Searches in TAP by mismanagement and corruption – Observer

The Judiciary Police (PJ) raided the TAP related to the business of the Portuguese airline in Brazil. TAP bought in 2007 VEM Maintenance and Engineering Company (now called M & E) in a deal which cost the carrier about EUR 500 million. This business is being investigated by prosecutors since 2013.

In a statement, the Attorney General’s Office stated that “these steps have been determined in the context of an investigation led by prosecutors in research in the Central Department Investigation and Penal Action (DCIAP) “and are concerned” practice of suspicions of maladministration crimes, economic participation in business, influence trafficking, aggravated fraud, corruption and money laundering. ” The PGR also confirms that the “facts under investigation are related to the acquisition of the maintenance company VEM business and engineering,” but that “so far, the process has not made defendants.” The Public Prosecution Service is aided by the National Unit for Combating Corruption (UNCC) PJ.

It is the second time that PJ does searches that public company in connection with the business in Brazil. Fernando Pinto, CEO of TAP since 2000, has been heard by many to the Judiciary’s headquarters in 2014.

One of the business aspects under suspicion relates to the payment of a premium 20% to the company Geo Capital , dominated by Chinese businessman Stanley Ho. According to the Economic Daily, quoting in 2014 an audit of the Finance Inspection General, the business conducted by TAP never had the endorsement of Costa Pina , then Secretary of the Treasury.

Soon after being heard in the PJ as a witness, Fernando Pinto said the public who was “consciousness quiet” in relation to the business and ensured that this had been the government’s endorsement of José Sócrates in the person of Lino , then Minister of Public Works with the protection of TAP

Pinto then explained that the purchase of the company M & E (which was called VEM at the time of acquisition) was found after having poured cold water the hypothesis of the national airline to acquire the airline Varig – a company that went bankrupt in the meantime. TAP made the deal in partnership with Geocapital also acquiring the cargo carrier called Varig Log. In total, TAP will have paid, according to Fernando Pinto, a total of about 62 million dollars (54.3 million euros) .

The business will have been supported, according to Fernando Pinto, by Geocapital (which paid about $ 21 million ) and a financing $ 42 million the National Bank for Economic and Social Development. The difference of one million euros on the total amount paid by TAP are concerns, according to CEO of TAP, with the payment of expenses related to lawyers and audits.

The problem, he said Pinto to public, is that the agreement to purchase the M & M stated that if the purchase of Varig failed, TAP was “obliged to acquire part of Geocapital” – with the addition of a 20% premium to the Stanley company Ho. What happened and forced the airline to pay more $ 4.2 million (EUR 3.7 million) to Geocapital

Successive losses of M &. And eventually aggravate this problem first. Only in tax and labor contingencies, TAP has inherited a liability of about 300 million . Fernando Pinto said in 2014 that “a party knew and the other we have created.”

The research is being conducted by the National Unit Against Corruption of the Judicial Police, and the leadership of the criminal investigation belongs to the Department Center of Investigation and Penal Action.