Brazil Fraudsters Created 'phantom Athletes' In Scam

Brazilian fraudsters invented Olympic "phantom athletes" in a scam to get state sports subsidies, police

BRASMLIA, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Aug, 2017 ) - Brazilian fraudsters invented Olympic "phantom athletes" in a scam to get state sports subsidies, police said Friday. The crooks applied to receive money from the 2014 Olympic host country's Sports Fund for non-existent athletes whose profiles they had created.

"Over a year, the criminal gang created 25 phantom athletes, including high-performance and Olympic-level ones," the Federal police said in a statement. The fraud was committed in 2012 and according to the sports ministry it could have amounted to the equivalent of about a million reais ($315,000), it said.

Police have arrested six people who will go before a federal judge and seized documents and other evidence. Brazil has been suffering a much broader corruption scandal linked to state oil firm Petrobras.

That affair has led to countless politicians and executives being jailed. Some of the recent wave of corruption cases involved construction projects for the 2014 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.