Manuel Fernando Araújo / Lusa
The investigation comes following other searches already conducted in April, when a scheme of false pedries was dismantled over 20 years old who used an association of veterans as a façade.
A criminal organization will have set up a scheme of false pedries throughout the country for 20 years, serving on the name of institutions such as the Portuguese Association of Veterans of War and the Support Association for People with Cancer. The latter, based in Matosinhos, was argued yesterday, following an operation conducted by the GNR Viseu Criminal Investigation Center.
Six individuals were formally accused of circumvents, capital bleaching, tax fraud and criminal association. In addition to the residences of the suspects, the steps covered accounting offices and the association’s own headquarters. Concerned is a scheme that exploited legal protocols of raffles authorized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, used as coverage for the collection of donations with intersections and traffic lights.
The model was simple: the scheme mentor company celebrated an agreement with the association, committing to give it 30% of the recipes obtained by selling draw tickets. However, the draws functioned above all as a pretext. In practice, the members of the different cells of the group performed allegedly on behalf of firefighters or social causes, with all the money raised.
The investigation, called Operation The Schemehad already resulted in April in the constitution of eight defendants, including the network leader and two institutional guardians. The now triggered phase aimed at the team chiefs, responsible for recruiting beggars, organizing the false requests and channeling the funds to the upper echelons of the criminal structure, according to.
DURANT AS 12 Searches Held in Braga, Matosinhos, Leiria, Pombal, Lisbon, Cacém, Sintra and Moita, bank statements, computer equipment, draw documentation, as well as firefighters used by the burns to give credibility to the actions were seized. In April, the operation had already allowed to seize 27 843 euros in cash.
The president of the League of Firefighters, António Nunes, stresses that corporations have repeatedly denounced the practice, but Defends harder sanctions: “It’s a professional and organized group. Police disperses them on a day and the following reappear elsewhere. It is necessary to apply heavier fines.”
