The head of Portugal’s debt enforcement agency has been arrested and is now under house arrest.
Francisco Duarte was arrested by the National Anti-Corruption Unit of the Judicial Police, after searches were carried out in Lisbon, Viseu and Cascais.
Duarte, the head of the Associação dos Agentes de Execução, was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement, forgery and money laundering in a scheme that allegedly involved the diversion of more than €500,000 of customers’ money held as part of debt collection processes.
After Duarte’s appearance in Lisbon’s criminal court, the judge ordered that he should be restricted under house arrest but, until his personal electronic bracelet is ready and the scheme set up, he will be held on remand in prison.
This arrest is another positive marker as the forces of law and order continue to focus on those in charge of government agencies who are suspected of being on the take.
In the Golden Visa scandal the national director of the Aliens and Borders, Manuel Jarmela Palos was arrested alongside the Secretary-general of the Ministry of Justice, Maria Antónia Anes, and the President of the Institute of Registries and Notaries, António Figueiredo. The minister in charge resigned but admitted no involvement in profiting from illegal payments to smooth through Chinese applications for visas.
Francisco Duarte, if charged and found guilty of stealing money from repossessed and auctioned assets, may find he attracts a high degree of publicity as stealing from those whose assests are being auctioned off counts among the most grubby of crimes.