Some of Vale de Lobo’s sizeable debts have been made public, the money owed to state owned bank Caixa Geral anyway, with the sum of €300 million being bandied around in the weekend papers.
Late payments relating to 12 separate loans have been noted in Saturday’s Público newspaper, yet no repossession orders have been sought.
The largest loan noted is of €194 million. This was in a news report that mentioned Operation Marquês and the involvement and indictment of the various players all leading back to the Algarve resort.
The original loans added up to €249 million but a poor repayment history has seen this sum grow to €300 million over the past nine years with no action by the state owned bank. Former director of Caixa, Armando Vara, has been accused of setting up these loans in return for off-the-books payments, some of which ended up being channelled to former PM José Sócrates.
The loans are being investigated by the public prosecutor who had Vara picked up and placed under house arrest. Vara later paid a €300,000 surety to enable him to get out and about.
Armando Vara may well have benefitted from the €1 million payment made to his daughter's account, no credible reason has been put forward as to why suddenly she became rich, the inference is that this payment was a 'thank you' for setting up the soft loans for Vale do Lobo at advantageous interest rates, with low set up costs and absent directors’ guarantees.
Sócrates is suspected of allowing land at the Vale de Lobo resort to be released for building, thus increasing its value several-fold, in return for money routed through offshore bank accounts. This accusation his lawyers refute. All will become clear when the Operation Marquês case eventually comes to court.
The public has waited long enough to see Sócrates and his associated stand trial, or to be released.
The former prime minister was arrested on November 21st, 2014, one year and one day ago making formal charges overdue.
