Two IT workers employed at the general inspectorate of finances (IGF) were made official suspects on Tuesday in an investigation led by the anti-cybercrime arm of the Judicial Police (PJ).
The men are suspected of having used their access to financial records to assess complaints and in-house investigations underway, selling the potentially very useful information to the parties under investigation.
Dubbed Operation Bug, the police swoop on the suspects’ homes and places of work has removed computers which will now be “taken for analysis”, reports Correio da Manhã.
If found guilty, the IT workers will be facing a number of charges, not least illicit access to confidential records and a breach of the IGF code of ethics which states that “workers during the exercise of their duties at IGF, or after their suspension or cessation of employment, cannot use or make available for their own or third party benefit any information that they have or to which they have had access during the exercise of their functions, or due to them”.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
