The lawyer acting for José Diogo Gaspar Ferreira, the former executive director of the Algarve’s Vale de Lobo resort and latterly one of the defendants in the Operation Marquês case, formally has requested the ‘opening of instruction’ in the court case.
This request is a technical legal move and will focus on certain issues of law - not on the main charges for which Gaspar Ferreira is being accused, namely: the active corruption of a political office holder, money laundering and qualified tax fraud.
In addition to these detailed accusations, the Public Prosecutor's Office also has requested that Ferreira and the company, ‘Vale de Lobo Resort de Luxo e o Oceano Clube - Empreendimentos Turísticos do Algarve,’ be ordered to pay more than €53 million to the State.
Judge Carlos Alexandre ruled that Operation Marquês defendants have until September 3 to request the opening of the investigation - a preliminary stage to the trial used by the accused to defend themselves against the public Prosecutor after which, the investigating judge determines who of the cast of characters will stand trial.
The main defendant is the former Prime Minister, José Sócrates, accused of 31 crimes of passive corruption, falsification of documents, qualified tax fraud and money laundering.
The investigation ended with the indictment of 28 defendants - 19 individuals and nine companies - and revealed almost two hundred economic and financial crimes.
Socrates is charged with three counts of political corruption, 16 of money laundering, nine of forgery of documents and three for tax fraud.
The prosecution claims that Sócrates received €34 million between 2006 and 2015, in exchange for favouring the interests of the now disgraced banker, Ricardo Salgado, for ensuring Caixa Geral de Depósitos was the main lender to the Vale do Lobo project and to favor Lena Group businesses, run by a childhood friend.
Former directors of Portugal Telecom, Henrique Granadeiro and Zeinal Bava, and former minister and director of Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Armando Vara, among others, should provide hours of engaging fantasy when called to the dock.
