Police probe Casares and São Paulo board over millions received | OneFootball

A report published by the portal ‘UOL‘ details Civil Police investigations into financial transactions involving São Paulo. According to reports from Coaf (Council for Financial Activities Control) obtained by the portal, the club made 35 cash withdrawals between January 2021 and November 2025, totaling R$ 11 million. The withdrawals were made from accounts owned by São Paulo, with 33 at Bradesco and two at Banco Rendimento.

The documents do not indicate the final destination of the funds. When contacted, the Tricolor stated to the site that it will present the full accounting of the operations and maintained that “there are no withdrawals without record and proper accounting of who originated the expenses.” The Civil Police confirmed the existence of the investigation but did not provide details and requested that the procedure be conducted under secrecy, a request not yet granted.

The report indicates that in 2021, there were seven withdrawals totaling R$ 1.5 million. In 2022, six operations reached R$ 1.2 million. In 2023, another six withdrawals totaled R$ 1.4 million. The largest volume appears in 2024, with R$ 5.2 million distributed over eleven withdrawals, averaging close to R$ 500,000 per operation. By 2025, up to November 25, there were five withdrawals, reaching R$ 1.7 million.

According to Coaf, the first two withdrawals in 2021 were made by a club employee; later, an armored car company was used, responsible for 28 of the 35 operations. The investigation considers that this change may have made it more difficult to identify those involved.

Coaf emphasizes that cash operations interrupt the electronic audit trail, making it difficult to identify the final beneficiary and prove the destination of the resources. Both Bradesco and Rendimento classified the withdrawals as atypical transactions incompatible with market practices. The report also points out failures in five operations, where the person responsible for the withdrawal was not identified.

In another aspect of the investigation, Coaf identified cash deposits into the account of São Paulo's president, Júlio Casares, totaling R$ 1.5 million between January 2023 and May 2025.

The amount represents about 47% of the executive's income during the period and exceeds the amount received as a salary from the club. The deposits were made in a fragmented manner, a practice Coaf classifies as “smurfing.”

There are records of multiple deposits on the same day, including amounts very close to the automatic notification limit to the agency. Casares justified to the bank that these were “funds received in cash from São Paulo, related to championship bonuses [sic].”

So far, the investigation does not indicate a correlation between the withdrawals made by the club and the deposits into the executive's account. São Paulo claims that the amounts have no relation. The reports also indicate that Casares' account was used regularly to pay expenses for his ex-wife, Mara Casares, including 104 bank slips.

Through his lawyers, Casares told ‘UOL‘ that “all financial transactions have a lawful and legitimate origin.” The club stated that it is monitoring the case and is available to the authorities to provide clarifications as requested.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.