Prosecutor details probe into Corinthians' Caixa debt at Neo Química Arena | OneFootball

Corinthians’ financial situation involving Caixa Econômica Federal came back into the spotlight this Wednesday. The São Paulo Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP-SP) opened an administrative proceeding to verify the amounts related to the financing of Neo Química Arena and understand what amount is currently effectively owed by the club.

The inquiry is under the responsibility of prosecutor Cássio Roberto Conserino and originated from a filing submitted by expert Anísio Castelo Branco, CEO of the Investigative Forensics Institute. The professional produced a survey based on public documents and pointed to the possibility that “abusive interest” may have been applied in the financial relationship between Corinthians and Caixa.

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In an interview with the program 90 Minutos, from Metrópoles Esportes, Conserino explained that the complaint submitted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office includes an expert report with calculations that raise the hypothesis of a charge higher than what would actually be owed by Corinthians.

“It is a filing submitted by an expert. In fact, the complainant is also an expert and, in this filing, he makes an analysis of some mathematical assumptions that were presented to the club in 2019 and that, according to the calculations in this filing, which was supported by the expert report sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, would point to an overcharge by Caixa Econômica Federal, something around R$ 255 million more. It seems the calculations pointed to an initial debt of R$ 536 million when, in fact, according to the complainant’s expert report, which will still be confirmed by the Public Prosecutor’s technical staff, he found an amount overcharged of more than R$ 255 million, which, updated to today, to the month of August, comes to around R$ 400 million. This amount is only initial evidence that led to the opening of this administrative proceeding and does not, at the present moment, yet have a criminal connotation,” he began in an interview with the program 90 Minutos, from Metrópoles Esportes.

The financing intended for the construction of Neo Química Arena was contracted in 2013. At that time, Corinthians obtained a credit line of up to R$ 400 million. Since then, the debt has changed and undergone renegotiations until reaching the current format, which provides for four quarterly payments per year.

Considering the interest rates, the annual outlay currently expected is between R$ 80 million and R$ 115 million. The contractual forecast is that the debt will be fully paid off in 2041.

One of the points challenged in the documentation sent to MP-SP involves precisely the incidence of interest on installments that were allegedly paid late. Castelo Branco had already tried to bring the matter to Corinthians’ leadership in 2020, when he contacted then-president Andrés Sanchez and Alexandre Husni, who at that time headed the club’s Deliberative Council. According to the prosecutor, however, there was no response from the directors.

Conserino reported that he only became aware of those previous attempts after a television report addressed the matter. For him, if it is proven that there was any “omission” on the part of the directors approached, the episode may also be analyzed from the standpoint of possible reckless management.

“At first, I did not know about these previous dealings. We received the filing through the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s regular channels. I requested from him an expert report to support that filing and make things more solid, more robust, because, besides being the complainant, as I say, he is an expert, he has an established company that works in this area, and in such a way that later we learned that he had also been in this fight, so to speak, for more than seven years. He had allegedly contacted some former presidents, some directors, and, from what I could tell, it did not produce any noise there, his statement,” he explained.

The prosecutor, however, stressed that he still does not consider the calculations presented to be a definitive conclusion. According to him, the expert report submitted by Castelo Branco must undergo analysis by the Public Prosecutor’s own technical staff before any possible irregularity can be confirmed.

“It is important to say that this is a filing. His expert report, evidently, will not be the only one. In these records, and if Corinthians did indeed pay more than it should have, we are facing clearly reckless management, not just by one director, but by a series of presidential administrations that did not pay attention to this detail. But I always speak in terms of supposition. I do not know mathematics, I am not an expert, I know a little law and to each their own. So I am not here to categorically certify that the accounts are correct. I am here, I am the spokesperson for a situation that is absolutely serious and that matters to the financial life of Sport Club Corinthians Paulista and, in that capacity, as a prosecutor and as someone obliged to safeguard the interests of the victim, I am compelled to speak out in this regard,” he commented.

Since the signing of the financing agreement, the amounts paid by Corinthians and the remaining balance have undergone different updates. According to information released by Record, the club says it has already paid approximately R$ 600 million, but would still have a debt in the range of R$ 642 million.

In the first half of 2025, payments related to the agreement reached approximately R$ 60 million. In 2026, Corinthians has kept the installments up to date and has paid around R$ 56 million so far.

Despite these figures released by the club itself, there is still no definitive consolidation of everything that was actually paid by Corinthians to Caixa since the beginning of the financing. This is one of the pieces of information that the Public Prosecutor’s Office may try to clarify if the inquiry moves forward.

“In fact, I do not have that. I will have some idea when this initial expert report submitted by the complainant is reviewed by the Public Prosecutor’s technical staff, even working together with the public and social assets prosecutors, because this also matters for what is being seen in the ongoing proceedings, which are studying the feasibility of judicial intervention. Given that, if effectively, always in the field of hypothesis, there was this overpayment, there was, at the very least, a failure. And that failure came from both institutions and also from the bodies involved in that contract,” he explained.

Conserino again stressed that he does not intend to anticipate a conclusion before the technical analysis of the documents. For the prosecutor, it will be necessary to compare the amounts paid, the contractual terms, and the criteria used in the evolution of the debt to determine whether there was any improper charge.

“But I repeat, I am not going to be reckless and point to it as a failure. I am simply following the course of things. And what matters to say is that the Public Prosecutor’s Office today does not have this amount, because it was not within its scope to identify amounts, but from the moment it is prompted to speak because of an excessive amount charged, from the moment Corinthians, considered a public and cultural asset, from the moment Corinthians has an ongoing civil investigative procedure both in the federal and state spheres, it is important to identify whether or not there was this extra amount and to effectively identify how much Corinthians has already paid under this contract and whether those payments were properly applied in that mathematical context,” he commented.

The debt was also deeply modified during the renegotiation process that began in 2019 and was concluded in 2022. The agreement involved both Caixa Econômica Federal and BNDES and aimed to reorganize the liabilities related to the construction of the stadium.

The original contract, signed in 2013, went into default in 2019. The later renegotiation, however, did not mean the cancellation of the previous debt or the contracting of a completely new debt. The balance was restructured and went from an initial limit of R$ 400 million to approximately R$ 700 million, considering principal, interest, and other accumulated charges.

With the renegotiation, the charges began to use the Selic rate plus 2% per year as a reference, which significantly increased the financial cost of the operation.

Data from the financial statements released by Corinthians in July indicate that the club still has approximately R$ 630 million to pay to Caixa Econômica Federal.

In Cássio Conserino’s view, Corinthians is the party most interested in clarifying the facts and, consequently, can be considered a victim if any irregular charge is found. The prosecutor cited other proceedings in which the club appears in that condition and indicated that the current investigation may also result in measures in the civil sphere.

“It is worth saying that there are already five criminal cases in which Corinthians is the victim. Victim, and I am the representative responsible for these investigations, once again, by draw. I was at my prosecutor’s office and received that first filing that resulted in several criminal actions. That said, I received the filing and thought it best, at the very least, to investigate the reliability of those numbers, because, in theory, if it is well-founded, there may even be restitution of undue payment in the civil area, because everyone knows that a creditor cannot wrongly charge a debtor without there being any implication,” he stated.

For now, there is no conclusion about any possible irregularity in the financing calculations. MP-SP’s inquiry is at an early stage and should advance with the analysis of the contracts, payment receipts, and the methodology used to update the debt amounts.

Only after this technical evaluation will it be possible to determine whether there was a charge higher than what was due, what the possible excess amount would be, and how much Corinthians actually paid throughout the entire term of the agreement with Caixa Econômica Federal.

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