Faro court finally has started to hear the case against Carlos Quaresma, accused of duping 30 Councils and social institutions out of €265,000 in the ‘hospital equipment from Sweden’ scam.
According to the indictment, Carlos Quaresma, was handed the money in order to pay for the transport of equipment donated in Sweden, to Portugal.
The sum is the difference between the money he received and the amount he actually paid for the transport.
The 63-year.old former Benfica player is not going to be in court as he lives in Sweden and claimed his poor health prevented him from travelling. Letters rogatory already have been sent to the authorities in Sweden in order to interview him there.
The suspect, accused of 35 felonies of qualified fraud, was named president of the AGAPE Foundation, a non-governmental organisation in Sweden, and of "setting up a scheme to obtain money for himself with the promise of donations of medical and hospital orthopedic equipment," from the AGAPE Foundation.
One of the witnesses is Conceição Cabrita, the Mayor of Vila Real de Santo António. She was a Councillor at the time of the scam, VRSA being just one of the 18 municipalities in the country duped by Quaresma’s trickery in obtaining more than €6,000 from each Council and charity involved.
In court, Conceição Cabrita said that she had spoken with the defendant by telephone, only once, to discuss the transport of the material from Sweden to Portugal.
"I asked him (Carlos Quaresma) what sort of association was it and he told me that it was a non-profit organisation in Sweden and that he wanted to send the equipment because in Portugal it is very expensive and this was the way to help.”
According to the indictment, between mid-2009 and November 2011, Carlos Quaresma became president and a volunteer for the foundation. He opened a bank account and contacted at least 18 municipalities and 15 institutions of social solidarity in various parts of the country.
After getting them interested, he informed them that to benefit from the donations they would have to transfer €13,000 to his bank account to pay for transportation expenses, customs and other disbursements.
AGAPE, however, only charged €3,000 for each shipment and about €1,300 in storage costs.
In 2013, the Swedish Public Prosecutor's Office closed an investigation against Carlos Quaresma on suspicion of the same crime related to the AGAPE Foundation.
The filing order stated that the case could be reopened if new evidence was found.
The trial is continues on Thursday, November 22nd in Faro court.
