Commission in TAP business investigated for money laundering – Portugal

The investigation is revealed in a ruling by the Lisbon Court of Appeal (TRL), dated February 6, 2024, which failed an appeal by Luís Maria. And it was opened due to suspicions about the circulation of money in Luís Maria’s bank accounts, in 2022, which culminated in the transfer of 530 thousand euros to his son’s bank account, and real estate investments in Portugal.

The MP alleges, according to the ruling, that the reconstitution of the origin of the money in Luís Maria’s bank account at BAI Europa made it possible to verify that, on June 6, 2022, this account received more than 1.4 million euros from a account in the same bank as LFM Imob. Until April 2018, this company was called Fidexcap (Portugal) and its shareholder, since its incorporation in 2009, was Fidex Capital, in the Seychelles islands, of which Luís Maria was the beneficiary.

According to the MP, this former Sonangol manager received part of the alleged undue commissions through Fidexcap (Portugal), now LFM Imob, which, in turn, received funds from Fidex Capital. Luís Maria will have represented Sonair in the contract signed between Sonair and TAP.

In the appeal presented at the TRL, Luís Maria claimed, according to the ruling, that this investigation has the same objective as that which was investigated by the MP in a previous case, in which the court acquitted the defendants. The MP contested this position. And he countered that Luís Maria was not accused or accused in that previous case and that the facts that gave rise to the new investigation took place in 2022.

For the MP, this new investigation is concerned with the possible practice of a crime of money laundering in Portugal, which has as its antecedent related crime the suspicion of the practice in Angola of a possible illicit act of passive corruption or embezzlement in the business between Sonair and TAP. The TRL dismissed Luís Maria’s appeal and maintained the measure to control bank accounts.

Accused defendants were acquitted in 2023
The six defendants accused in the so-called Sonair/TAP case were acquitted in court in January last year.
The Public Ministry’s (MP) indictment, in 2017, involved the payment of more than 25 million euros that Sonair had made to TAP, without TAP having performed this service, and suspicions of money laundering operations through Worldair, English company.

According to the MP’s accusation, Worldair, upon receiving very high commissions, distributed the money received from TAP through bank accounts of offshore companies in the Seychelles Islands and the British Virgin Islands, all allegedly belonging to Sonangol officials. In the ruling of the Lisbon Court of Appeal, dated February 6, 2024, it is stated that the acquittal decision has not yet become final.

Services without provision
In 2008, TAP and Sonair signed a maintenance contract for Sonair aircraft. TAP had to carry out 32 maintenance services, from January 2009 to October 2012, but did not do them. The deal was investigated by the MP, but TAP was not accused. Fernando Pinto was the CEO of TAP.

DETAILS
Bank warned about operations
The investigation was opened after a bank reported suspicious operations, with the entry of funds into an account at BPI of Fidexcap (Portugal), currently LFM Imob, according to the ruling.

Dispersion of money across accounts
The funds from the Fidexcap (Portugal) account were then dispersed across several bank accounts, including those of Luís Maria and his son.

The previous and current investigation
The MP alleges, according to the ruling, that the investigation into the Sonair/TAP case, whose defendants were acquitted in court, covered facts that occurred between 2008 and 2010, while the case against Luís Maria concerns operations that occurred between 2011 and 2022.