Manuel Pinho admitted creating the Tartaruga Foundation to hide assets and denies bribes

Former Economy Minister Manuel Pinho said in court on Tuesday that the creation of the Tartaruga Foundation was to hide assets before going to the government, and denied that it was intended to hide bribes from the Espirito Santo Group (GES).

At the third session of the trial at the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon, the former ruler refuted the thesis of the Office of the Public Prosecutor (OP) about the origin of this entity in order to receive 15 thousand euros per month from the GES (during his tenure). the first government led by José Sócrates), despite the explanation that the reason was to distance himself from his assets so as not to declare it to the Constitutional Court before entering the executive branch

“The assets in the bank account were mine. In Mandalay they were mine too. So I needed to create something else where the assets weren’t mine. Legally, the assets were not mine,” said Manuel Pinho, continuing: “What the private foundation advised me… I created this structure called Fundação Tartaruga, a private law foundation. It has nothing to do with creating something extra that could be hidden.”

According to the former minister, the assets were initially accumulated in a BES account in Switzerland (Banque Privée). After leaving his post at BES in 2004, he admitted that he was “exhausted” and decided to take “some of the money from this account” by moving to Deutsche Bank, where he created an offshore company, but, as in this structure, his personal assets remained associated with his name on it, he decided to move forward with a third structure: the Tartaruga Foundation.

However, he argued that this decision was not based on concealing income from the Espirito Santo Group, since an account in Switzerland, due to the “insurmountable” banking secrecy in that country until 2012, would have been an even better option.

“If I had a numbered account and an offshore account, there would be no point in creating a third one. Does this fund structure allow for hiding? What else can be hidden is a bank account in Masete, in Switzerland,” he noted, continuing: “In Masete, I have I had a solution. I didn’t intend to create anything else that could be hidden. “Everything that is said about the Tartaruga Foundation is wrong, the Tartaruga Foundation was not intended to hide any money.”

Manuel Pinho also stated that “the taxation problem has nothing to do with the Fundação Tartaruga” and that he has not committed “any tax offenses” since joining the Exclusive Regulatory Regime of Taxes (RERT): “Since the creation of the RERT, tax crimes are over.”

Former Economy Minister Manuel Pinho, under house arrest since December 2021, is accused of one crime of passive corruption for an unlawful act, another of passive corruption, one crime of money laundering and one crime of tax fraud.

His wife, Alexandra Pinho, is being tried for money laundering and tax fraud – materially shared with her husband – while former BES president Ricardo Salgado is responsible for the crime of active corruption. unlawful act, active corruption offense and money laundering offence.