Rodrigo Antunes / Lusa
The investigation that has started for over a decade to Montepio’s complex business web will be in the final phase. The schemes will have injured the bank and the more than 620 thousand associates.
The Public Prosecution Service and the Judiciary Police are in the final phase of a complex and extensive investigation, which began about 10 years ago, involving former responsible for Montepio Group and roots with roots in Angola, Cape Verde and Portugal. The focus is on alleged fraudulent financing schemeslaundering of capital and hazardous connections between bankers, entrepreneurs and institutional clients.
Among the defendants are names such as Tomás Correia, former president of Montepio and the mutualist association, businessman José Guilherme (deceased in 2023), and Mario Palhares, former deputy governor of the National Bank of Angola.
The investigation points to schemes elaborated for raise about 30 million euros Through the sale of Montepio Participation Units (UP), at the end of 2013, at a time when the bank faced serious financial difficulties during the intervention of Troika in Portugal.
With no possibility of issuing shares, Montepio resorted to the issuance of UP to reinforce their own funds, in an operation considered risky by Banco de Portugal and advised against Deco. The solution found will have undergone Angolan investors linked to the Guilherme family, supported by Finibanco Angola, then belonging to the Montepio group. According to the investigators, those involved They will not have mobilized their own fundsbeing the financing covered through internal schemes, reports the.
The “brain” of the operation was António Pontes, executive president of Finibanco Angola, with the collaboration of Luís Almeida, considered by PJ as the link between Tomás Correia and the Guilherme clan. The authorities have analyzed thousands of documents, listening and testimonies, and believe that the scheme will have injured the bank and its more than 620 thousand members.
Among the assets attributed to Tomás Correia are a yacht called “Great Amalia”, luxury properties, cars and a luxurious lifestyle, supported by salaries and pensions that totaled About 20 thousand euros monthly. To maintain this pattern, it would be essential to conserve the group’s leadership, reports point out.
A day before the UP ownership, Finibanco Angola also pledged to pay almost $ 99 million for an unfinished property in Luanda, supposedly to install the bank’s headquarters. Investigators suspect that this transaction only served to inject liquidity into Paulo Guilherme’s accounts, as the value, area and need of headquarters were disproportionate to the dimension of the bank.
The contract was revoked in 2016, after the fall of Tomás Correia, but even so Business continued without explanations. Internally, even the Finibanco CEO Angola considered him “clearly excessive.”
Between 2009 and 2020, about 280 million euros were moved in a BNI Europa account at CGD, highlighting transfers of more than 1 million euros. Part of these amounts were transferred to accounts of figures such as José Guilherme, Paulo Guilherme, Eurico Brito and Lebanese businessman Wissam there, through triangular operations between Angola, Cape Verde and Portugal. Authorities suspect that part of this money has arrived in Portugal in cash, transported in the private jet by Mario Palhares.
Documents do not specify exactly how much money that would have been taken on bags on the plane or when this transportation happened, saying it was “possible to censize a set of indications that point out that it has been going on (and/or has been taking place since 2009) a regular air transportation flow using private plane originated in Angola and destination – or intermediate stage in Cape Verde – to Portugal, from cash (currency). ”
