Duarte Lima will have to meet three years and four months in prison – Daily News – Lisbon

All defendants in the case were sentenced, except for Pedro Lima, son of the former deputy PSD

only the Constitutional Court can save Duarte Lima, former Member of the PSD, of serving a jail for the crimes of aggravated fraud and money laundering. Yesterday, the Lisbon Court of Relationship confirmed the convictions of Homeland case of defendants in the first instance, reducing, however, the penalties. The judges judges Rui Rangel and Francisco Caramelo condemned Duarte Lima six years of effective imprisonment, and these will have to be discounted two years and six months in which former PSD deputy was in preventive and house arrest.

the defense of the former social Democratic parliamentary leader has ten days to file an appeal to the Constitutional Court. This hardly interfere with shame because you only have to do with questions of interpretation of the law. So yesterday, nor his lawyer, Raul Soares da Veiga, or defenders of the remaining defendants convicted were present at the Court of Appeal of Lisbon. They avoided thus be notified of the decision at the same time that the deadline to file an appeal or raise nothings just start counting Monday. As only this day is to receive the judgment, earn 24 hours to prepare for possible reactions. It should be noted that Duarte Lima, according to the law, may not appeal to the Supreme Court

In addition to Duarte Lima, the judges judges condemned his former partner Victor Raposo to four years of effective imprisonment. Francisco Canas, also suspected in the Mont Blanc process, was sentenced to three years of effective prison for money laundering. Lawyers John and Peter de Almeida Paiva were sentenced to one year in prison, suspended on payment of 15,000 euros to the Portuguese Institute of Oncology (IPO), and two years imprisonment, suspended after the payment of 10 thousand euros also to IPO respectively. Pedro Lima, son of Duarte Lima was acquitted at first instance and the prosecutor did not appeal the decision.

Burla BPN

In the end, the judges ratio confirmed the lower court decision that Lima Duarte and his former partner defrauded BPN, a process that became known as case Homeland. In 2007, the year in which a real estate fund was created by the BPN, called precisely Homeland, Victor Raposo and Pedro Lima appeared as holders of units. BPN was 15% of the fund, amounting to EUR 1.5 million. Vítor Raposo and Pedro Lima had each of 4.2 million euros. The real estate fund had access to credit from BPN and that’s what he did. Defendants contracted a loan of 40 million euros from the bank. But in 2008 it was nationalized. And the real estate fell.

The fund requested this loan to purchase land in Oeiras that would be contiguous to what would be the future Portuguese Institute of Oncology. Neither the institute was to Oeiras, nor the fund Homeland used and paid the credit.

The fund also bought 44 hectares at Red Mill for five million, being written in the contract that the price would be 20 million euros , not in the agreement of knowledge of BPN.

the credit was unpaid and claimed the prosecution at trial, the usual guarantees were not provided. 40 million do not know where it was. But the research were detected exchanges of checks involving Francisco Canas, better known as Zé Medals and that, in the Mont Blanc already facilitated that money was transferred to Switzerland.

Duarte Lima was arrested in November 2011, having been in custody who later became his residence. In April 2014, the court lifted the measure of coercion to the former Member of the PSD which was released by the end of the trial. However, the main proceedings linked to BPN, which relates to the bank’s management, now in its fifth year of trial.