Last year around the same time a group of bjj athletes including Thalison Soares aka Little Miyao was scammed out of thousands of dollars.
This time GF Team was in the crosshairs of a fake travel agent. Jaime Canuto, Patrick Gaudio and brown belt Carlos Alberto Oliveira believed they were paying for tickets to travel from Rio de Janeiro to Abu Dhabi and onto Lisbon, Portugal where the Europeans are – were shocked to learn their travel bookings did not exist.
Talking people, in the video I summarize what happened to me @jaimecanutobjj e @patrickgaudiobjj. It was all right to fight the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi and then we would go to Lisbon to fight the IBJJF European Championship. We ended up having problems with the ticket, but I will not give up unfortunately I will not give to fight in Abu Dhabi, but I come through this video I asked for help to buy my ticket to Lisbon to fight the EUROPEAN, who can help me in any way thank you very much. Thank you for understanding ! It will be all right 🙏🏻
Here is the information below!
Economic Caixa
Agency: 1563
Operation: 023
Account: 28451-7
Cpf: 066.667.343-86
Name: Carlos Alberto Oliveira da Silva
Flograppling was first to report on the scam and even got to talk to Canuto and Patrick Gaudio about the events that transpired:
“We fell for a scam,” said Gaudio. “To arrive at the airport and go through this embarrassment… We don’t have sponsors – this money that disappeared was our own.”
“To dedicate yourself like crazy, create expectations for a good performance and that happens… It sucks,” said Canuto.
Believing they were buying tickets from an authorized agent, the athletes were left over $3000 out of pocket each.
“Being a professional athlete in Brazil is hard, as everyone knows, and dealing with bad people makes our journey even more complicated,” said Canuto.