The Whistleblower: The Story of J. Hawilla, the Corrupter Devoured by Football Corruption

The labyrinths of a history essential for understanding the advances and ills of our football. José Hawilla, Brazil's biggest sports marketing entrepreneur, with an estimated fortune of R$1.6 billion, was arrested in Miami by FBI agents in 2013. It was the beginning of a surprising saga: to escape a near-certain conviction, the Brazilian decided to become a whistleblower and, more than that, a spy for the US government. The transformation from corruptor to whistleblower would be the second major transformation in Hawilla's life. For decades, the former radio host, born in the interior of São Paulo and transformed overnight into a powerful businessman, lubricated a machine of bribery with sophisticated corruption schemes that diverted millions into the pockets of officials around the world, not to mention his own. Once caught, he imploded his own criminal methods. Over the course of two years, through dozens of interviews and research into thousands of pages of documents, reporters Allan de Abreu and Carlos Petrocilo thoroughly investigated the businessman's life.