A 52-year-old Portuguese citizen was arrested by the Judicial Police (PJ) in cooperation with the Spanish police and the judiciary and extradited to Portugal on charges of 30 offenses of qualified fraud.
The case dates back to 2019 and 2020. The defendant claimed to be “a financial intermediary and promoted investment promotion activities promising significant monthly income, at very attractive interest rates, on behalf of a company based in Switzerland that was found to be non-existent,” PJ said in a statement.
In order to make the scheme credible, this individual “tagged ‘outsourced asset management’ contracts with the victims and, in some cases, initially paid a certain amount of interest to convince them that it was a credible and highly profitable business, encouraging them to strengthen the initial investment.” , with the delivery of large amounts, ”explains the authority.
Realizing the intention, the man stopped paying monthly interest. The defendant substantiated his action by “opportunistic instability of financial markets”.
When they tried to buy back their investment, which amounted to more than “one million euros”, the victims contacted the defendant, who did not respond.
The defendant was taken into custody after being present at the first judicial interrogation.