Man is 7th to be arrested in ‘Nexus’ PRR corruption probe
PJ police have arrested a 7th person – an employee at the country’s central bank – suspected of being involved in the ‘Nexus’ operation probing suspicions of corruption/ abuse of power/ economic participation in business in the acquisition of computer systems financed by Brussels’ PRR (Plan for Recovery and Resilience).
In a statement, the PJ said the man was arrested at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport on his arrival in Portugal.
SIC Notícias adds that it has learnt from a source at the Bank of Portugal that the man holds a “middle/ lower position” at the country’s central bank. RTP however has suggested he holds a ‘high position’ (see image above). Whatever the situation, he will almost certainly have been the reason for the searches at the bank last week (the second PJ searches at the central bank in three months). The man is due to be brought before Porto’s Court of Criminal Investigation for questioning.
He joins the first six to be arrested last Tuesday, described as a director and three employees of a technology company (DecUnify), an employee of a utilities company and a civil servant.
As reports explained last week, Nexus was the first operation of its kind in Portugal to be led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, in coordination with Porto’s regional DIAP (department of criminal investigation and penal action).
All those arrested, including the Bank of Portugal employee, are suspected of having been part of an ‘organised and systemic criminal scheme to illegally obtain privileged information in public and private contracting procedures, through the delivery of patrimonial and non-patrimonial advantages to employees of the contracting entities’, subverting the rules of the market and the good administration of funds.
“Producers/importers of IT products and solutions, with significant weight in the market, would also take part in the scheme, boosting profit margins throughout the supply chain,” according to the PJ.
At stake are contracts worth at least €20 million euros, with €4.6 million already having been seized through the PJ’s Asset Recovery Office – North.
The case opened following reports to the authorities of ‘serious irregularities in public procurement procedures for IT and cybersecurity equipment by a public higher education institution in the north, as part of projects funded by the PRR’, the PJ statement explains.
The force has not specified the institution in question, but in a statement sent to Lusa, the University of Porto confirmed that it was the target of searches in a cartelisation process for the purchase of computer equipment, in which it ‘would be a victim’.
According to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the contracts under suspicion were awarded to “a national business group and related companies engaged in the import, export, promotion and commercialisation of computer hardware and software”.
In total, 103 house and non-house searches were carried out last Tuesday as part of Operation Nexus, in which around 300 inspectors and experts took part. ND
Source material: SIC/ LUSA
