While stories about his high-profile client’s alleged involvement in a web of ‘old-boy net’ corruption continue to splash across the tabloid press, outspoken lawyer João Araújo is back in the public eye for alleged debts of over €94,000 to the nation’s pension fund for lawyers.
According to reports, the money has been calculated on the basis that Araújo has missed two decades of mandatory payments to the Caixa de Previdência dos Advogados e Solicitadores.
A judicial action has been presented, writes Correio da Manhã, and the issue is now in the “challenge phase”.
The lawyer who hit the headlines for telling a tabloid reporter she smelt bad and should “take another another bath” (click here) will either have to show that he has paid the debt, or “satisfy the Caixa of his intention to do so”.
If he doesn’t, says CM, he could see his bank accounts frozen, his assets seized, and - worst case scenario - he could see himself barred from ever receiving a pension.
It has to be said that this story is solely in Correio da Manhã today, and this has been the paper most challenged by Sócrates’ legal team for its reporting of long-running corruption probe Operation Marquês.
By natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
Article by kind permission of Portugal Resident
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