The company Castros Iluminações Festivas, in Vila Nova de Gaia, was the target of searches this Tuesday as part of the Judiciary Police’s “Lúmen” operation, which detained four people, including a civil servant from the Lisbon City Council, according to a judicial source.
According to the same source, searches were carried out in 10 municipalities: Lisbon, Tavira, Lamego, Maia, Figueira da Foz, Viseu, Trofa, Póvoa de Varzim, Ovar and Santa Maria da Feira.
The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested this Tuesday quattract people suspected of active and passive corruption crimeseconomic participation in business, abuse of power and criminal association, related to supply and installation of festive lighting.
In a statement, the PJ said that, through the Northern Directorate, a police operation was carried out in the context of economic-financial crime, with “an administrator and an employee of a private company, a president of a private association and a public employee” being detained.
Contacted by Lusa, the lighting company declined to provide a statement.
In the “Lúmen” operation, 26 home and non-home searchesin various areas of the country, in public and private entities and companies.
According to the PJ, the investigation originated from a complaint linked to the “alleged tampering with public procurement procedures related to the supply and installation of festive lighting, used during the Christmas season and in the celebration of various festivities”.
The investigations carried out by the authority revealed the existence of a “criminal scheme, of an organized and systemic nature, aimed at tampering with bidding processes”.
“By illegally obtaining privileged information in exchange for financial compensation attributed to members of contracting entities, in subversion of the rules of transparency, equality and market competition, awards were guaranteed to the target company in amounts totaling eight million euros”, says the note.
A judicial magistrate, a magistrate from the Porto Regional Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP), 120 criminal investigators as well as IT experts, financial experts and security guards from various PJ units participated in the operation.
The detainees will be presented to the Criminal Investigation Court of Porto, for the first judicial interrogation and application of coercive measures.
The survey is held by DIAP Regional do Porto.
