What is being investigated?

The operation is investigating some favours, given through public contracts, to members of the Socialist Party (PS) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), involving mayors of Lisbon parish councils. The MP also says that officials and businessmen from these institutions are also involved in the case.

The investigation began with an anonymous complaint made in 2015 on the complaints portal of the Procuradoria-Geral da República (PGR). During the investigation, there were even suspicions of possible exchanges of favours between PS and PSD members, working in different parishes.

The 60 defendants are now charged with 463 offences of active and passive corruption, malfeasance, influence peddling, money laundering, qualified fraud, document forgery, abuse of power and undue receipt of an advantage.

Who are the accused?

The list of 60 accused includes 13 personalities of some importance in the Parish Councils where they hold office. Among the 60 are current and former chairmen of various parish councils, as well as some councillors.

At issue, for example, are the current president of the Santo António Parish Council, Vasco Morgado, who is accused of 27 offences. As well as his counterparts in Areeiro and Penha da França, the latter belonging to the PS, while the others are serving in the PSD.

Fernando Braamcamp, head of the Areeiro Parish Council, has the most crimes to answer for, totalling 39.

Ângelo Pereira, a PSD councillor for Lisbon City Council, is also charged with the offence of unduly receiving an advantage, having had a trip to China paid for when he was still a councillor in Oeiras. Inês Drummond, a PS councillor, has also been indicted for crimes of malfeasance, while in office at Benfica Parish Council, for awarding a contract to the company Ambigold.

Relationships with the same building construction company were also found between José Guilherme Aguiar, current PS councillor on Vila Nova de Gaia City Council. There was also evidence of relations between Ambigold and Carlos Eduardo Reis, a current member of the Portuguese Parliament, who will suspend his mandate at the end of February.

Will the politicians in question lose their mandates?

According to the indictment drawn up by the MP, “the defendants Sérgio Azevedo, Rodrigo Gonçalves, Vasco Morgado, Nuno Firmo, Luís Newton, Ângelo Pereira, Fernando Braamcamp, Ameetkumar Subhaschandra, Patrícia Brito Leitão, Rodolfo de Castro Pimenta, Ana Sofia Oliveira Dias, Inês de Drummond and José Guilherme Aguiar committed the acts of which they are accused in the exercise of their municipal mandate, using their respective positions to satisfy private interests to the detriment of the public interest, in serious breach of the duties inherent in their functions as mayors.”

In view of the facts presented, the MP adds that “in the event of a conviction, the loss of the mandates relating to political positions of an elective nature that they are actually holding should be declared, without prejudice to the declaration of ineligibility in electoral acts.”

In addition to the suspension of their mandates, the MP expects the amounts seized to be declared by some of the defendants. In other words, the money that was improperly taken from the State coffers will have to be repaid by the political members who were accused.

How much money did the state lose?

According to the MP, the Portuguese State lost more than €580,000 as a result of the offences committed by 29 of the accused. According to the same institution, “the defendants obtained undue patrimonial advantages, for themselves and for third parties, at the expense of the public purse, directly resulting from the commission of the offences.” In view of the facts, restitution of the amounts lost in favour of the state is ordered.

Author

Deeply in love with music and with a guilty pleasure in criminal cases, Bruno G. Santos decided to study Journalism and Communication, hoping to combine both passions into writing. The journalist is also a passionate traveller who likes to write about other cultures and discover the various hidden gems from Portugal and the world. Press card: 8463. 

Bruno G. Santos