Laure Brillaud, in charge of the department against money-laundering at Transparency International, told Lusa in an interview that the organisation has also noticed that the department in charge of attributing these visas did not have enough staff and that the scheme promised a visa "between three and six months."

Brillaud was in Paris on Wednesday to take part in a debate at the Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on how to mitigate abuses surrounding "golden visas" issued in return for investors transferring capital into the country.

Transparency International said that in terms of verifications and controls, Portuguese legislation only forces it to look at a person's criminal record, which it said was "not enough."