António Pedro Santos / Lusa
The Secretary General of the Socialist Party, Pedro Nuno Santos
At issue are suspected of harmful administration, abuse of power and improper receipt of advantage in the case of compensation of 500 thousand euros pays to Alexandra Reis and authorized by Pedro Nuno Santos.
The Public Prosecution Service (MP) is investigating Pedro Nuno Santos under the inquiry compensation of 500 thousand euros pays for TAP Alexandra Reis, in 2022.
The Judicial Police (PJ) conducted this Wednesday searches at the General Secretariat of the Government, aiming Seize emails exchanged between the then infrastructure minister and the Secretary of State Hugo Mendes, who had the protection of aviation.
According to the, at issue, they are suspected of harmful administration crimesimproper receipt or offer of advantage, economic participation in business and abuse of power. The General Inspection of Finance (IGF) had already considered illegal compensation, concluding that it violated the statute of the public manager.
The seizure of electronic correspondence seeks to clarify the process that led to the political decision to attribute compensation. Pedro Nuno approved the payment Through a message on WhatsApp after his Secretary of State Hugo Mendes inform him of the amount.
The case eventually led to the resignation of the then infrastructure minister, who later applied for the post of secretary general of the PS and won. His PS leadership came to an end later after the poor result obtained in the last legislature.
In reaction to the investigation, the former socialist leader guarantees that he approved the compensation believing that this was legal. “No crime was committed by members of the government or my office. Of course if I knew that compensation was improper, this authorization would never have been given, ”he says.
In addition to the General Secretariat of the Government, the PJ searched the headquarters of TAP and the law firm SRS Legal, which advised the company in the termination contract. In a statement, the PJ said it had “strong evidence of violation of various legal provisions ”in compensation.
The baptized ‘check in’ operation also has already made an accusedhe said to Lusa source linked to the investigation. The same source specified that the defendant belongs to the law firm where searches were performed.
The IGF audit concluded that Alexandra Reis should return 450 thousand euros of the 500,000 received. In May 2023, the manager reimbursed more than 266 thousand euros net, as indicated by TAP herself.
Another central point of the investigation is the information considered false transmitted to the Securities Market Commission (CMVM), where the manager’s departure was communicated as Mutual Agreement Terminationwhen, in fact, it will have resulted from a dismissal motivated by incompatibilities with the then executive president, Christine Ourmières-Widener.
In addition to the resignation of Pedro Nuno Santos, this case also led to the immediate departure of Alexandra Reis from the position of Secretary of State for Treasury and Hugo Mendes of the Secretariat of State for Infrastructure.
The IGF report also dictated the dismissal of CEO Christine Ourmières-Widener and the president of TAP, Manuel Beja. It is recalled that the former CEO decided to move forward with a lawsuit against TAP because it considered that their dismissal was illegal, requiring compensation of almost 6 million euros.
