Rodrigo Antunes / Lusa
Carlos Santos Silva
The money paid by Santos Silva to purchase a house belonging to a cousin of Sócrates circulated through several accounts belonging to the former prime minister’s family before ending up in his own account. The amount has already been spent.
A new investigation also points out that about 800 thousand euros Payments made by businessman Carlos Santos Silva for the purchase of a villa in Malveira ended up in an account belonging to José Sócrates at Caixa Geral de Depósitos.
The property in question was purchased from Sócrates’ cousin Pedro Pinto de Sousa, in 2022, which raised suspicions in the Public Ministry and led to the opening of an investigation and a requirement to break bank secrecy.
The investigation concluded that, as in several other situations cited in the indictment of the Marquês case, the money had circulated through several accounts belonging to Sócrates’ family members before reaching the former prime minister. Since then, the money has all been spent.
Santos Silva would have purchased the house with money released in 2021 by judge Ivo Rosa, who at the time overturned much of the accusation.
Extract contradicts Santos Silva’s version
A bank statement from a Pinto de Sousa family company also reveals new elements that contradict the explanation presented by Carlos Santos Silva for the origin of the fortune of tens of millions of euros found in your Swiss accounts.
The document points to the use of the same family in financial operations associated with the Espírito Santo Group (GES) that contributed to significant losses at Banco Espírito Santo Angola (BESA).
The extract concerns the account of the company APS (António Pinto de Sousa, Lda.), based in Angola and owned by family members of the former socialist leader. Escom, a company in the GES universe dedicated to investments in Africa, transferred to this account a total of 12.75 million dollars between August 2010 and February 2011.
According to bank records and handwritten notes attributed to António Pinto de Sousa, a now deceased cousin of José Sócrates, a substantial part of this amount was withdrawn in cash almost immediately. Other amounts would have been distributed among family members and company employees, including hundreds of thousands of dollars to José Paulo Pinto de Sousa, Sócrates’ cousin and defendant in Operation Marquês.
The new documentation calls into question the version of Carlos Santos Silva, accused by the Public Ministry of acting as Sócrates’ front man. The businessman has always maintained that a significant part of the money deposited in Swiss accounts would originate from a profitable business with salt mines in BenguelaAngola, held in 2006 with family members of the former prime minister.
However, the documents now revealed suggest that the values compatible with this alleged investment only emerged years later, in 2010, through transfers from Escom to the Pinto de Sousa family company. Furthermore, one of the family members interviewed in the process confirmed to the authorities that Santos Silva was never a member of the APS nor did he participate in any business in the salt flats.
