The Attorney General's Office has confirmed that the National Director of the Aliens and Borders Service (SEF) Manuel Jarmela Palos, has been arrested on corruption charges related to the 'golden visa' scheme. His new nick-name is 'Mr 10%' which, according to Correio da Manhã, was the commission level for certain visa applications that he authorised or fast-tracked.
Sending shockwaves through Portugal's murky and corrupt corridors of power, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice, Maria Antónia Anes, suffered the indignity of being arrested in the Ministry of Justice building and taken away by police for questioning.
In addition to these two high profile arrests, the President of the Institute of Registrars and Notaries, António Figueiredo also was arrested and charged.
Also raided by police was the office of Albertina Gonçalves, the Secretary General of the Ministry of the Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy (MAOTE) as part of the investigation. She later resigned.
The Attorney General's Office stated that “in the context of research at the Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DCIAP), several enquiries are underway which today involved over 70 searches in various parts of the country by over 150 police officers, arrest warrants have been issued. This investigation is looking at the allocation of 'golden visas,' among other matters.
The headquarters of the SEF in Porto Salvo, Oeiras, was the target of the initial searches by police officers, but the Attorney General's Office stated that searches are continuing in several parts of the country and more arrestes are expected.
At issue are "suspected corruption offenses, influence peddling, embezzlement and money laundering," according to a no-holds-barred statement from the Attorney General's Office.
Golden visas may be assigned to non EU nationals who spend over €500,000 on a property in Portugal or invest in a business using certain criteria. They have to pass the scrutiny of the SEF which checks for criminal records, drugs convictions, indications of money laundering, and identity fraud among other criteria.
The Association for Industrial Civil Construction and Public Works (AICCOPN) indicated that a further €108 million was spent under the 'golden visa' programme in October 2014 and that €972 million has been spent since the controversial scheme was launched in October 2012 by Paulo Portas.
The scheme has drawn criticism as it gives rich foreigners tax free status for five years, is against the purported tax equality mantra trotted out by the government every time the VAT issue is raised by the country's restaurateurs, and that it served to enrich top end estate agents rather than the Treasury so was little help to ordinary taxpayers who are shouldering the tax burden whiler watching Chinese millionaires drift around Europe while paying zero tax on their worldwide income.
The 'golden visa' fraud investigations that started in June this year focusing on two areas; officials involved in handing out the visas, and complicit real estate agencies in the top-end areas in Lisbon, Cascais and the Algarve.
The estate agents should be in the next raft of arrests, both in the Algarve and in Lisbon and Cascais.
