Oceanational Motor, SA owned by the former Formula 1 driver Tiago Monteiro (pictured) and the businessman José Guedes have filed a lawsuit against the Portuguese Government, demanding compensation of a minimum of €9.4 million for material and non-material damages.
At issue is the failure of the financial support agreement between Oceanational and the José Sócrates’ government for €6 million. The current government says it is nothing to do with them as there is no contract.
In July 2008 the Secretary of State for Youth and Sport, Laurentino Dias, agreed to finance a team from Oceanational.
The money was to fund the entry of an Oceanational team in GP2 championships, one level below Formula 1, as a way of promoting the Algarve’s Autodrome and the return of Formula 1 to Portugal.
The Government agreed to fund Oceanational with €2 million a year for three years chanelled through Parkalgar, the company that developed the Autodrome circuit. The Sócrates government was keen on the race track and authorised its construction in the Algarve countryside giving it PIN status which enabled the developer to avoid most of the normal planning restrictions relating to countryside areas.
The sponsorship deal was deemed illegal by the Court of Auditors, so as the Government was not allowed directly to fund the racing team, it did so through Parkalgar.
The full €6 million did not arrive thus causing the Monteiro racing team losses and subsequent debts.
Laurentino Dias said that the Sócrates’ government had not had any involvement in the sponsorship, adding that there was no kind of commitment, guarantee or protocol. However, documents exchanged between commercial parties and Laurentino Dias were handed to the then Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Miguel Relvas and Alexandre Mestre, the Secretary of State for Sport and Youth who left his job in April 2013 - these documents proved Dias was being economic with the truth.
In October 2008 Laurentino Dias sent an email to Oceanational stating that the support will be provided through Parkalgar, to a maximum value of €2 million a year for three years, according to the Publico newspaper.
Dias is quotes as saying "I never took any responsibility in this process. My attitude on behalf of the state was always to be helpful to the limits of what was possible. I tried to create a good situation for Parkalgar and Oceanational, but these companies never had, or could have, on my part, any expectation that the state could help them or fund them." This too was an interesting version of the truth as the state clearly had agreed the €6 million.
The full amount of sponsorship money did not reach Parkalgar and Oceanational lost out and now wants compensation for the losses incurred and lodged a lawsuit against the state in Oporto court in September 2013.
The illicit government support was laid out in an emailed memo sent by the former government to Tiago Monteiro and José Guedes in October 2008, it read:
"The support to be granted to this company (Oceanational) in the terms and conditions to be agreed with Parkalgar, will be in the amount of two million euros per sports season, for the next three seasons, and this also is to help support the framework of the race track."
However the only contract signed between the State and Parkalgar was to help with specific sporting events at the Autodrome, according to official documents consulted by Publico.
Oceanational borrowed money from Banif on the strength of its sponsorship deal with the government, some €1.5 million in January 2009.
Of the €6 million pledged by the Government, the Monteiro/Guedes team received €1,051,534, leaving nearly €5 million agreed, yet undelivered according to the court petition.
Another give away that the government had indeed pledged €6 million over three years is to be found in a letter sent to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, dated in January, 2012 where Parkalgar calls on the government to pay for the amounts so far spent by Oceanational, suggesting that the state pays Oceanational directly ‘as per the agreement.’
Comments
Advogado law - as with say UK law - states clearly that a lawyer must not only refuse to carry out any illegal or anti-social acts as requested by a client but must also declare to the relevant authorities if their client is up to anything 'iffy'. And assist with any investigation.
This regulation therefore is obviously just words lifted from some more developed countries lawyer regulations. Meaning nothing here in Portugal.
How else to explain how lawyers for Parkalgar, Oceanational and the bank Banf all conspired in this?
None of these lawyers, although hugely expensive and experienced, stopping for a moment to question just what was going on with the planned autodrome and its full legality.....
Bomb proof in knowing no-one would be foolhardy enough to come after them in Portugal with a claim for the missing millions.
Yet again, as Dilys, points out we have a 'shady deal' that says so much about Portugal's suitability to be in the European Union.
The EU, driven by the northern states, needs to create as much as possible a level playing field amongst all the member states. Hence also the drive against corruption.
So that, ideally, the strongest and best rises to the top and helps the EU forward ... and the sludge has to get it act sorted or disappear.
So restricting 'state support'.
But what is the point of keeping Portugal in the EU if everything remotely limiting or 'spoiling our fun' is ignored or bypassed by Portuguese heavyweights?
Yet here we have a heavyweight, knowing his project was illicit - claiming compensation. So why is the EU not clawing back its millions as being mis-spent?
And who is liable ? In a developed country, if not Portugal - intentionally making an illegal contract removes 'criminal' liability by the other party to fulfil it?
So just leaving civil liability to sort out between the individuals concerned.
This is wildly inaccurate and a typically Portuguese comment. You will often heard said "Yes we Portuguese are in a mess but then so is the EU / Eurozone." So it attempts to excuse their own inadequacies.
Then we read the stuff above. It is commonly mentioned in the Portuguese press although very rarely is anyone 'caught out' sufficiently to be jailed.
This is purely and simply a lack of social development. A retardedness.
It is not remotely common in the more developed EU!
To prove this - Has anyone stopped for a minute to ask how long the European Union would have lasted if Portugal, had been tasked with setting it up ?
Re-read the article above - then make a guess. Would the EU have lasted 3 months ... or limped along, with IMF support, for maybe 6 months in total.
Then folded in an endless squabble of who had agreed to do what and pay how much.