Brazil's DF police launch Operation Azzardo against illegal bets network that moved R$734 million; court freezes up to R$3.48 billion

Police in Brazil's Federal District and five other states on Thursday launched Operation Azzardo against a network accused of running unlicensed online fixed-odds betting sites and laundering the proceeds, according to Agência Brasil, the federal government's news agency, citing the Federal District Civil Police (PCDF).

About 200 civil police officers from the Federal District, São Paulo, Goiás, Paraná, Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte executed 52 search warrants. In Brasília, searches focused on Sobradinho, Sobradinho II and Ceilândia, where investigators said dozens of companies shared the same address and phone number. In São Paulo, teams searched around Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima, Pinheiros and the Vila Olímpia business district. In Goiás, warrants covered Goiânia, Planaltina de Goiás and Valparaíso de Goiás.

Court measures

Agência Brasil reported that the Federal District judiciary authorised:

• a freeze of up to R$3.483 billion affecting 64 individuals and 120 companies;
• suspension of CNPJ tax registrations and commercial-board registrations for 100 companies and sole traders;
• a 90-day ban on the suspects opening new bank accounts; and
• the lifting of bank and tax secrecy for 82 individuals and 83 companies.

How funds were routed

The investigation started about five months ago after the Finance Ministry's Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA/MF) flagged fixed-odds betting platforms operating without federal authorisation, Agência Brasil said. The unlicensed sites were promoted on social media and appeared in search results.

According to the PCDF, as reported by Agência Brasil, money sent by bettors to those sites was directed to more than 100 accounts at A55 Sociedade de Crédito, a São Paulo fintech. About R$1 billion was moved that way, the PCDF said. "This financial institution, two companies from the same group and their directors are targets of the search and freeze measures carried out in today's operation," the PCDF said, according to Agência Brasil. The agency said it was seeking a response from the institution.

At a news conference, PCDF organised-crime chief Paulo Pereira said bettors had filed police reports after failing to receive payouts and not knowing the sites were illegal, and that they appeared to be fraud victims. Shell companies that received the payments included one registered at a bakery and another at a modest home where a resident said she was paid R$200 to provide personal data, he said.

Suspects may face charges of operating an unauthorised lottery, electronic fraud, money laundering, ideological falsehood and criminal organisation, with combined abstract sentences ranging from 11 years and six months to 31 years, or up to 33 years if a public document is involved, Agência Brasil reported.

Fixed-odds betting remains prohibited nationwide under provisional measure MP 1.394; see AskSpinner's Brazil betting ban topic page.

Photo: Moreira Mariz/Agência Senado / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (2014 file photo, cropped)

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