The Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPI) on Sports Betting held its first official meeting after its establishment this Wednesday (17). On that occasion, the rapporteur, Senator Romário, presented the group’s work plan.

The CPI has a period of 180 days to assess and vote on the final report, which must be prepared based on the information gathered. This means that the senators will be investigating cases of match-fixing in Brazilian sports until October 24.

The senators requested the Chamber of Deputies for information gathered during the CPI on match-fixing in football matches, held last year.

The sharing of information from the Maximum Penalty , Rehearsed Play, End of Game, Sure Bet, Betgoleada operations and other investigations carried out by state public prosecutors on the subject will also be requested.

The CPI is made up of 11 full senators and 7 alternates and is chaired by Senator Jorge Kajuru. Senator Romário is the rapporteur and Senator Eduardo Girão is the vice-chairman of the committee.

The committee will meet weekly, on Mondays and Wednesdays, with testimony being presented on Mondays.

Depositions

The following will be invited or summoned to testify:

• Players, former players, referees, managers , coaches, shareholders of football clubs and corporations and other people in the same context, who are suspected of participating in match-fixing, or who have made complaints or have information relevant to the objectives of this CPI;
• Bettors, financiers, recruiters and others involved in the criminal activity of manipulating results;
• Investigators and authorities from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Federal Police, state police and other investigation and control bodies, aiming to clarify details of the investigations;
• Federal government authorities , state and municipal governments responsible for monitoring and controlling sports betting or sports championships and activities in which there is suspicion of manipulation;
• Sports administration bodies , aiming to clarify the measures they have taken to strengthen monitoring and prevent manipulation;
• National or foreign companies that develop automated technologies for detecting betting fraud, aiming to clarify the scenarios in which it is possible to identify possible fraud, as well as the actions that can be taken in the face of suspected fraud;
• Betting houses , directly or through the entities that represent them, aiming to clarify the measures taken to identify and combat the manipulation of results.

Requirements

In total, 32 requests have been submitted to the committee, including invitations to testify and requests for information. On Wednesday, 21 of them were assessed and approved.

Information requests

• Brazilian Football Confederation, requesting information from the fraud detection systems of the company SportRadar;
• Public Prosecutor’s Office of Goiás, requesting documents and information related to Operation Maximum Penalty;
• Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Federal District and Territories, requesting documents and information related to Operation End of Game;
• To the Honorable President of the Chamber of Deputies, Deputy Arthur Lira, requesting copies of all documents, confidential or not, received or produced by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry designed to investigate schemes to manipulate results in professional football matches in Brazil (CPIFUTE);
• Public Prosecutor’s Office of Ceará, requesting documents and information related to Operation Aposta Certa and Operation BetGoleada;
• Federal Police, requesting documents and information related to Operation Rehearsed Play;
• SportsRadar

Invitations to testify

• Filipe de Moraes Maciel, Police Delegate
• Fernando Martins Cesconetto, public prosecutor of the Public Ministry of Goiás.
• John Charles Textor, majority shareholder of the Football Corporation (SAF) Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas.
• Cyro Terra Peres, Attorney General of the Public Ministry of Goiás
• Hugo Jorge Bravo, president of Vila Nova Football Club
• Marcos Vinicius Alves Barreira, known as Romário, former player of Vila Nova Football Club
• Leila Mejdalani Pereira, president of Palmeiras
• Julio Cesar Casares, president of the Sao Paulo Football Club
• Wesley Cardia, president of the National Association of Games and Lotteries
• José Francisco Manssur, former special advisor to the Ministry of Finance
• Listed professional football players who have been sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) for match-fixing.
• Andrés Rueda, former director of Santos Football Club.