Aniz Abraão David (

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, 7 June 1937), better known as Anísio, is an illegal lottery operator ( bicheiro) and the honorary president of the

samba school A samba school ( pt, Escola de samba) is a dancing, marching, and drumming (Samba Enredo) club. They practice and often perform in a huge square-Compound (enclosure), compounds ("quadras de samba") and are devoted to practicing and exhibiting sam ...

Beija-Flor The Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba Beija-Flor is a Samba school headquartered in the municipality of Nilópolis, Baixada Fluminense, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In total, Beija-Flor has won 14 parades of the Carnaval do Rio d ...

Nilópolis Nilópolis (, , ) is a municipality in Brazil, located in the Rio de Janeiro state's southwestern region, bordering São João de Meriti, Mesquita and Rio de Janeiro. It is the smallest municipality in Rio de Janeiro state, with a total area of ...

. He has been the president of the Independent League of Samba Schools of Rio de Janeiro (LIESA) from 1985-1987.

Bicheiro

Anísio controlled the game in

and the Baixada Fluminense.Violência e narcotráfico no Rio de Janeiro
by Ricardo Veléz Rodrigues He was found guilty by judge Denise Frossard in 1993 of involvement in the Jogo do Bicho, along with 13 other bicho bankers such as

Castor de Andrade Castor Gonçalves de Andrade e Silva (12 February 1926 – 11 April 1997) was a well-known ''bicheiro''A "bicheiro" or "banker" is the mobster who operates the jogo do bicho ("the animal's game"), a popular Brazilian illegal gambling game. in ...

and Capitão Guimarães. They were found responsible for at least 53 deaths. They were sentenced to six years each, the maximum sentence for racketeering.Contraventores já foram condenados há 14 anos
O Globo online, April 13, 2007Brazil's illegal numbers game under pressure
BBC News, January 27, 2012 But in December 1996 they were all back on the streets, granted parole or clemency. His family has significant political power in

. His brother Farid Abraão David was the mayor of the city from 2001 to 2008 and again from 2017 to 2020. One of his nephews, , and a cousin, Simão Sessim, served on the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

.A vaidade de um Rei
, Veja, March 12, 2011Anísio opera e não consegue ouvir a Beija-Flor
, O Dia online, February 21, 2012Biografia Simao Sessim
Câmara dos Deputados

Fixing the 2007 Carnival

Anísio and other bicheiros Antonio Petrus Kalil, or Turcão, and Capitão Guimarães were among 24 people arrested on April 12, 2007, for alleged involvement with illegal numbers games, bingo parlors and the distribution of

slot machines A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively as ...

. Raids by the Federal Police have uncovered big payoffs to judges, police officers, prosecutors and lawyers from the bosses who run the game. Mounds of documents have been seized and US$6 million in cash has been confiscated.Brazil police crack down on gambling
Associated Press, April 13, 2007
The New York Times, June 7, 2007
AFP, March 20, 2012 One of the charges was that bicheiros fixed the results of Rio de Janeiro's 2007 carnival parade. Press reports suggest that Anísio, the president of

that won the competition, used bribes and a hitman to buy and intimidate members of the carnival jury. According to extracts from a federal police report "some individuals who worked as carnival jurors and refused to accept benefits from Anisio were threatened or had their relatives threatened with death if the Beija-Flor school did not win the 2007 carnival".Top criminals fixed Rio carnival result, say police
The Guardian, June 12, 2007

New arrest and conviction

He was released while appealing for a

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

, but arrested again on January 11, 2012, for driving while accompanied by an armed security gang. Police were also investigating him for money-laundering. His detention followed a previous failed attempt in which a police helicopter swooped on his penthouse in Copacabana while he was out. On March 13, 2012, he was sentenced to 48 years in prison and a fine of BRL 11 million (about

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

6 million) for formation of armed gangs, money laundering, smuggling and corruption, together with other ''bicho'' bosses Capitão Guimarães and Antônio Petrus Kalil. The sentence was annulled by the

Supreme Federal Court The Supreme Federal Court ( pt, Supremo Tribunal Federal, , abbreviated STF) is the supreme court (court of last resort) of Brazil, serving primarily as the Constitutional Court of the country. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for consti ...

, but in December 2012 Anísio, Capitão Guimarães, Kalil and 19 others were again convicted by the Criminal Court in Rio de Janeiro. Anísio was sentenced to 47 years and 9 months for conspiracy and corruption. The judge's sentence said that the ''bicheiros criminal organisation had "an intense connection with the state, through the bribing of public officials, including in the police and the judiciary, and even with the political system, through the financing of political campaigns."Rio police get tough on Carnival crime
The Financial Times, February 11, 2013''Na sentença, ela ressalta que o bando, além de corromper inúmeros agentes públicos, dentre eles policiais e magistrados, também financiou campanhas políticas em nível estadual e federal.'' (In the sentence, she

he judge He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

points out that the organisation corrupted numerous public officials, including police and magistrates, and also funded political campaigns at the state and federal level.
Contraventores condenados corrompiam agentes públicos e financiavam campanhas políticas
O Globo, December 11, 2012

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abraao David, Anisio Bicheiros Rio Carnival Living people 1937 births People convicted of money laundering