According to reports, the lawyer is suspected of committing qualified fraud and money laundering, by using clients’ money meant for the payment of State debts.
In a statement, the PJ said lawyer, Libertário Teixeira,50, from Tavira, used the guise of his profession to “receive from clients the sum of approximately €445,000 to pay debts to the Tax Authority and Social Security” given to him after he convinced clients that he had obtained debt reduction agreements with them.
“Once in possession of the above amount, the defendant pocketed it for his own benefit and ran it through several bank accounts, in order to conceal its source”, the statement
explained.
The Faro Public Prosecutor’s Office indicated on its website that the lawyer is suspected of having misled two clients of South African nationality, in 2015 and 2016, “inducing in error the victims to transfer monetary sums to the lawyer of over €400,000.
“In addition, it is suspected that the defendant will also have used bank movements between several accounts to conceal the provenance of various amounts and their illegitimate benefit”, the Public Prosecutor said.
These clients are, according to newspaper Correio da Manhã, South African adult movie maker, Viv Thomas, 69, and his wife, Avril, who live in the Algarve and who were told by the lawyer that the amount they gave him would be used to “regulate” company debts.