The return to activities of the Senate Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI) in the first meeting of the year, which took place this Tuesday (11) and is expected to continue on Wednesday (12), promises to be a hot topic. This is because the CPI will decide on the breaking of banking and tax secrecy of regulated betting companies.
According to market executives who wished to remain anonymous, the bets underwent a meticulous and extensive investigation by the Federal Government in the months preceding the regulation period, including the submission of data and documents from the main managers of these companies.
There were reports with more than a thousand pages from each of these bets, to give you an idea.
Moreover, executives who operate in the sector believe it is at least strange to request the breaking of secrecy of all 78 betting houses authorized to operate in the country, and that such movement did not happen so broadly, and even discriminatively, with other sectors of the Brazilian economy.
"The CPI has the powers to request the breaking of banking and fiscal secrecy of the investigated. However, for this, there must be indications of irregularities that justify this act. The fact of intending to request from all authorized operators already raises doubts about whether there is any indication of irregularity, or if the CPI intends the break, precisely to then investigate whether there would be any irregularity. By the nature of the measure, requesting the breaking of secrecy without indication of irregularities is illegal", analyzes Raphael Paçó Barbieri, a lawyer specialized in sports law and partner at CCLA Lawyers.
“It does not make sense to request the breaking of secrecy of the betting houses. It is even more serious when it is verified that the CPI and its senators simply are not interested in any relevant investigative measures against the illegal bets that operate in the country", corroborates Leonardo Henrique Roscoe Bessa, consultant of the Federal Council of the OAB and partner at Betlaw, a law firm specialized in the gaming and betting sector.
97 requests were presented by Senator Marcos Rogério, still at the beginning of December, and among the main requests, are the financial intelligence reports (RIFs) with “consistent information” about the bets, in the period from January 1, 2020 to December 10, 2024.
"In addition, all operators authorized by the Government went through an extensive process to attest the regularity and legitimacy of their operations. The investigation should focus on the unlicensed bets still operating in Brazil, the gangs manipulating results, and money laundering by unmonitored companies", complements Barbieri, from CCLA Lawyers.
Source: GMB
