Paulo Lalanda e Castro was heard at the Court of Criminal Investigation in Lisbon on Wednesday, accused, along with Luís Cunha Ribeiro, the former president of the emergency ambulance service INEM, of using Ribeiro’s influence to unduly benefit Octapharma by ripping-off the State for hunderds of millions of euros.
The lawsuit has three more defendants, two lawyers and the former head of the Portuguese Hemophilia Association.
The Office of the Attorney General said that this will be yet another complex case involving civil those charged with public office and the corporate sector which chooses to corrupt them to gain business advantage.
The Public Prosecutor's Office will have the help of the National Anti-Corruption Unit of the Judicial Police.
The former Octapharma boss was arrested in Germany last December under a European Arrest Warrant, but a German judge ordered his release as he considered the request unjustified as Lalanda e Castro had persuaded the judge that he was always available to the Portuguese authorities as, after all, he was a key defendant in the corruption and money laundering Operation Marques and quite used to answering questions at short notice.
Lalanda e Castro is accused in Operation Marquês, this is the main one that focuses on former Prime Minister José Sócrates, and in the Gold Visa inquiry Operation Labyrinth,.
He returned to Portugal on December 23rd and has kindly made himself available to the authorities should they wish to see him.
After Wednesday’s court decision, that he be placed under house arrest and isolated from his co-defendants, the authorities now know where he is - pacing up and down his study convincing himself and his lawyer that he is innocent of all charges and ‘remains tranquil.’
