Brazil’s Federal Police are investigating lawyer Willer Tomaz over whether unusually large online betting transactions were used to disguise movements of money. The inquiry, which originated in an investigation into currency evasion and money laundering through betting, is before the Supreme Federal Court under Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
A technical note from the Finance Ministry’s Secretariat of Prizes and Betting, dated Oct. 1, identified Tomaz as Brazil’s largest depositor on fixed-odds betting platforms in 2025. It recorded about R$258 million in deposits, nearly twice the amount attributed to the next-largest depositor, and about R$200 million in withdrawals.
The ministry put his 2025 betting turnover at R$5 billion. That figure does not represent new money alone: it includes money recycled through winnings, re-bets and losses. Federal Police are examining whether the recorded amounts reflected genuine wagering or fictitious bets.
Court documents obtained by CNN Brasil, as cited by Casino.org, put Tomaz’s activity on Blaze alone at R$6.6 billion across more than 53,000 casino-game bets. Those records put his net losses at about US$29 million, while Blaze’s 2025 financial statement recorded R$4.8 billion in winnings, almost R$5 billion in casino losses and a net loss of R$163.2 million for him.
The ministry’s note cited patterns it treated as independently sufficient to meet suspicious-transaction conditions under its betting anti-money-laundering ordinance. On Oct. 30, 2025, Tomaz made 14 deposits of R$500,000, totaling R$7 million, in three clusters during the day. It also cited a separate occasion when 12 withdrawals of R$500,000 were made within 18 minutes.
Regulators said Tomaz was classified as a medium-risk customer when the Secretariat considered him a maximum-risk case because of atypical activity and a possible mismatch between his financial capacity and transaction volume. Foggo Entertainment holds the Blaze brand rights in Brazil. The Secretariat used the case as an example of shortcomings in anti-money-laundering and customer-monitoring systems, while the Finance Ministry opened a proceeding against Blaze over alleged failures in its oversight and control obligations.
Blaze said it complied with gambling regulations and maintained rigorous transaction-monitoring procedures. Tomaz said his money was legally obtained, matched his income and was declared to tax authorities. He disputed the headline turnover totals, arguing that successive re-bets should not be treated as new funds, and denied using automated tools or splitting transactions to evade controls.
The proceeding followed Tomaz’s unsuccessful R$163 million claim over alleged gambling losses. As covered last week, a São Paulo court rejected that action after finding that he had sought private blackjack tables and betting limits of up to R$500,000 a hand, rather than acting as a passive gambler.
A Federal Police report also raised the possibility that Tomaz’s accounts may have been used to concentrate, circulate and redistribute money for third parties.
