Jessica Andrade is suing her former coach for embezzlement.
The former UFC strawweight world champion filed a lawsuit against Gilliard Parana, the leader of Parana Vale Tudo who acted as both her coach and manager from 2012 to 2024, after he allegedly stole a total of $2 million from her during their time working together.
Currently living in Las Vegas, Andrade has enlisted Matheus Naccache as her new head coach. Now training alongside Karol Rosa, Jessica Delboni, and Denise Gomes—who all left PRVT earlier this year—Andrade is 2-0 since making the switch, defeating Mackenzie Dern and Marina Rodriguez.
A dominant performance is always in the cards for Jessica Andrade 😮💨
She looks to add another one to her resume in the #UFCVegas97 co-main event! pic.twitter.com/KrdTnNp7E5
— UFC (@ufc) September 2, 2024
On September 7, ‘Bate Estaca’ returns to the Octagon for a scrap with streaking flyweight standout Natália Silva.
“We have a lawsuit going about TransferWise and the money that was transferred to other people I’ve never seen in my life,” Andrade told MMA Fighting. “That happened when he was taking care of my finances, and I had no access to anything. At one point he said, ‘Jessica, look, let me handle this for you, you don’t have to worry about any of this.’ And as always, I trusted him. He removed my access to the account. He said, ‘You don’t need to look at your accounts, you’ll have a monthly salary.’ I was making good money in the beginning, but in the end, I don’t know how [that money ran out].
“He said I was shopping too much on Amazon, but with the investigation and all that, [we saw that] I made $2 million and spent $10,000 on Amazon. Where did the rest of the money go? It makes no sense, and it’s being investigated now, and we’ll find out where every penny went. I’ll just wait for now. I’m preparing for this fight [on Saturday], and as soon as it’s over, I’ll look at this lawsuit again and keep it moving
“The lawsuit is moving in the United States and he’s in Brazil, so I don’t know how it’s going to work. He was quite smart, he left before things happened.”
Closing in on her 39th career fight, Andrade feels like she should be planning for retirement. Instead, she has no choice but to continue fighting.
“I could be thinking about retiring now, right?” Andrade said. “In fact, I’ll have to keep fighting to make that money again and have a normal life. But it’s all good, God knows of all things. Sometimes we have to go down so we can get back up better. I’m ready to receive what God has for my life. God won’t ever let me give up.”
Fortunately, Andrade’s finances are now under control and she’s not hurting for money. Parana, on the other hand, returned to Brazil after his split with Andrade and has since announced his retirement as an MMA coach and manager.
“I can sleep at night knowing I’ve done good things to everybody, never did anything bad to anyone,” Andrade said. “What he’s taken from me, that’s all he’s ever going to have, because he’s lost all his athletes, he’s lost everything. The only thing he still has is the gym in Curitiba, which he opened with my money, and that’s all he’s going to have for the rest of his life.”
Parana Has Denied the Allegations Levied Against Him by Jessica Andrade
In a statement to MMA Fighting, Parana denied all allegations is remains confident that the truth will come out in a court of law.
“Anyone who has a brain and knows how to do math will see that she really doesn’t spend her money on just a few purchases on Amazon,” Parana said. “She has a lot of expenses, and there are so many that she even gets lost in the calculations. Jessica is not incapable. Jessica is not a 15-year-old girl. And Jessica is not illiterate. Jessica was never forbidden from going to the bank, from calling the bank and from finding out how her accounts were.
“Jessica always had full access to her things and was always intelligent enough to know everything that happened in her financial life. And I was never the guy who took care of her financial life. I was just her advisor when she needed it and asked for it. But all of this will be proven if there is a coherent investigation. May justice be served and may the wrongdoer pay, because lying to the authorities and lying to have a trial go your favor is also a crime. Let’s wait and see what happens.”
Check out some of Jessica Andrade’s greatest finishes inside the Octagon below:
