The three detained in the Saco Roto operation were released, but the Porto Criminal Investigation Court made two of them pay bonds of 40,000 and 15,000 euros, said a judicial source.
The defendants were still prohibited from contacting each other.
Indicted for the crimes of num value exceeding 1.8 million eurosthe suspects were brought to justice on Wednesday after being detained by inspectors from the Criminal Investigation Department (DIC) of the Judiciary Police Guard (PJ).
Operation Saco Roto was developed in close coordination with the Porto delegation of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and involved searches in 14 companies in the municipalities of Pinhel, Viseu, Cascais, Costa da Caparica, Aveiro, Albergaria and Ovar, as well as in the homes of those detained.
26 home and non-home searches were carried out.
“The investigation focuses on 30 operations co-financed mainly by community funds, with a global approved support value of more than 1.8 million euros, involving the various companies under investigation”, said the PJ in a statement sent to the Lusa agency on Wednesday.
According to the Judiciary, the companies involved, “some of them created fictitiously for this purpose, appear repeatedly associated with the preparation of applications, market consultations, hiring of human resources and invoicing, the majority of them, to obtain financing through the funds made available”.
“The firms in question are functionally integrated into the sphere of activity and control of the main suspect, having been detained, together with two close collaborators and with management functions in these units”.
In the operation, investigators seized around 100,000 euros in cash and “an important document collection”, which will be analyzed and later attached to the investigation.
The PJ da Guarda had the collaboration of the Directorates of the Center and North of the Judiciary, the National Anti-Corruption Unit (UNCC), the Technological and IT Expertise Unit (UPTI) and the Financial and Accounting Expertise Unit (UPFC).
