He walked into the president's office and attempted to resume his position.
Melo was voted out 147-5 for attempting to retake control after his May 2024 suspension, including invading the club's headquarters with false legal justification. He joins ex-presidents Andrés Sanchez and Duilio Monteiro Alves in losing membership, both facing separate investigations into misuse of club resources.
- Expelled by vote of 147-5 on June 1, 2026
- Attempted coup in May 2025 after suspension, before formal impeachment finalized
- R$360 million Vai de Bet sponsorship deal under investigation for money laundering
- Three former presidents expelled or resigned within one week
Corinthians' former president Augusto Melo was expelled from club membership after a deliberative council vote found him guilty of attempting a coup to regain power while under impeachment proceedings.
The Corinthians membership council voted overwhelmingly on Monday to expel Augusto Melo, the club's former president, from the organization entirely. The count was 147 in favor, just five opposed. His crime, in the eyes of the deliberative body: attempting a coup to reclaim power while suspended from office.
Melo had been impeached in August 2025, removed after months of scandal surrounding a R$360 million sponsorship deal with Vai de Bet, a betting company. The agreement, signed early in his tenure, included payments to intermediaries that police say were routed through shell companies and diverted to accounts connected to organized crime. In July, he became a defendant in São Paulo state court on charges of money laundering, criminal association, and qualified theft. He denies everything.
But the expulsion vote was not about those criminal allegations. It was about what Melo did in May, after his suspension but before his formal removal was finalized. He orchestrated a political maneuver to try to take back control. Vice President Maria Ocampos of the council presented a document claiming that Romeu Tuma Jr., the council president, had been removed from his post by the ethics committee on April 9. If true, she argued, all proceedings he had conducted since then—including the impeachment vote itself—would be null. Ocampos declared herself council president on that basis. Melo then walked into the president's office, with witness Osmar Stábile present, and attempted to resume his position. The move created chaos inside the club's headquarters. The document Ocampos had presented turned out to be invalid; it had never gone through proper channels. The coup attempt collapsed.
In a statement released before the vote, Melo rejected suggestions that he resign. He insisted there had been no invasion, no wrongdoing. He said the coup allegation had already been dismissed by police and that his accusers offered only accusations, never proof. "I have always respected democracy, the club's bylaws, and its institutions," he wrote. His lawyer, Ricardo Jorge, presented his defense at Monday's meeting. Melo himself did not attend. A group of supporters gathered outside the club's headquarters chanting "Augusto picareta"—Augusto the crook—but the turnout was smaller than the crowd that had assembled a week earlier for the expulsion vote of Andrés Sanchez, another former president.
Sanchez, who had led the club for 16 years before Melo's election in 2023, was expelled on May 25 after investigators found he had spent R$480,169.60 in personal expenses on the club's corporate card. Duilio Monteiro Alves, Sanchez's ally and also under investigation for misuse of club resources, preempted expulsion by resigning his membership and surrendering his lifetime council seat. With Melo's removal, three former presidents have now lost their standing in the organization within a single week.
The Vai de Bet scandal, which triggered Melo's downfall, began in May 2024 when journalist Juca Kfouri brought the story to Vice President Armando Mendonça. The betting company had already terminated the contract in June, but by then the damage was clear. Police concluded that a company called Rede Media Social Ltda, owned by Alex Cassundé and presented as the deal's intermediary, had funneled money through a network of shell companies to UJ Football Talent Intermediação, an account flagged by informant Vinícius Gritzbach as connected to the PCC, São Paulo's largest criminal organization. Gritzbach was shot dead at Guarulhos International Airport in November 2024.
Beyond Melo, six others have been charged in connection with the scheme: two former club executives, Marcelo Mariano and Sérgio Moura; Cassundé; and two men identified as financial operators, Victor Henrique Shimada and Ulisses de Souza Jorge. All deny the charges. The impeachment vote itself took three attempts—Melo obtained an injunction in December that blocked the first vote, and the second was suspended due to security concerns—before finally passing on May 26. The membership assembly that ratified his removal came on August 9. Now, with his expulsion finalized, Melo faces not only the criminal courts but also permanent exile from the institution he once led.
Notable Quotes
I have always respected democracy, the club's bylaws, and its institutions. I trust that the truth will prevail and the facts speak for themselves.— Augusto Melo, in statement before expulsion vote
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did the council need to expel him separately if he was already impeached and removed from office?
Because impeachment removed him from the presidency, but he remained a member of the club—someone with standing, with rights. Expulsion is different. It's permanent banishment from the organization itself. Once you're expelled, you're out entirely.
And the coup attempt—was that a serious threat, or more of a desperate scramble?
It was organized enough to be dangerous. He had a vice president of the council working with him, a document that looked official, and he actually walked into the president's office with a witness present. If that document had held up, it could have unraveled the entire impeachment process. But it fell apart because it hadn't gone through the proper procedures. Still, the fact that he tried it at all showed how far he was willing to go.
The betting company deal—how much money are we actually talking about being diverted?
The contract itself was R$360 million. We don't know the exact amount that was stolen, but police traced payments through shell companies to accounts connected to organized crime. The intermediary company was taking 7 percent of each payment. That's a lot of money moving through hidden channels.
Three former presidents expelled or resigned in one week. Does that suggest the club has a deeper problem?
It suggests the club has been run by people who treated it like a personal business. Sanchez spent club money on himself. Melo signed a deal that funneled money to criminals. When you have that kind of culture at the top, it doesn't fix itself quickly. The expulsions are the club trying to clean house, but the damage goes deep.
What happens to Melo now?
He faces criminal trial. The charges are serious—money laundering, criminal association, qualified theft. He'll argue he's a victim of an illegal process full of procedural violations. But he's also a defendant in a case involving organized crime. The courts will decide.