One of the largest money laundering and tax fraud networks ever detected in Portugal, based at the Montenegro Chaves currency exchange in Lisbon, should soon be in court but most of the defendants are expected simply to pay a fine and walk free.Francisco Canas, aka 'Zé das Medalhas,' was the main defendant in the case. He died in 2017 but investigators had already started trawling through a long list of his clients.
The Public Prosecutor's Office is keen to get the court case started but will not be best pleased to see more than 40 of those charged walk free if they pay all tax due on the laundered amounts.
The deadline for producing the indictment has been brought forward as long delays already have dogged the case, mainly due to investigators being moved to the even bigger, Operation Marquês.
The prosecution’s case focuses on the list of Francisco Canas’ customers at his money exchange shop in Lisboin. Canas acted as an intermediary for three former UBS managers, who sent funds abroad via the wealth management company, Akoya.
Among the clients were Duarte Lima – already charged with fraud and murder in other cases, the former Benfica president Manuel Vilarinho and José Carlos Gonçalves, a builder.
Francisco Canas would use his accounts at BPN Caper Verde and BCP in Portugal to shuffle his clients' money between Portugal and Switzerland. Some clients travelled to the money exchange outset in Lisbon’s Baixa area with bags of cash to be laundered.
The wealth management company involved in this large scale money laundering operation, Akoya, was owned 22.5% each by our old friends the former BES-Angola chief, Álvaro Sobrinho and for ESCOM oppo, Hélder Bataglia.
Failed banker, Ricardo Salgado, was one of Akoya's clients but is being left off the Monte Branco list of the accused as his money laundering activities are included in another fraud case in which he is the main suspect.
The first arrestes were on May 18, 2012, former UBS managers Michel Canals, José Pinto and Nicolas Figueiredo were nabbed in Porto when they were to take part in a golf tournament. The operation had the collaboration of the GNR and the tax inspectorates of Porto and Braga but after nearly six years has yet to come to court.
