In a statement, the PJ said its National Unit for Combating Corruption (UNCC), as part of an inquiry launched by the Lisbon Public Prosecutor’s office, detained six employees of the Social Security Client Management Bureau, and six foreign citizens from southwest Asian countries, as part of ‘Operation Social’.
“The arrests were made on suspicion of the possible practice of crimes of passive and active corruption, for unlawful acts, abuse of power, falsification of information and falsification of documents”, the PJ elaborated, adding 48 searches – 26 domiciliary and 22 non-domiciliary – involving 130 officers, were also carried out.
Documents and material relating to criminal activity were seized plus €50,000 in cash.
According to the PJ, the set-up’s modus operandi consisted of “the manipulation of the Social Security’s IT system, by creating and altering records in the database, giving fraudulent social security numbers to foreign nationals in exchange for handouts, to the amount of hundreds of thousands of euros.”
Subsequent reports elaborated that many of the illegal immigrants legalised via this scheme came from countries such as Pakistan, which should otherwise trigger a red flag in terms of risk of terrorism, as well as India and Bangladesh.
“In practice, the scheme detected by the PJ involves Social Security officials, in exchange for thousands of euros for each of the hundreds of situations they have already dispatched, assigning Social Security identification numbers (NISS) to illegal immigrants who have never worked in Portugal, as if they were employed here, with valid employment contracts and current taxes.
“The aim was to allow these immigrants, after having been able to enter Portugal and the Schengen area with tourist visas, to stay and to travel around Europe, deceiving the authorities - in particular the SEF [Portugal’s Immigration and Borders authority] - displaying a Social Security Identification Number as if they were legalised immigrants”, newspaper Correio da Manhã explained.