Lisbon, Sept. 23, 2024 (Lusa) - Portugal's public prosecutor (MP) has accused the former president of Banco Espírito Santo de Angola (BESA), Álvaro Sobrinho, of aggravated money laundering for his investment in Sporting Lisbon football club's sports management company (SAD) through a company he controlled with funds that belonged to the bank.
According to the note published on Monday by the Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DCIAP), Sobrinho used the company Holdimo, which was also accused and which he controlled (since he was the majority shareholder), as an "investment vehicle" in the 'lions' (Sporting FC), with transfers made from BESA accounts domiciled in Lisbon, "whose funds were intended to finance the bank's activity, but which the defendant used as if they were his own".
"Initially, the defendant company invested a total of €16,050,000 in the club and received in return an amount calculated on the value of the sale of the players' passes, based on the percentage of the economic rights it acquired for the investment," the statement reads, adding that the money transferred was later converted into shares.
Álvaro Sobrinho would go on to invest a further €4 million through that company, bringing the capital held by Holdimo in Sporting's SAD to 29.85% (which has since been diluted in 2022 to around 13.28% and to 9.9% this year).
"Through the operations described in the indictment, it appears that the official suspect managed to cover up the trail of the aforementioned monetary amounts, passing them off as money obtained in a lawful manner, when, in fact, he had obtained them by appropriating amounts from BESA," said the Public Prosecutor's Office, without ever identifying Álvaro Sobrinho or the Holdimo company.
Meanwhile, the Judicial Police (PJ - the country's main criminal investigation agency) also released a statement on the case, in which it confirmed the identity of Álvaro Sobrinho as the accused, emphasising that the investigation was conducted by the PJ's National Anti-Corruption Unit.
"The PJ's investigation made it possible to prove the illicit transfer of €20 million from BESA to Sporting FC SAD leonina, leaving Álvaro Sobrinho with 29.85% of the capital of Sporting Clube de Portugal SAD," reads the statement from the criminal police agency.
Álvaro Sobrinho was sentenced in July to stand trial in the BES Angola case, along with former BES chairman Ricardo Salgado and former directors Amílcar Morais Pires, Rui Silveira and Helder Bataglia.
The former Angolan banker is accused of 18 offences of abuse of trust and five of money laundering. He is suspected of misappropriating hundreds of millions of euros in a case that took place between 2007 and July 2014.
The indictment in the BESA case was handed down in July 2022 and relates to BES's granting of financing to BESA, in the form of Interbank Money Market (IMM) credit lines and bank overdrafts. As a result of this criminal activity, on 31 July 2014, BES was exposed to BESA to the tune of almost €4.8 billion.
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