The Ministry of State (MP) accused former Benfica president Luis Filipe Vieira, SAD “incarnada” and administrator Domingos Soares de Oliveira of tax fraud in a process known as the “Blue Bag”.
According to the indictment, which Luza had access to on Tuesday, the former president of the Luz club is responsible for three crimes of qualified tax fraud and 19 forgery of documents, as well as Domingos Soares de Oliveira, who remained at the Benfica SAD after Vieira’s death. leaving the presidency (in 2021) – and the former financial director of Benfica, Miguel Moreira. These crimes are co-authored by the QuestãoFlexível company and the defendant José Bernardes.
The SAD of Benfica is charged with only two offenses of qualified tax fraud, while the MP also charges Benfica Estádio with one offense of tax fraud and 19 forgery offenses. Prosecutor Helder Branco dos Santos also accused QuestãoFlexível of the same crimes, and José Bernardes is also responsible for money laundering.
According to the deputy, Luis Filipe Vieira “decided to develop a plan to get money from the bank accounts of Benfica, SAD and Benfica Estádio, SA, in the form of payments and return them to his possession. ., in cash”, thereby creating a “fictitious/obvious economic reality” between organizations associated with Benfica and QuestãoFlexível, which will supposedly provide consulting services and IT assistance.
In return, José Bernardes, who is in charge of the consulting firm, will receive money corresponding to 11% of the net value of each invoice, with the remaining 89% to be returned in cash to the two “embodied” companies.
There was a total of about 2.2 million euros at stake, billed by Benfica SAD and Benfica Estádio, with the prosecutor alleging that QuestãoFlexível “did not provide any service”.
“Luis Filipe Vieira, Domingos Soares de Oliveira and Miguel Moreira acted in good faith and, on the basis of this common decision, will combine their efforts and intentions in order to attract a third party that was ready to issue invoices in favor of the defendant. companies Benfica, SAD and Benfica Estádio, SA, for the purpose of issuing these invoices, which, as they knew, did not carry out any economic activity, serve as the basis for withdrawing money in the form of payment for the service from bank accounts belonging to the two companies and receive them cash back to use them in an undocumented way,” it says.
According to the deputy, the three defendants were aware of the “ethical and legal worthlessness and public disapproval of their behavior,” but this did not prevent them from implementing the plan.
The MP also accuses the manager of another company (CapInvest) José Raposo of co-authorship with the defendants Questao Flexivel and José Bernardes of 15 crimes of forgery, also implying that another manager, Paulo Silva, is an accomplice of the same 15 crimes. crimes.
The Blue Bag case dates back to 2017 with suspicions of the alleged use of Benfica-related funds to make payments to third parties.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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