Former prime minister José Sócrates has denied that the €23 million deposited in Switzerland in 2010 was his, "This money is not mine, it's my friend Carlos Santos Silva’s. Full stop."
Sócrates also said that at some point in the future he willl be taking legal action against the Portuguese State and claiming damages.
In the second part of an interview on TVI, the former PM accused the state prosecutor of inventing evidence against him.
José Sócrates said that, having found nothing against him over alleged corruption charges in favor of the Lena Group, the prosecutor Rosario Teixeira turned to planning issues at Vale do Lobo in the Algarve.
"As he found nothing at Lena Group, he turned to Vale do Lobo. The research then entered the area of fantasy. I faced this second interrogation with complete amazement," said Sócrates.
The former PM said he will be taking legal action against the Portuguese State in order to claim compensation, but said this was not the time to think about it.
Sócrates recalled that "the Freeport case had its origins in the office of the then Prime Minister Santana Lopes" and that "the history of phone tapping started with President Cavaco Silva," adding that all this suggested a deliberate plan to undermine the socialist party and remove him from political life.
José Socrates denied he was the real owner of the €23 million deposited in Switzerland and that the beneficiary was his friend Carlos Santos Silva.
The former prime minister said that it was hard to believe that he had €23 million in a hidden account with not a single document proving the money was his.
As for the 2012 sale of his mother's apartment to his friend Carlos Santos Silva, José Sócrates explained that she felt lonely and wanted to move to Cascais.
"It sold for €600,000. They say it is high but I've got news: I sold my apartment in the same building, for €675,000."
Sócrates did not mention the purchase by Santos Silva, a year earlier, of two other apartments in his mother's name in Cacém.
As for his lavish lifestyle in Paris, José Sócrates accused Correio da Manhã of mounting a smear campaign due to the funds his friend Carlos Santos Silva kindly sent him with unerring regularity.
Presidential anti-corruption candidate Paulo Morais later observed that Sócrates is one of the foremost examples of political corruption in Portugal and has caused serious damage to the country and to the Portuguese.
Morais said that the period under Sócrates was the most ruinous for the Portuguese State, giving as an example the Public Private Partnerships for roads and the nationalisation of bust bank BPN.
Morais said the public-private partnership funding arrangements continue to generate annual rates of return to funders of 20%, paid for by the taxpayer.
As for the nationalisation of BPN, Paulo Morais said that this bailout had cost the taxpayer €7 billion but that the assets had been left with the former owners while the public covered the debts.
The anti-corruption presidential hopeful noted that Sócrates said he was being funded at the expense of a friend because he had no income, but "this friend was someone who belonged to the Lena Group, which curiously had become the largest supplier to the Portuguese state when he was Prime Minister. There clearly is an exchange of favours and that's not acceptable."
Referring to the TV interview, Paulo Morais said that the former PM has the right to defend himself in public, but it was a pity that nobody reminded him of the serious damage he had caused to the country and to the Portuguese people.
Jose Socrates, who was remanded in custody in Évora prison for 41 weeks after his arrest in November 2014, is charged in Operation Marquês with qualified tax fraud, money laundering and accepting bribes for tort.
Comments
"Giant fish" is not easy to catch and it may be dangerous too - on the contrary is just as easy as a child's game to catch us defenceless "sardines"...
Yet again showing the warp factor that the Portuguese elite still have on Portuguese life. Warping the laws regulating the seizing of assets so that these can only be taken from the accounts of the named individual in the indictment.
Any relative or friend being safe. Thereby - as intended - the laws achieving nothing ! Another law for the Troika to change on their next visit!
This man is sick and needs psychological treatment.
Following on from the news that the 1,000 richest clans in Portugal pay almost zero tax and that a specialist task force to track their wealth was insisted upon by the Troika but then secretly dismantled soon afterwards.
All us northerners can hope for now is the 2nd bail out. Already flagged up as a certainty if ever more of Portugal's banks get the shakes. And then, this time, real enforcement of the rules and regulations by the Troika. A radically pruned public sector; the remainder with a new culture of honesty and effectiveness and a revamped more open to competition private sector.