The defense of Altice co-founder Armando Pereira today criticized the prosecution’s (MP) charge in the trial dubbed “Operação Picoas”, insisting that it is based on a “series of presumptions” and reiterating the businessman’s innocence.
“[Inocente?] Absolutely, I have no doubt about that. The existing indictment is not an indictment, it is a series of presumptions based on fact A, fact B, fact C. This is not a way to charge, it is not a way to say someone is guilty of whatever it is; it’s just building a story. As we say today, a story”, said lawyer Manuel Magalhães e Silva.
Speaking to journalists outside the Central Court of Criminal Instruction (TCIC) in Lisbon, where Armando Pereira was still being questioned this morning, the lawyer recalled that no tax fraud charges had been filed against his client, indicating that they will be continued. suspicions about other people the MP is trying to associate with the co-founder of Altice.
“There is no [indiciação] actually. There are several situations of other people who later, through presumption, build a story, also want to blame Armando Pereira. Look what happened with tax fraud for days. Armando Pereira was found to be responsible to the city and the world for a monumental tax fraud amounting to €250 million and there has been no accusation by the MP of tax fraud against Armando Pereira.” referred.
The attorney explained that the Altice co-founder still needs to clarify “one or two questions after lunch.” However, he stressed that “it was possible to clarify all the elements” attributed to his constituent by the MP and that the hearing ends today, expressing the expectation of a “favorable decision in terms of coercive measure” and that translates into Armando Pereira released after a week of detention.
The co-founder of Altice has been charged with 11 crimes, including six counts of active corruption and one of passive corruption in the private sector, in addition to four counts of money laundering and unquantified crimes of forgery of documents in the ‘Operação Picoas’ trial .
According to the MP’s Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DCIAP), the operation was launched on July 13, which led to three arrests, involving around 90 searches and non-household searches, including the premises of companies and lawyers’ offices in different parts of the country. Hernâni Vaz Antunes was the fourth defendant to be arrested, but this did not happen until the 15th, after he turned himself in to the authorities.
At stake, allegedly, is a “lack of the Altice Group’s decision-making process, in terms of hiring, with practices harmful to that group’s businesses and competition”, pointing to private corruption in the active and passive form. The authorities also point out that the state will have been defrauded in terms of taxation for an amount “of more than 100 million euros”.
The investigation also points to the existence of evidence of “misuse of the reduced tax applied to the IRC headquarters in the free zone of Madeira” through the fictitious tax domicile of people and companies. The MP understands that ‘offshore’ companies have also been used to prosecute the crimes of money laundering and counterfeiting.
During the searches, the DCIAP revealed that documents and items were seized, “such as luxury vehicles and exclusive models with an estimated value of around 20 million euros”.
Source: DN
