One of the main defendants of Monte Branco investigation has died while waiting for trial
Francisco Canas, aka Zé das Medalhas (medals) was suspected of helping rich clients move money to Switzerland using his network of contacts and bank accounts used in his metals trading business.
The Monte Branco investigation is still ongoing and has been since 2011, such is the speed at which that the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP) moves.
Monte Branco includes a detailed investigation into Francisco Canas who owned a ‘coins and medals’ shop, ‘Montenegro & Chaves,’ located in Rua do Ouro in downtown Lisbon which served as a front for the former wealth manager Michel Canals who is alleged to have been involved in a major money laundering operation.
The investigation set out to prove that Portuguese customers handed over their black money to Canals, who in turn sent it to his partners in the company, Akoya, in Switzerland. The funds were deposited in banks in Geneva and Zurich, and from then on, the amounts would be transferred to an account at BPN IFI, Cape Verde.
Akoya was run by two former managers of Swiss bank UBS, one of them Portuguese. Álvaro Sobrinho, a former chief executive of Banco Espirito Santo's Angolan unit, BESA, was a shareholder in Akoya.
BPN branches in Portugal then transferred funds to accounts at BCP, from where money was delivered to Canals' customers.
It was this money laundering network that the Public Prosecutor's Office managed to pin down, the five defendants being Michel Canals, Nicolas Figueiredo, Francisco Canas, José Pinto and Ricardo Castro.
Francisco Canas, whose death was announced on January 5th, was a charismatic and eccentric figure who passed his final years being questioned as part of a long and complex investigation.
The financial advisor, Michel Canals, and his clients knew full well their phone conversations were being recorded so used code words such as "chocolate" and "televisions" in a poor attempt to disguise their money laundering activities.
Clients included businessmen, lawyers and soccer managers in a fraudulent scheme that has cost the Treasury an estimated €200 million. The network was shut down in May 2012 by a team of attorneys under Rosário Teixeira from the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP) who have been building the case ever since, although it is not known why it has taken nearly five years and still no formal prosecutions.
Canas, whose death was announced on Thursday, inherited the legitimate business of family gold exchanges operating since 1975.
If Monte Branco goes on much longer before formal charges are brought, there will be few suspects left to prosecute as the Grim Reaper always has first call.
