R$325.3 million. That is how much a single client deposited on the Blaze betting site, according to the files of an administrative case opened by Brazil's Finance Ministry against the company. Blaze faces a fine of up to R$2 billion, and the case touches every taxpayer's pocket: the client is lawyer Willer Tomaz, named by the Federal Police as the financial hub of a fraud scheme that skimmed money from retirees and pensioners of the INSS, Brazil's social security institute.
According to Folha de S.Paulo, which broke the story, Tomaz made 2,145 deposits on the platform and got R$180.3 million back in 2,733 withdrawals. The net loss of R$145 million is what a worker earning R$3,000 a month would take more than 4,000 years to save. The deposits alone top 200,000 monthly minimum wages.
Tomaz is a target of Operation Sem Desconto ("No Discount"), which probes irregular deductions from INSS pensions. The Federal Police describe him as the scheme's "financial, asset and logistics hub", and the millionaire bets are investigated for possible money laundering, the crime of disguising the origin of illegal funds. The lawyer is identified as a friend of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a candidate in this year's presidential race.
Understand. Since January 2025, licensed betting sites in Brazil could only take and pay out money through Pix, the central bank's instant payment system, between registered accounts and with facial recognition, precisely to hinder money laundering. Oversight falls to the Prizes and Betting Secretariat, the Finance Ministry unit that opened the case against Blaze. The regulated market itself was banned by a provisional presidential decree on Friday the 25th, and the issue is now before the Supreme Court.
VIP manager, crypto and tailor-made limits
In the case files, Tomaz says a VIP manager at Blaze switched off the facial verification requirement in January 2025 and offered to move money in cryptocurrencies, digital assets that make it harder to identify who is behind a transaction. According to Folha, both services would violate the regulated market's anti-money-laundering rules.
"My God, then raise the withdrawal limit. To R$500,000 per withdrawal, otherwise it will make the size of my game unworkable. This facial recognition is taking up to 1 minute", Tomaz said, in a dialogue described in the case.
The Demétrio Vecchioli column at Metrópoles obtained a notarized record of the conversations and details that Blaze once split a R$6 million withdrawal into 400 deposits of R$15,000 each. Documents cited by the site show the lawyer moved about R$10 billion in online betting in 2025 alone and had accumulated R$13 billion by June 2026.
The relationship was a close one. Blaze sent Tomaz a R$3 million loyalty bonus, and when a later perk came in smaller he complained: "Only R$100,000?", according to Metrópoles.
Lawsuit and responses
The ministry's case grew out of a lawsuit in which Tomaz himself seeks repayment for money lost in rounds of blackjack, baccarat and online roulette. São Paulo's state court rejected a request from his defense to freeze R$144 million from Blaze, according to Metrópoles.
In a statement, the Finance Ministry said it does not disclose case data because the investigations are ongoing, and Blaze's defense did not reply to Folha's requests. In court, the company rebutted the accusations but did not comment on the crypto offer or the splitting of deposits. Tomaz's defense denies money laundering and says all transactions went through the lawyer's own bank account, "in a transparent and traceable way".