Vila Nova de Gaia City Council
Patrocínio Azevedo, former vice-president of the Gaia City Council
Former vice-president of the Chamber of Gaia accused of passive corruption, malfeasance, abuse of power and money laundering.
Azevedo Sponsorship he was condemned to 8 and a half years in prison and is prohibited from exercising municipal functions for 8 years.
The former vice-mayor of Gaia is one of 16 accused in , related to the alleged tampering with rules and instruction in urban licensing processes in Gaia.
The judgment was read at the Vila Nova de Gaia Court, this Friday, more than a year after the start of the trial.
Patrocínio Azevedo, who was in pre-trial detention for around 23 months, was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for two crimes of passive corruption, malfeasance, abuse of power and money laundering.
When reading the ruling, the president of the panel of judges said that the court was “with the secure conviction” of the involvement in the events of the defendants Patrocínio Azevedo, the real estate businessman Paulo Malafaia, the founder of the Fortera group, and the lawyer, who acted as an intermediary between the former mayor and the businessmen.
According to the judge, Patrocínio Azevedo, as vice-president of the municipality, assumed a “clear treatment of favor and influence” in favor of the private interests of Paulo Malafaia, Elad Dror and defendant companies, in urban projects to be developed in Gaia, especially the project Skyline/Cultural and Congress Center and the real estate project Riverside, in exchange for goods, such as, and financial shares, and to the detriment of public interests.
The court found that Patrocínio Azevedo received from the defendant businessmen, between 2020 and 2021, “three deliveries of sums of money”two of which were worth at least R$25,000 each, and a third where “it was not possible to determine the value”. During this period, Gaia’s former deputy also received four watches in return.
For the group of judges, the three deliveries of money, on three different occasions “are several acts of a criminal activity” of businesspeople, aiming “give back os favors” of Patrocínio Azevedo when acting and deciding based on the business universe of Paulo Malafaia and Elad Dror.
The lawyer John Lopez, who served as a “transmission vehicle” for businesspeople to the “political decision maker” (Patrocínio Azevedo) was sentenced to a single sentence of seven years and nine months in prison.
The real estate businessman Paulo Malafaia was sentenced to seven years in prison.
To the founder of the Fortera group, Elad Dror, a single sentence of six years in prison was imposed.
The collective of judges acquitted the former municipal director of Urbanism and Environment of the Chamber of Gaia Luísa Aparício and the economist Jordi Busquets, considering that both did not have any criminal role in this process.
“I didn’t do anything”
Despite the conviction in court, Patrocínio Azevedo assures that he did not commit any illegality: “I leave here with the conviction that I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“This [a condenação] is no more than one set of presumptions. I am the only former mayor in this country who has a crime of corruption for having fought for an emblematic project for his municipality. One of the crimes of corruption is because I wanted a public congress center in Gaia”, the accused told journalists, leaving the court.
“I didn’t steal for myself, I didn’t take anything from the public treasury. Quite the opposite: I fought to have better conditions and create a centrality in Gaia. The only thing I am accused of is having fought to make a dream come true because I wanted to run for mayor,” said the former mayor.
Patrocínio Azevedo recalled that in the proposal “presented [à data dos factos] by the PS in a chamber meeting, real estate developers had to pay the chamber for all construction capacity above 0.8”.
“At this moment, the city hall revoked this protocol and the promoters were left with 1.2 without paying anything. Who harmed the public treasury? Was it me who required that from 0.8 be paid to the council or is it the one who gives 1.2 without compensation? The counterparts were municipal. It was a source of pride to have a congress center signed by Souto Moura, it was a source of pride for Gaia to have a central location”, said the accused.
In the Riverside case, he claims that it was “victim of a charlatanfrom a person who used my name to withdraw some money. And the court today says something concrete: it doesn’t know how much it was given, it doesn’t know where it was given, nor is there anything in the process. The court spoke of two deliveries [de dinheiro]but not me. To João Lopes.”
Patrocínio Azevedo will appeal.
