According to the prosecution, the defendant, who performed various functions from client manager to head of branch and commercial coordinator, is accused of a crime of abuse of qualified trust and another of forgery of documents.
The wife of the ex-bank employee who unilaterally terminated her employment contract in 2011, is also accused in the same process of a crime of continuous receipt, because she would have known about the scheme and would also have benefited from the money taken from the accounts.
The investigation began with the complaint of a couple of BCP customers who operated a pastry shop in Montemor-o-Velho, reporting that for several years movements were made in their bank accounts without their authorisation.
During this period, the defendant, who the offended had known since 1994 when they opened their first account at that bank, was always the manager of their bank accounts.
According to the prosecution of the MP, between 2000 and 2011, the defendant withdrew at least €619,000 from these bank accounts, through debit movements, crediting the monetary values ??in his account and that of his wife or parents.
The MP also says that the defendant kept a provision for the accounts held by the offended parties, so that they did not realiae that they had balances that were much lower than they should have presented, proceeding with several credit movements through transfers from accounts of other bank customers, or through cash-advance transactions and promissory notes.
According to the investigation, with this action the defendant moved monetary values ??that amounted to €1.7 million, having appropriated directly for himself and his wife €423,000.
The pastry shop owners say that they have accumulated debts to suppliers, banks, workers, Social Security and Tax Authorities, eventually leading to the disposal of all personal assets, the company and the business and, currently, they live with the help of family and friends.
If the case José Sócrates, albeit in a much larger scale, is taken as a precedent of similar corruption crimes this defendent (whose name is a mystery) will walk free very soon to join Sócrates jogging along some beautiful Portuguese beach! This “unknown” gentleman diverted “only” 1,7 million euros! Sócrates after an already fraudulent life pocketed more than 23 million euros for unknown services rendered to ghost criminals! These cases are so complex and mysterious that nobody is able to see what really happened because they are entrained in the dark mosaic of many Portuguese institutions! What a shame! In fact, the ultimate responsible people don’t want to know and the cases are eventually dismissed and folded due to technicalities! Note that by 2001-2002 Sócrates had already a very interesting CV full of opaque events and frauds but regardless he was gloriously and arrogantly occupying important positions as Minister of the Environment and Minister of Social Infrastructure in António Guterres’ government!
By Tony Fernandes from Other on 25 Feb 2020, 03:32
We had a similar situation with a BES manager allowing a large transfer of monies form our account. when challenged his bosses moved him to another branch and covered up their issue. And we lost monies. The view we have on the Portuguese bank system is it is corrupt!!
By dudley from UK on 26 Feb 2020, 20:01