September 27 – The spot fixing investigation into the alleged deliberate soliciting yellow cards by Brazil and West Ham’s Lucas Paquetá has taken another turn with another Brazilian player, Luiz Henrique, being linked to Paquetá and his family.
Brazilian media portal UOL has proof of bank transfers showing that Paqueta’s relatives made payments totaling R$40,000 ($7,500) to Henrique, currently playing at Botafogo on loan from Marseilles.
The money transfers raised suspicions because they coincided with games in which Luiz Henrique received yellow cards playing for Real Betis before his transfer this season to Botafogo.
The investigation by the English FA into Paquetá is also for forcing yellow cards in matches, which allegedly saw his family members win substantial bets across multiple online accounts.
The spot fixing investigations were triggered by suspicious betting monitoring reports that track online betting patterns and highlight unusual spikes in the volume of money being wagered.
Unusual betting volumes were found around cards received by Henrique for fouls against Getafe and Celta in January and February 2023. Another suspicious bet in March involved the Betis v Villarreal game where Henrique was also yellow carded.
UOL reports that Bruno Tolentino, Paquetá’s uncle who acted for Henrique in one of his transfers, admitted that he won money betting on Botafogo and West Ham games, but denies having used any insider information.
He also said that the R$40,000 he sent to Henrique had anything to do with betting but was the repayment of a personal debt he owed to the player.
“It was money I owed him. As soon as I got it, I paid it. It has nothing to do with betting,” said Tolentino in an interview with UOL.
Both Botafogo and Betis said there is no investigation into Henrique.
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