Lawyers accused of fraudulently taking advantage of ‘weaknesses in system’
Porto District Attorney’s Office has said today that the Public Prosecutor’s Office has charged two female lawyers with computer fraud offences and aiding illegal immigration.
The lawyers have offices in Lisbon and Cascais.
On its official website, the prosecutor’s office said that the defendants, as part of their professional activity and taking advantage of the vulnerabilities of the mechanism for regularising illegal immigrants – namely that Brazilian citizens were exempt from the need to have a visa to enter national territory and that the expression of interest had to be made 180 days after arriving in Portugal – outlined a plan for the regularisation of foreigners of various nationalities (Indian, Pakistani, Moroccan, Algerian and Filipino) which involved inserting expressions of interest from these citizens into the SAPA portal, falsely declaring that they were Brazilian.
“Therefore, the defendants managed to circumvent the obligation for these citizens to specify their visa to enter national territory and/ or the Schengen area, allowing them to remain irregularly in national territory, obstructing the procedure of the (now defunct) Aliens and Borders Service regarding their forced removal from national territory and the automatic negative opinion of the (now defunct) SEF,” says the statement.
Thus, between October 2007 and October 2018, the two lawyers filled in at least 44 expressions of interest in which they falsely stated that the citizens in question had Brazilian nationality and had entered and stayed in Portugal for at least 180 days.
The prosecutor’s office claims the lawyers filled in these declarations for payment of amounts starting at €50.
According to calculations, Public Prosecutor’s Office believes the suspects “obtained €8,800 through this practice” and are requesting that this be forfeited in favour of the state (in event of a guilty trial verdict).
Source: LUSA
