Betting company linked to INSS fraud investigator financed Flávio Bolsonaro's flights in Europe
Rede Loto, a betting firm linked to lawyer Willer Tomaz, who is under investigation for INSS fraud, paid for executive jets for Flávio Bolsonaro's travels in 2025.
Betting firm linked to INSS fraud funds Flávio Bolsonaro's flights in Portugal and France
An online betting company controlled by lawyer Willer Tomaz financed at least three executive jet flight segments for senator and presidential candidate for the PL, Flávio Bolsonaro, between Portugal and France in 2025, according to a Federal Police investigation reported by www1.folha.uol.com.br.
Willer is under investigation for making financial transfers using funds obtained through fraud against Social Security in the INSS scandal. He is a partner in Rede Loto — together with Jorge Barbosa Dias — which became the first sports betting company to receive an operating licence in Brazil, in May 2023, issued by the Rio de Janeiro state government.
Flights contracted through offshore company in Portugal
According to the Federal Police report, the tickets were purchased by Cathedral Holdings S.A., a limited company registered in Portugal on 16 January, with exclusively Brazilian partners: Willer, his wife Flávia Oliveira Corrêa, his sister, Dias and another relative of the latter, Igor Mateus Barbosa Moura. Cathedral is the sole shareholder of Rede Loto.
Documents seized from Willer's computer include receipts for tickets purchased through the air taxi company NetJets. The first recorded flight segment is a trip from Lisbon to Nice, carried out on 11 April 2025, with Willer and Flávio. On 23 May, the two, accompanied by other family members, departed from Cascais — 30 kilometres from Lisbon — again for Nice, before boarding a second flight bound for Paris.
Defence describes it as "leisure outing among friends"
Willer's lawyer states, in a note, that the costs of the trips were borne personally by him, not by the company. "The trips were leisure outings among friends and their families, funded by Willer and with no quid pro quo of any kind," the statement says. The lawyer also rejects any association of his client with unlawful practices, adding that "the sole shareholder of Rede Loto is Cathedral, and has no involvement of anyone under investigation for illegal gambling."
Questioned by Folha, senator Flávio Bolsonaro stated that his relationship with Willer is "exclusively one of friendship". "Associating this personal affinity with suppositions of irregularities is mere speculation, without any basis in the facts," he said.
Licence obtained in Rio in record time
Rede Loto was registered at the Commercial Board of São Paulo on 17 February 2023, by a representative of Cathedral. On 27 April of the same year — the day Loterj (Rio de Janeiro State Lottery) published for the first time a betting licensing notice in a major circulation newspaper — the company delivered a folder with 132 pages of documents at 9:09 am.
Loterj authorised Rede Loto's operations, under the name BestBet, on 25 May 2023. The authorisation was published in the official gazette on 30 May, in a ruling signed by Hazenclever Cançado, then president of the Rio de Janeiro authority, appointed by former governor Cláudio Castro. According to people familiar with Loterj procedures, Cançado's nomination came from Flávio Bolsonaro himself.
The speed of the process prompted a challenge filed by the company Modelo Informática, which was never assessed. Cançado did not respond to contact attempts made by Folha via WhatsApp and telephone from 15:12 on Wednesday (14).
Loterj stated that Rede Loto presented all documents required by the notice. "From a regulatory standpoint, it is what is legally required. And none of those involved presented any impediment," the authority informed.
Hidden shareholders in the licensing process
As Loterj did not require, in line with federal legislation, the identification of beneficial owners, the documentation submitted by Rede Loto did not provide the names of Willer and Dias as shareholders of Cathedral. The corporate structure of the offshore company therefore remained outside the authority's scrutiny during the licensing process.
Dias, Willer's partner in Cathedral and Rede Loto, was prosecuted for illegal gambling and money laundering in 2022 and acquitted in 2023 — after having already received the Rio de Janeiro government's first sports betting licence. Willer's office confirmed that he acts as Dias's lawyer and that the case "has become final and binding."
Company linked to Willer billed R$ 188 million from Loterj
In a previous report, Folha revealed that Willer is also the beneficial owner of another company hired by Loterj, which billed R$ 188 million between June 2023 and August 2026, according to data from the Rio de Janeiro authority itself.
Source: Google News BR — Crime