José Sena Goulão / Lusa
Fernando Pinto, former president of TAP
The company, which was founded by the airline’s former president, was only officially created two weeks after the contract was signed.
The Public Ministry is investigate a consulting contract of high value concluded between TAP and the airline’s former executive president, Fernando Pinto, who received more than 1.62 million euros between 2018 and 2020.
According to , the agreement was signed five days after the manager left TAP’s administration, at a time when the company for which he would provide services did not yet legally exist.
According to the audit carried out by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) in 2024 and records from the Portal da Justiça, the contract was signed on February 5, 2018 between TAP, SA and Free Flight, Unipessoal, Lda. However, this company was only officially incorporated two weeks lateron February 27th, with Fernando Pinto as sole partner and manager and a share capital of five thousand euros.
The contract provided advisory and support services to TAP’s executive committee in defining the company’s general policies and strategic objectives. In return, the Brazilian manager received around 744 thousand euros between February and December 2018, more than 811 thousand euros in 2019 and 67,650 euros in January 2020.
On the same day that the contract was formalized, TAP also signed an additional agreement with the manager that guaranteed a benefits package: health insurance for five years, life insurance for two years, service car, telephone and airline ticket benefits.
The IGF concluded that Unable to check work carried out by Fernando Pinto as part of this consultancy. However, in a written response sent to the parliamentary committee in 2023, Fernando Pinto argued that he effectively provided the agreed services, although he admits that he was never asked for written work. The former manager also guaranteed that it was TAP itself that proposed a two-year contract.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office investigation investigates suspected crimes such as harmful administration, economic participation in a business, passive corruption in the private sectorqualified tax fraud and Social Security fraud. The case has four defendants, including former shareholder Humberto Pedrosa. Fernando Pinto claims to have supported TAP’s strategy and respected exclusivity and non-competition clauses.
