Flamboyant Oeiras mayor Isaltino Morais – the man who returned to political life after a jail term for fiscal fraud and money-laundering – is once again in the hot seat, his name linked to “suspicions of corruption”.
In a week when the municipality of Oeiras took out a 10-page supplement in national tabloid Correio da Manhã to outline (Morais’) grandiose plans for the future, judicial police led searches on the town hall, purportedly following up on “suspicions of active and passive corruption, abuse of power, influence trafficking and economic participation in business”.
The focus of the inquiry is a “megadevelopment project” by the name of Porto Cruz.
Said the paper, detectives “admit that official suspects could soon be cited”, though Morais has been quick to deny any kind of culpability or indeed responsibility.
The Porto Cruz project was given the green-light by a previous executive, and the years of its discussion (2004 and 2014) either saw Morais ‘in between jobs’ (after having resigned from the government of Durão Barroso following a newspaper exposé on undeclared funds in a Swiss bank in his name), or in jail.
But investigators appear to be interested too in the ‘consulting services’ offered by a company of which Morais is a shareholder.
The wily politician has confirmed searches also took place at the offices of Jubilande Consulting, but stressed that by the time he formed the company (on his release from prison) the Porto Cruz project had already been approved.
“My consultancy (for the owners of the project, Grupo Sil) would not have brought any advantages to a plan that was approved in April 2014”, he told reporters.
The day before, as the story broke, Morais is quoted as having “guaranteed that he did not feel conditioned by the accusations of fraud and money laundering of which he was a target in the past”.
“I was condemned. I spent time in prison. It was a painful experience. But I am here now, (still) standing”.
The Porto Cruz project involves the demolition of the town’s former Lusalite factory to make way for a marina, shopping centres, roads, viaducts, car parks and train station, as well as areas of housing, including five blocks of 20-storeys each, say reports.
In the days leading up to this latest controversy, Morais had been giving interviews suggesting Oeiras could become Portugal’s answer to St Tropez, or indeed a Portuguese Silicon Valley.
Online news service Observador has been dissecting some of the phrases from this gathering storm, to explain where investigations could be leading.
A text suggests that authorities are homing in on a payment of €50,000 made to Jubilande Consulting in 2015 by the Sil property group: “The Public Ministry suspects this money will have served to influence the municipal entities, as although the project had its detailed plan approved, it did not have a construction permit”,
Público adds that another focus of investigations is a house purchase, made by Morais, the value of which “is not compatible with (his) declared earnings”.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
