It is dubbed ‘e-toupeira’ – alluding to emails and a mole (toupeira) – and it is the name for a new Public Ministry investigation into alleged corruption of “two judicial employees and two IT technicians” purportedly by Benfica football club’s legal advisor Paulo Gonçalves.
Gonçalves and one other man have so far been cited for a number of crimes, including violation of secrecy of justice.
Benfica has confirmed its total availability to collaborate with the authorities.
Breaking news today has focused on this new controversy which, according to the PJ, has been under investigation for “almost half a year”, and centres on the alleged “illegitimate access to information relating to cases that are ongoing in courts or departments of the Public Ministry in exchange for eventual illicit benefits to employees”.
A note issued by the PJ explains that the two men arrested this morning face suspicions of the practice of crimes of active and passive corruption, illegitimate access, violation of secrecy of justice, IT falsification and personal advantage.
Público has said that it “knows” that the second man detained alongside Gonçalves is an IT technician working for the Institute of Financial Management and Equipment of Justice, whose responsibilities include running Citius, the courts’ IT system.
According to the paper, the technician will have kept Gonçalves up-to-date with “issues involving the (football) club”.
Alleged rewards for this kind of arrangement came, says Público, in the form of tickets to Benfica games.
News channels have talked almost of nothing else today, while the Benfica administration has “manifested its confidence and conviction that Dr Paulo Gonçalves will have the opportunity to prove the legality of his actions”.
The club has also called for an “urgent meeting” with the Attorney General to discuss what it feels are “reiterated and constant violations of secrecy of justice over cases that involve the club in an intentional strategy… as can be clearly seen today”.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
