ANTONIO COTRIM/LUSA
The former president of SL Benfica, Luís Filipe Vieira, arrives for the start of the trial in the “Saco Azul” case
Lisbon Court leaves doubts about the accusation. This involves suspicions of qualified tax fraud and falsification of documents surrounding Benfica.
All defendants of the process ‘Blue Jacket’, including the former president of Benfica Luís Filipe Vieira, were today acquitted, with the court pointing doubts about the indictment.
“Only with expert forensic technique is that we can know who did what, who entered the system and what computer problems were created. And now it was impossible, At this stage of trial, do this, returned 10 years”, said the Lisbon court judge.
The crimes in question are related to an alleged scheme, between 2015 and 2018, by the accused to, with recourse to fictitious IT consultancy contractswithdraw more than 1.8 million euros from Benfica, which will then, in large part, be returned to the club in cash.
The Public Ministry alleges that there was a scheme to fake invoices, with services that never existed; that this scheme was used to take money from the club’s accounts; and then circulate it in cash, outside of official control.
According to the prosecution, the process involves suspicions of qualified tax fraud and document forgery. The objective would be to create a parallel financial circuit with more than one million euros, supposedly obtained through fictitious contracts.
In June 2024, the Central Criminal Instruction Court confirmed that Luís Filipe Vieira, Benfica’s SAD, former administrator Domingos Soares Oliveira and six other defendants were going to trial in this Saco Azul case. Everyone was involved in the process.
