. The player, according to Hugo Bravo, even received an advance of R$ 10,000 and after the match he would pocket the rest of the amount (R$ 140,000). “The game went on, for about three days, and I was informed that Romário would be involved in a betting scheme. We turned on the alert and went after it. I contacted whoever would have articulated the whole scheme. This person told us that the combination was a penalty in the first half of Sport x Vila Nova and two other matches of the same round [Sampaio Corrêa x Londrina e Criciuma x Tombense]”, reported Bravo. According to the representative, Romarinho was not involved in the duel against Sport and would have been trying to persuade other players. “This person said that there was an athlete from the club who would co-opt another athlete to practice, because he was unable to play. She says that she gave a signal on an account of another player, (Gabriel) Domingos, who until the contract is proven, is not involved. The very person who architected everything exempts the athlete [Domingos]”, said the leader. The president of Vila Nova admitted that the fraud at the club was frustrated and that’s why it came to light. “You only find out when it goes wrong. The buzz comes and then you fish. An attempt was made to make an individual action in a Vila game. A Vila player should have taken a penalty, which did not happen. When it didn’t happen, someone was harmed. And it was the betting booths. That same person started contacting me asking to go after Romário to return the R$ 10,000 down payment,” he added. Three other players are the target of MP-GO’s “Maximum Penalty” operation: Gabriel Domingos de Moura (Vila Nova), Joseph Maurício de Oliveira Figueiredo (Tombense) and Mateus da Silva Duarte (former Sampaio Côrrea and currently in Cuiabá). The other investigated are Camila Silva da Motta, Bruno Lopes de Moura (gambler and target of the arrest warrant) and BC Sports Management, Bruno Moura’s company. In a note sent to Agência Brasil, the CBF stated that it “supports the initiative of the Public Ministry of the State of Goiás and is available to the authorities to contribute to investigations. The entity works daily to combat match-fixing in football. CBF informs which has a contract with Sportradar, a world leader in prevention, detection and intelligence in preserving the integrity of games, to monitor and ensure protection against sports fraud”. The MP-GO operation took place with the participation of the Special Action Group to Combat Organized Crime (Gaeco), the Institutional Security and Intelligence Coordination (CSI) and the Special Action Group in Major Football Events (GFUT),
Agência Brasil
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