Brazil's Union Heritage Secretariat (SPU), an agency under the Ministry of Management and Innovation, suspended the patrimonial registrations of four properties linked to lawyer Willer Tomaz on Ilha Comprida in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro. One of the properties is also claimed by Tottenham forward Richarlison.
The measure, announced on November 6, follows an administrative representation filed by federal deputy Tabata Amaral (PSB-SP) and takes into account court-ordered asset freezes already recorded in property registries. The SPU said the suspension aims to restrict potential transfers of possession of areas belonging to the Union while irregularities are investigated.
Irregularities in the 2022 transfer
Documents obtained by O Globo show the SPU is examining a series of procedural gaps in the 2022 authorization that allowed a company linked to Tomaz to occupy the disputed terrain. On July 11, 2022, the company M Locadora de Veículos requested a manual Certificate of Authorization for Transfer (CAT), citing system failure. The certificate was issued 100 minutes later, at 1:13 p.m., and emailed to the company's representative ten minutes after that.
The certificate authorized transfer of rights over 1,435.50 square meters. It noted the company had paid R$ 57,327.19 in laudêmio — a fee paid to the Union for federal land transfers — but was issued without verifying whether the company was current on other obligations to the Union Heritage Secretariat.
Nearly two years later, a civil servant acknowledged that an internal guideline used to justify the special issuance had not been attached to the administrative file. The SPU is also investigating whether the financial regularity assessment required by that internal guideline was ever performed.
Competing claims over the same island
The dispute centers on whether the property Richarlison claims matches the one transferred to Tomaz's company. In September 2021, Sport 70, a company linked to the footballer, requested regularization of a 4,409-square-meter property with 834.36 square meters of built area, stating occupation began in October 2020. The property transferred to Tomaz's company in 2022 was registered at 1,435.50 square meters.
In August 2026, an SPU civil servant noted the documentation from Sport 70 did not allow immediate identification of whether the two registrations referred to the same property. The agency requested technical analysis from its Patrimonial Characterization Service, but as of October 2026 no conclusion had been recorded in the available documents.
Political dimension
The case gained national attention during the 2022 presidential campaign. Then-candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused Tomaz of seizing the player's land and said he would order a Federal Police investigation. Richarlison posted videos on social media accusing Tomaz and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) of working to strip his rights to the property, alleging the dispute began after he refused to sell to the senator.
Tomaz, through his press office, declined to comment. Both Tomaz and Flávio Bolsonaro have previously contested the footballer's allegations. Tomaz maintains that the previous occupants were not the legitimate owners and that he acquired rights from a company already registered with the Union.