Grupo Espírito Santo has used a secret financial company to pay unknown people undisclosed sums totalling an estimated €300 million in the past 10 years.
These covert payments were made through a mysterious company called Espírito Santo Enterprise which handled hundreds of millions of euros and which only now may be investigated by the judicial authorities.
‘Try the Mediterranean diet in the Algarve" is the motto of the Algarve Tourist Board’s latest campaign currently running in the press, on radio and on billboards all over Portugal and in selected parts of Spain.
The tourist board is building on the publicity generated by the Mediterranean diet after it became a UNESCO registered ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ product based on a successful application from Tavira.
The Algarve’s very own André Jordan, founder of Quinta do Lago and other major tourism developmEnt, has been recognised at the World Travel Leaders Awards for 2014 for his contribution to the development of tourism in the region.
The award was given to a delighted Jordan at the 35th Tourism World Travel Market event in London where he was hailed as one of the dozen most influential people in tourism in the world.
Spain’s Princess Cristina appears to be one step closer to having to appear before a judge.
The high court in Palma de Mallorca upheld tax fraud charges against her, but dropped money-laundering charges as part of an investigation into the business dealings of her husband Inaki Urdangarin.
Police are looking into the discovery of a female contract worker at the Cruz de Parteira Continente supermarket in Portimão found crushed to death inside used package-compacting machine behind the store.
The member of the supermarket’s Vadeca contract cleaning team had been reported missing and suspicions were raised when a member of staff found a pair of woman’s shoes near the powerful crusher.
Militant jihadists are said to be travelling on cruise ships to get to areas of conflict in the Middle East.
Interpol said that increasingly people trying to reach militant groups were resorting to take cruise liners to get to countries such as Turkey.
This year’s Municipal Transparency Index was released today and makes saddening reading for residents of Castro Marim, Silves, Alcoutim, Lagos and Aljezur which have scored poorly against their municipal colleagues countrywide.
Loulé ranks number 18 in the country and leads the Algarve councils in its openness and accountability in its dealings with ratepayers who many Algarve councils still see as the enemy, deserving the ‘mushroom treatment’ and kept at bay.
The Partido Socialista opposition in Faro’s council said today that mayor Rogério Bacalhau has displayed "inability and a lack of political influence" for allowing the council to lose out on financing for the construction of a new bridge to Faro Island.
"Statements by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Paulo Lemos, have revealed the incompetence of the right-wing coalition in Faro council and of the government," according to a harsh and critical statement from the opposition.
