Olten sets Council vote to expel duo accused in VIP box scandal | OneFootball

São Paulo’s Deliberative Council has scheduled for next Wednesday, April 8, the vote on the punishments for Mara Casares and Douglas Schwartzmann, after the Ethics Committee endorsed the expulsion of both for their involvement in the well-known VIP Box Scandal, in which they were caught on audio negotiating the sale of a club-exclusive space at Morumbi for a concert by Colombian singer Shakira last year.

The date was set by the body’s president, Olten Ayres de Abreu. The Ethics Committee’s decision was unanimous. The session will be held by secret ballot and will require a qualified two-thirds majority of eligible council members. São Paulo president Harry Massis Júnior has already said he will vote for the pair’s expulsion.

The document underlying the meeting frames the case as an “irregular and reckless management practice,” for which the prescribed penalty is expulsion. The agenda sent to council members calls for consideration of the Ethics Committee’s opinion, with a vote to approve or reject a set of recommendations. These include rejecting the preliminary arguments presented by the defenses and, on the merits, convicting both of irregular and reckless management, with the penalty of expulsion, in addition to damage to the club’s image, carrying a 360-day suspension.

The council will also deliberate on applying expulsion from the membership rolls, with loss of office and ineligibility, recognition of the duty to compensate material losses, and the possibility of a different penalty at the plenary’s discretion. The Ethics Committee report, signed by its five members, argues that the case is not merely an administrative failure, but a sequence of acts incompatible with the club’s governance standards.

The attempt to discredit the 44-minute audio was dismissed based on two independent expert reports attesting to the material’s integrity, in addition to Mara herself confirming its content during a hearing.

The preliminary arguments raised by the defenses — such as expiration of the filing deadline, denial of due process, and a request to suspend proceedings until the end of the police investigation — were rejected. On the merits, the committee concluded that there had been an irregular transfer of an institutional asset, commercial exploitation by third parties, and an attempt to prevent the case from becoming public, amounting to reckless management under the Profut Law.

The document also points to reputational damage to the club, reinforced by internal testimony indicating an impact on commercial negotiations.

The case stems from the use of Morumbi’s 3A VIP box, an institutional space linked to the presidency, during singer Shakira’s concert in February of last year. According to the investigation, the space was informally handed over and ended up being commercially exploited by third parties, generating revenue of around R$ 132,000.

In audio recordings that became public, the two involved discuss the operation and admit irregularities, with Schwartzmann saying: “There was a deal here where you made money, I made money, everybody made money.”

The situation worsened when the deal’s intermediary went to court after a dispute with a partner company, leading the officials to pressure her to withdraw the lawsuit. The fallout from the case resulted in the removal of those involved, the opening of internal investigations, and internal political repercussions that culminated in Júlio Casares stepping down from the presidency and the dismissal of figures linked to the handling of the episode.

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