Decision of the Court of Justice of the Federal District states that the church acted with blindness by accepting million-dollar donations without seeking information about their origin

Church was ordered to return funds to investor of financial pyramid.

Judges of the 4th Civil Chamber of the Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories (TJDFT) annulled the donation of amounts sent by Glaidson Acácio dos Santos (the Bitcoin Pharaoh) to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

The donation of R$ 72 million made by Glaidson occurred when he was raising funds from Brazilian cryptocurrency investors, with a company called GAS Consulting. A former pastor of the church, he would have donated the amounts as a form of gratitude for the past.

However, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God itself has already sued him to ask for the origin of the amounts sent. Even so, the justice of the Brazilian capital ordered the return of everything in a decision made on August 8, reported by Livecoins.

Court decision against the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God orders the return of R$ 150,000 to the investor harmed by the Bitcoin Pharaoh.

The case originated from a lawsuit filed by an investor against the person responsible for the scheme and his companies, in addition to the Universal Church. The plaintiff invested R$ 150,000 in a supposed crypto-asset business that turned out to be a fraudulent financial pyramid scheme. During the investigations, it was discovered that the scammer had donated more than R$ 72 million to the Universal Church, funds that originated from illegal activities.

The religious institution acknowledged receiving the donations but claimed to be unaware of their criminal origin. In the first instance, the judge of the 1st Civil Court of Sobradinho ruled the request against the Universal Church to be unfounded, as he understood that there was no evidence of its participation in the fraudulent scheme. The sentence condemned only the scammer and his companies to refund the invested amount but exempted the religious institution from any responsibility. The investor appealed the decision, alleging that the church acted with 'deliberate blindness' by accepting million-dollar donations without adequately questioning their origin.

The rapporteur of the appeal applied the theory of 'deliberate blindness' to the case, according to which 'intentional ignorance about the unlawfulness and seriousness of the case cannot eliminate responsibility'.

According to the judge, the Universal Church should have suspected the origin of the funds, considering that these were extraordinary donations made by a resident of Cabo Frio, a tourist city, where it is not common for someone to become wealthy quickly in a legal manner.

The panel understood that the institution pretended not to notice the situation of illegality to gain financial advantage. The judges declared the donations null due to their illegal object, based on Article 166 of the Civil Code, which establishes the nullity of legal transactions with an illegal object. The decision determined that the Universal Church must refund the investor the proportion corresponding to the amount he lost in the scheme, based on the total amount of donations received. Judges annul donations made by the Bitcoin Pharaoh to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (Reproduction/Access by Livecoins on August 15, 2025).Article with information from TJDFT.