Salgado accused of bribing Minister

Disgraced banker, Ricardo Salgado, is formally to be charged with paying €500,000 to the then Minister of the Economy, Manuel Pinho.

The payment was in return for giving EDP cushy tax benefits of €1.2 billion, granted to the electricity company by the government when Pinho was a Minister.

Grupo Espírito Santo was shareholder in EDP and benefitted from the lax tax treatment.

Manuel Pinho received €1 million from Grupo Espírito Santo between 2006 and 2012, according to the Public Prosecutor, who suspects that Ricardo Salgado ordered the transfer of €500,000 to an offshore account controlled by Manuel Pinho.

The first tranche was transferred while Pinho was a Minister and the second €500,000 was sent after he had left government.

Also involved in this new case is António Mexia, EDP’s current chief executive. 

Ricardo Salgado already is accused in the Monte Branco, Universo Espírito Santo and Operation Marquês cases.

Comments  

-1 #3 Plain Speaking 2018-04-20 12:32

I find the comment from John Stout about UK banking ethics rather rich considering that Londonograd is the worlds capital for money laundering and tax avoidance. In many instances perfectly legal via the use of highly paid accountants, lawyers and offshores. What goes on in Portugal, terrible though it is, is small change compared to, so called, developed economies.

+1 #2 John Stout 2018-04-20 10:12

As so often pointed out here, none of these attempted prosecutions are the result of due diligence by the banking regulators or detective work by Portuguese law enforcement. All are the result of leaks and whistle blowing.
Note the gap between banking ethics in Portugal and the UK where the current Barclays boss is at risk of individual punishment under UK Banking Regulations. His 'crime' being to have activated an internal Barclays sleuthing team to find out the identity of a Bank whistle blower. A crime that would be unheard of in southern European banking as whistle blowing of somebody important is the lowest of low behaviour in any activity. An investigator or regulator would refuse to hear the complaint in case it screwed up his 'job for life'. In any case, the important Portuguese miscreant, even lawyers and accountants get this privilege, must be adequately warned first. Ex-PM Socrates getting 6 months warning to bury the trail to his millions!

+1 #1 nogin the nog 2018-04-19 23:21

hmm
MUPPETS...Cash in hand , never leaves a trail until you spend it of course..

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