The Portuguese Prosecutor’s Office accused the Sports Public Limited Company (SAD) of Benfica and the club’s former president Luis Filipe Vieiraamong others, of tax fraud for alleged payments to a company for fictitious services, local press revealed.
The accusations appeared in the framework of the case called “Sack Blue” and focused on the alleged channeling of 1.6 million euros through a computer consultancy that provided “fictitious” services, according to the weekly espresso.
According to excerpts released from the order, the company was used to steal money from the accounts of sad of Benfica and society Benfica Stadium to “get their cash back, to be used later in an undocumented way.”
The defendants “are fully aware that the invoices issued (…) do not have the title of any economic operation,” said the prosecutor in charge of the case, Helder Branco dos Santos.
The charges are directed against those responsible for the SAD of the “eagles” in 2017: the former president of the club Luis Filipe Vieirathe former financial director Miguel Moreira and Domingos Soares Oliveira, who still holds the position of administrator.
The three were accused of three crimes of tax fraud and 19 of falsification of documents, while Benfica S.A and Benfica Estádio were accused of tax fraud.
The owner of the “Questão Flexível” consultancy, Jose Bernardeswas also accused of fraud and forgery, and must also be held accountable for money laundering.
According to Expresso, Bernardes He charged 11% for invoices issued by his company, which would have brought him about 190,000 euros.
“He acted with conscience and with the desire to be compensated monetarily,” the prosecutor said, according to the weekly.
The Public Ministry also affirmed that this framework constitutes a means of avoiding taxes worth approximately 500,000 euros, which must be returned.
According to the newspaper Jornal de Notícias, the amount claimed is 585,000 euros, of which 116,000 is claimed from Benfica S.A and 307,000 to the Benfica Estádio, while the rest was distributed to individuals involved in the case.
The same source raised the amount channeled to 2.2 million euros.
BENFICA IN THE EYE OF THE STORM
This is a new chapter of scandals that have put Benfica in the eye of the storm, because in recent years the Portuguese press has covered various episodes of corruption, especially during the 18-year term of Luís Filipe Vieira .
scallops he left the presidency of Benfica in July 2021, after being arrested by the police as part of an investigation along with his son and two other businessmen.
Suspicions of tax crimes and money laundering in businesses of 100 million euros fall on the former president of the “eagles”.
In addition, he is implicated in “Operation Lex”, a case involving former judge Rui Rangel, who could benefit Vieira in exchange for tickets for matches or paid trips to accompany the team abroad .
Recently, episodes have also been revealed where Benfica would have paid other clubs around 10,000 euros as an incentive to beat Porto, which could correspond to crimes of fraud and money laundering.
In parallel, the persecution He suspects that a match in 2018 may have been rigged and the Lisboners got a player from their rivals as “counterpart”, after a penalty that meant the presence of Benfica in the previous round of the Champions League.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
