Suspicious payments to former leader of the Montepio – Observer

The suspicions of a payment of 1.5 million euros, allegedly done by the builder José Guilherme, have been the basis for the Public Prosecutor to have charged António Tomás Correia, former president of Caixa Económica Montepio geral. The information is advanced this Saturday by the Newspaper Expresso.

according To the newspaper, José Guilherme, the builder of the Amateur that was known to have offered a "donation" of 14 million euros for Ricardo Salgado, the transfer may be linked to the loans granted by Montepio geral and Banco Espirito Santo for the purchase and development of the Marconi Park, in Alfragide. At stake are loans of € 74 million made to the real estate investment fund Invesfundo that he purchased the 50-acre Park Marconi at the end of 2005, the year in which Thomas Belt was an administrator of Montepio, which only came to president in 2008. This fund was managed by a company of the Espirito Santo Group. The transfer under suspicion took place between 2006 and 2007.

investigations to the former banker, who still leads the Associação Mutualista Montepio, arise in the context of a survey of DCIAP (Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action) about fraud qualified, breach of trust, tax fraud, money laundering, and possible corruption, according to a press release already issued by the Public Prosecutor. In this survey, were formed two defendants.

the suspect, account the Express, are transfers made from accounts of the UBS bank, which are owned by offshores, whose final beneficiaries will be José Guilherme, and of the son. Paulo Guilherme was one of the investors in the units issued by Montepio in 2013 that further strengthen the capital of caixa económica,

In statements to the Express, the spokesman António Tomás Correia away any commercial relationship with any customer of the bank and denied having received any transfer of customers in banks in Switzerland. The manager has ceased to be the president of caixa economica in 2015.

In a recent interview with the Saturday, when asked about the investigations of justice, Tomás Correia Tomás said to be "absolutely quiet", refusing however to give more information about the loan in question, because of the banking secrecy. .

The newspaper was unable to contact José Guilherme, who lives in Angola.