The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rio Grande do Sul (MPRS), through the Special Action Group to Combat Organized Crime (GAECO), has filed charges against a former Juventude athlete.
The accusations against the player are serious: fraud in sports competitions and money laundering.
The case, an offshoot of Operation Totonero, was sent to the Caxias do Sul court on January 30th.
How the scheme worked
According to prosecutor Manoel Figueiredo Antunes, the player was being paid to deliberately receive yellow cards.
The complaint focuses on two matches of the 2025 Brazilian Série A championship: one in March, in Caxias do Sul, and another in May, in Fortaleza.
The scheme was discovered because the volume of bets predicting he would receive a yellow card spiked abnormally before the games. In other words, indicating that the bettors already knew what was going to happen.
Suspicious values
In addition to on-field manipulation, the athlete will also have to answer for his financial transactions.
GAECO indicates that he attempted to conceal more than R$ 1.9 million received from accounts linked to sports betting.
These transactions were completely inconsistent with the player’s declared income.
Behind the scenes of the investigation
Operation Totonero began in May 2025, following warnings from the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) and international companies that monitor the integrity of the sport.
At the time, the police executed search and seizure warrants at the player’s home and even in his locker inside the Alfredo Jaconi stadium.
The breaches of bank and telephone secrecy obtained in that phase were essential to support the current indictment.
The prosecutor also requested that all evidence be shared with the Federal Police in order to investigate whether there are connections to the scheme in other states.
European athletes suspended
Recently, three European athletes were suspended for involvement in sports betting.
German discus throwers Henrik Janssen, 27, and Steven Richter, 22, along with French middle-distance runner Aurore Fleury, 32, violated betting rules.
While the Germans were suspended for three months each, the Frenchwoman will be banned from competitions for six months and will have to pay a fine of 3,000 euros.
