Spanish authorities have opened up an investigation into spot-fixing allegations against Brazilian footballer Luiz Henrique.
Henrique is alleged to have involvement with a “criminal organisation dedicated to the manipulation of results in sports betting”.
According to a letter seen by Folha de São Paulo, Spanish authorities are being supplied with information by Brazil’s Public Prosecutor’s Office of Goiás (MP-GO), responsible for Operation Maximum Penalty, which was carried out last year.
The document connects the striker with businessman Bruno Lopez de Moura, cited as the head of the match-fixing gang investigated by Operation Maximum Penalty. Moura acted as an intermediary between bettors and players, rewarding athletes when they received purposeful yellow cards, according to MP-GO.
The case is being processed under the area of International Legal Cooperation in Criminal Matters, which is within the Department of Asset Recovery and International Legal Cooperation (DRCI). This sector is responsible for receiving, analysing, transmitting and monitoring the fulfilment of requests for cooperation between Brazil and foreign countries.
Last year, before he transferred to Brazil’s Botofago, Henrique appeared in a report by Sportradar, a sportstech company that monitors suspicious movements in sports betting.
Sportradar highlighted that an unusual volume of bets was detected for him, who represented La Liga club Real Betis, and Lucas Paquetá, a West Ham United and Brazil national team player.
When these games were investigated authorities found that the cards were given. Since then, Paquetá has been charged with spot-fixing and the investigation is ongoing. However, Henrique’s case was never taken further.
However, at the end of September, new developments in the case were revealed by UOL. According to the portal, family members of midfielder Paquetá would have made two transfers, totalling around £5000, to Luiz Henrique days after the player received yellow cards in 2023, while he was still playing for Real Betis.
Commenting on the situation after a match, Henrique told journalists: “I don’t think it has anything to do with it. I think they want to erase my shine, but I know they won’t succeed. I know that God is with me, my family is with me, and none of this is happening.”
