Lisbon, March 5, 2025 (Lusa) - Portuguese hotel and casino group Solverde announced on Wednesday that it has terminated its service contract with Spinumviva, a company formerly owned by prime minister Luís Montenegro, in the name of defending its good name and reputation.
"Although Spinumviva has fully complied with its obligations to Solverde and has continuously provided its services in a professional manner, the two companies have understood, considering the current context and with the sole aim of safeguarding the good name and reputation of both, that the termination of the aforementioned service provision relationship is, in the current circumstances, the most appropriate solution, allowing Solverde to choose, during the current month of March, a new service provider with less public visibility," reads a statement sent by the Solverde group to the Lusa news agency.
According to the group, the decision ‘is essential to protect Solverde’ from the "dissemination of facts that do not correspond to the truth, with the intentional mixing of truth and lies and the consequent speculation without any foundation".
Solverde claims to be a company "with more than half a century of existence, whose name, values, high ethical standards, as well as its contributions to social responsibility and the significant number of workers it employs, deserve careful defence in the face of the attacks and references that, in the context of a media whirlwind, have been calling into question its integrity and prestige".
The Espinho-based company states that Spinumviva "has provided Solverde, since July 2021, with specialised services in the field of compliance and personal data protection, with the intervention of professionals who have always been qualified and available, ensuring the necessary technical support and answers to the queries presented, including the exercise, through Mr André Costa, of the function of Data Protection Officer (’EPD‘), as well as the full implementation of the requirements of the General Regulation on Data Protection and applicable legislation".
"Finally, in view of the very serious statements made by some people and entities, which it considers to be deeply damaging to its good name, Solverde reaffirms its commitment to their defence and expresses its intention to take all the steps that prove necessary," concludes the text sent to Lusa.
According to Friday's edition of the weekly newspaper Expresso, the casino and hotel group Solverde paid the company owned by Luís Montenegro's wife and children, Spinumviva, a monthly fee of €4,500 since July 2021, for "specialised compliance services and the definition of procedures in the field of personal data protection".
The news sparked a heated controversy between the political parties and led the prime minister, Luís Montenegro, to make an announcement to the country on Saturday evening, after an extraordinary Cabinet meeting, in which he announced that Spinumviva would be "fully owned and managed by his children", with his wife no longer being the managing partner, and would change its headquarters.
The prime minister also said that "whenever there is any conflict of interest for personal or professional reasons" related to his family business, he will not participate in the government's decision-making processes, as will other members of the executive.
Spinumviva issued a statement today to indicate that the donation of shares from the prime minister's wife to his children had been consummated, and that the headquarters had also moved to Porto, as Luís Montenegro had announced on Saturday.
JPS/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
