The Public Prosecutor’s Office has already deducted the charge from the investigation that investigated suspicions of corruption in the Ministry of Defence, involving officials from the Ministry and companies. The order was completed on the 10th and sent to the defendants.
Under 73 accused of the current investigation, which commissioned the National Anti-Corruption Unit to conduct the investigation, they are Albert Colehothe former director of MDN’s even more powerful procurement and service management structure, the Directorate General of National Defense Resources (due to the merger of the Directorate-General for Personnel and Military Recruitment with the Directorate-General for Armaments and Defense Infrastructure); Paul Branko, director of financial management services; It is Francisco Marquis, director of infrastructure and heritage services. Both were chosen by Alberto Coelho.
The main crimes supporting the accusation are the active and passive corruption, embezzlement, money laundering and forgery of documents.
In addition to the three directors already mentioned, there are also accused four other MDN employees, 36 businessmen and relatives, as well as 30 companies.
Albert Coleho is accused three crimes of passive corruption, one of money laundering, two of embezzlement and one of document forgery. You have received at least one Audi worth 39,500; garden furniture worth 1177 euros, renovation works worth 13 thousand euros.; two televisions and a screen print.
Paul Branko is accused five crimes of passive corruption, two of money laundering and four of document forgery. It will have been affected by renovation work on a house in Comporta, worth 92 thousand euros; household appliances worth € 3,600; cash of about 150 thousand euros.
Francis Marcuss is accused four crimes of passive corruption, two of money laundering and two of document forgery. You get 28,500 euros for favoring companies to buy Audi; renovation work on your home worth 12,700 euros; 170 thousand euros in cash.
Dinners, hotel stays and trips, Pêra Manca winescomputer equipment is also on the list of values that the MP says has been used to corrupt the leaders of the MDN.
The OM has demanded an accomplice penalty for all six MDN employees who are still active (Coelho is retired).
still condemn Alberto Coelho pays the state about 86 thousand euross, what he believes he has received in terms of benefits; Paulo Branco has to pay 415 thousand euros; Francisco Marques, about 270 thousand; you entrepreneurs 634 thousandcorresponding to the values they have misappropriated.
Cravinho mandate with most cases
The time frame of the study mainly focused on the period between 2018 and 2021 – most of it in 2020, during the period when João Gomes Cravinho was defense minister.
The research found that this year alone, about 30 of the nearly five dozen suspicious awards, worth more than five million euros, were made between 2019 and 2021.
With extensive wiretapping, surveillance and close scrutiny of the bank accounts of those involved, the MP and the UNCC were able to establish connections, which the investigation deemed criminal, between senior MDN employees and the companies.
Works not performed, materials paid for and not delivered, works carried out by companies other than contracted companies, fictitious proposals, paid demolition works that did not take place, unwritten contracts and the usual splitting of costs to avoid tenders are among the list of cases described in the indictment.
As DN reported, it was the commitment to refurbish the Military Hospital of Belém (HMB), and a drop from 750 thousand to 3.2 million euros, that further advanced the investigation, with Alberto Coelho at the helm and for whose proven irregularities he has already been sentenced by the Court of Auditors (TdC) to pay a fine of 15,300 euros.
Alberto Coelho, wax one of the oldest boards on MDNwas made during the mandate of the Minister Aguiar-Branco (PSD/CDS-PP Government), in January 2015, a position he held until February 2021, when he was already under suspicion.
This former director general is one known militant of the CDS-PPchaired the CDS Jurisdiction Council, a position he held for six years (until 2021) and was a member.
In 1980 he served with the General Staff of the Armed Forces (EMGFA) and in 1992 he was transferred to the General Directorate of Personnel and Infrastructure of the Ministry of Defence.
below pressure from parliament because of the controversial slip, the former defense minister João Gomes Cravinho did not fail to defend his director generalnoting that he has made “enormous contributions to the ministry, which will always be indebted to him”, classifying him as a “highly qualified and able individual”.
It should be remembered that at that time an internal audit by the MDN attributed responsibility for the massive derailment to Alberto Coelho.
As proof of trust Gomes Cravinho endorsed Alberto’s appointment Coelho for Chairman of the Board of Directors of ETI (EMPORDEF – Tecnologias de Informação, SA), a company belonging to the holding company IdD Portugal Defense.
Updated
Source: DN
