The president of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, Judge Kassio Nunes Marques, stated Sunday (Oct. 4) that no irregularities were found in the first round of the elections that could be characterized as foreign interference in the election.

At a press conference aimed at presenting an overview of the Electoral Court’s work on election day, he said that international observers who monitored the election confirmed its transparency and that it proceeded normally.

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“We did not experience any serious incidents, the weather-related risks [were] ruled out, and we did not receive any alerts from the various departments of the Superior Electoral Court regarding foreign interference. We did not find any evidence of intervention,” he stated.

Earlier, Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues confirmed that the body had opened an investigation into alleged foreign interference in the election.

Last week, the country’s Attorney-General’s Office called on the Federal Police and the Prosecutor-General’s Office to investigate alleged funding from the Donald Trump administration to meddle with the Brazilian elections and delegitimize the Supreme Court.

The move was unveiled after the UK newspaper The Guardian reported that the US government had allocated USD 1 million to promote a campaign against the Brazilian top court.

A Brazilian government task force took down 506 websites suspected of illegally offering online betting following the issuance of a provisional measure banning so-called bets, or online gambling. A network promoting online betting with 212,000 users on Telegram is also being monitored.

The Ministry of Justice and Public Security reported that it has expanded its monitoring of the online betting market in the digital environment following the publication of the provisional measure banning bets, through a joint task force with the Ministry of Finance.

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“The effort aims to block access to platforms operating without authorization and prevent new addresses from being used to offer betting services to the Brazilian public,” the Ministry of Justice stated in a press release.

A report by the Ministry’s Cyber Operations Laboratory (Ciberlab) found that betting advertisements continued to circulate on Meta and Google platforms, as well as on TikTok. The ads encouraged new sign-ups with offers of bonuses and incentives such as “invite friends and earn BRL 888.00” and “Earn BRL 50.00 for free.”

The provisional measure published on Friday (25) sets a ten-day deadline for the removal of advertisements already in circulation and prohibits any new ads.

On Google, 1,900 betting ads were identified.

“It was not possible to distinguish, within this set, which ads were new and which were already active before the ban,” the ministry’s report states.

Ciberlab announced that it will continue to monitor the platforms to verify compliance with the law and called on big tech companies to take measures to detect pages with concealed identities and masked links.

Meta

On Meta, Ciberlab identified seven ads, two of which began running while the provisional measure was in effect. The document from the Ministry of Justice agency requests that Meta be notified to take down the ads that began running after the provisional measure was published.

“Some ads used page names different from the displayed brands and links whose domain also did not match the advertised brand. The report notes that these elements may indicate concealment of the actual advertiser and the destination of the traffic,” Ciberlab reported.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the actions against the 506 suspicious websites and the monitoring of betting advertisements are part of the “strategy to prevent betting services from continuing through new domains, ads, apps, and other channels in the digital environment.”

Telegram

The Brazilian government’s task force also identified 43 active channels and groups on Telegram promoting and advertising online betting and casino games, with a total of 212,600 members.

The list of these accounts was forwarded on Sunday (27) to the relevant agencies at the Ministries of Finance and Justice “for technical and administrative verification of the operators’ status and the implementation of appropriate measures.”

The government identified promises of “260 percent monthly returns,” offers of betting “bots,” and claims of win rates as high as 99.8 percent.

“This coordinated effort aims to prevent the formal ban on betting from being circumvented by shifting such activities to social media, apps, closed groups, clandestine channels, or platforms hosted outside the country,” the Ministry of Justice said in a statement.

Illegal betting

Following the publication of the provisional measure banning betting, 440 new online betting sites reportedly emerged without registration in Brazil. The data come from the Bet Legal website, maintained by cybersecurity firm Iron Security, which provides services to online bookmakers in Brazil.

This platform began tracking the number of illegal betting sites on September 1 of this year, with the first illegal sites detected on September 21 - four days before the Brazilian government published the measure.

Brazil’s Finance Minister Dario Durigan said Thursday (Sep. 24) that Antônio Carlos Freixo Júnior, known as “Mineiro,” the owner of Entre Investimentos, received money from organized crime. The company has a stake in the financing of Dark Horse, a film that chronicles the life of former President Jair Bolsonaro and which received funding from Banco Master, owned by Daniel Vorcaro.

Today’s operation, the third phase of Operation Carbono Oculto, was launched by São Paulo prosecutors and the Federal Revenue Service.

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“We’re talking about the management company of a business group – the Entre Group – which received money from both Baco Master and organized crime, all into the same pool. Everything indicates that the funds providing liquidity for these operations come from the same entity, from the same pool,” the minister stated in an interview in Brasília.

According to Durigan, the money received by Entre was used for money laundering and bribery.

“We’re talking about the same fund, where money from different sources ended up – whether from Master, organized crime, or individuals who have already entered into plea bargain agreements with the São Paulo Prosecution Service or the Federal Prosecution Service.”

Antônio Carlos Freixo Junior entered into a plea bargain agreement with the Prosecutor-General’s Office regarding the investigations into the Banco Master scandal.