The office of Portugal’s attorney-general confirmed that Carlos Gomes da Silva had been made an ‘arguido’ or person of interest by public prosecutors, as reported earlier in last Friday’s edition of Jornal de Negócios, which also said that Galp’s director, with responsibility for renewables and corporate services, Carlos Costa Pina, was also under investigation.
That brings the total number of defendants in the case to seven, the newspaper said.
The probe into the paid trips for government officials began in August last year, after Sábado magazine reported that the then secretary of state for fiscal affairs, Fernando Rocha Andrade, had travelled to Lyon on 22 June at Galp’s invitation to see Portugal play Hungary.
On 31 July this year, the Galp chief executive said that clearing up the circumstances of officials being taken to see Euro 2016 games “is in the interest of all” and that the company had “observed the law”. He also said that Galp had not been made an arguido.
Earlier, on 10 July, Galp had said that offering trips to government officials was “traditional practice” on the part of official corporate sponsors of the national team, as it was for Euro 2016, and that they “had no other objective than supporting the National Squad”. It said that the payment of flights, meals and tickets to games “was carried out in conformity with the law” and that this was done “without any secrecy or social treatment” and without any expectation of any benefits in return.
As well as Rocha Andrade, public prosecutors have already declared the then secretaries of state for internationalisation, Jorge Costa Oliveira, and of industry, João Vasconcelos, persons of interest. The two men both resigned from the government on 9 July.
The crimes under investigation are “undue receipt of advantage by government officials in the exercise of their functions.” If found guilty, they could face a prison sentence of one to five years.
The law covering such crimes does exclude “socially appropriate conduct in line with custom”.