The Public Ministry has listed the bribes accepted by Luís Cunha Ribeiro, the former head of the Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica (INEM) which comes to the aid of the victims of accidents and sudden illness.
The supplier of an apartment in Oporto, another in an upmarket area of Lisbon, cash, an Audi A5, a mobile phone, an iPad and more than €8,000 in travel and accommodation, all were supplied by the head of Octapharma, the supplier of blood plasma to the ambulance and hospital services whcih won tender after tender, despite competition.
In 2000, Luís Cunha Ribeiro was in charge of the immuno-thermotherapy service at São João hospital in Oporto when Paulo Lalanda e Castro, the boss of Octapharma and former boss of José Sócrates, began to reward Ribeiro for his help in making sure public tenders always went Octopharma’s way.
The Swiss company’s largesse continued as Ribeiro effortlessly slotted in to various public positions.
This ensured that Octapharma continued as the exclusive supplier of Octaplas and that the INEM and NHS hospitals somehow always chose products provided by Octapharma.
In July 2000, Ribeiro was given a €300,000 duplex in Oporto with two parking spaces. Next came accommodation in Braancamp Street in Lisbon, in the same building where former the Prime Minister, José Sócrates, lived.
A ficticious ‘rental’ agreement was put in place to make it look like Ribeiro was paying €1,700 a month for the Lisbon property, an agreement that the prosecutor says was ‘fictitious.’
From 2009 to 2013, while Ribeiro was suspended pending inquiries, he enjoyed the continued use of an Audi A5 registered to Intelligent Life Solutions, a company controlled by Lalanda e Castro. Also billed to this company was a Samsung Galaxy phone, a Nokia adapter, an Apple iPad – a total of €1,460.
Lalanda e Castro also provided a credit card so Ribeiro did not have to trouble himself with paying for lunches, dinners and drinks. Then there were the travel expenses, also picked up by the Octapharma boss, including hotel stays in London in January 2009 for €1,449; a few days at Quinta do Lago in March 2009, costing €3,480; a trip to Boston in July 2009; a trip to Milan a year later; a trip to Kyoto in 2011 and a trip to Paris in July 2012, where the accommodation alone cost €2,517.
A further trick was to pay Ribeiro for managing the company that was funding much of his luxury lifestyle. While serving in public office, Luís Cunha Ribeiro took part in the management and business of Intelligent Life Solutions between February 2011 and July 2014, and was well rewarded for his efforts.
Ribeiro also receive cash from bank accounts in the name of various Lalanda and Castro companies, money that he deposited in his own, or family members' bank accounts since at least 2001.
Attorney Ana Paula Vitorino, who is conducting the case at the Central Department of Criminal Investigation, has no doubt that Lalanda e Castro and Cunha Ribeiro tried to eliminate all the evidence relating to these arrangements when an investigation was mounted to look at public tenders for the supply of plasma products that, mysteriously, always went Octapharma’s way.
When the game was up, Intelligent Life Solutions sold the Audi, Ribeiro quit the Lisbon pad and sold the Oporto property to his two children.
Luís Cunha Ribeiro - picture ©cmjournal.pt
