Operação Penalidade Máxima (literally Operation Maximum Penalty), is an ongoing Brazilian football match-fixing scandal investigation being performed by the Public Ministry of Goiás.
It was also carried out by the Public Ministry of Goiás (MPGO), through the Special Action Group to Combat Organized Crime (Gaeco) and the Coordination of Institutional Security and Intelligence (CSI).
[3] The action aims to obtain new evidence on the manipulation of results of professional football matches – including the 2022 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A.
[5] Initially, four players admitted their involvement with the match-fixing scandal, and were not indicted: Kevin Lomónaco (Red Bull Bragantino), Moraes (at the time at Juventude), Nikolas Farias (Novo Hamburgo) and Jarro Pedroso (Inter de Santa Maria).
[9] The following players had the complaint of manipulation accepted by the Public Ministry:[6] On 29 May 2023, the Superior Tribunal de Justiça Desportiva [pt] (STJD) banned Romário permanently from football, aside from receiving a R$ 25,000 fine, while his former teammate Gabriel Domingos was banned for 720 days and received a R$ 15,000 fine; both became the first players to be judged in the investigation.