The Attorney General’s Office decided to shelve the preventive investigation that was underway against Luís Montenegro, in the context of the Spinumviva case, the prime minister’s family company, due to a lack of sufficient evidence for a formal suspicion to be formulated, according to the prosecutor responsible for this process.
According to a statement published on site of the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP) “The Public Prosecutor’s Office at the DCIAP concluded that there was no news of the commission of a criminal offense, which is why the preventive investigation was archived.”
According to DCIAP, the object of the preventive investigation into Prime Minister Luís Montenegro “was limited to allegations reported by the media and reproduced in complaints sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office (in which the the one presented by Ana Gomes, as it was addressed to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office). or because, as the value paid is higher than the market value for identical services, such amounts would not be equally owed to you”.
In the document now released it is also written that “During the preventive investigation, new complaints were received at the Public Prosecutor’s Officereproducing news from the media, regarding the acquisition by the Montenegro family of two properties in Lisbon. As they can also justify suspicions of the danger of committing a crime of receiving or offering an undue advantage, such facts have become part of the object of preventive investigation”.
It is also explained in the statement that information or documentation was collected from various entities that are listed: open sources and disseminated by the media; land and commercial registry offices; National Data Protection Commission; Constitutional Court; requested from those involved in the facts, specifically Luís Montenegro, Hugo Montenegro, Diogo Montenegro, Spinumviva and the clients of this company (Solverde, SA; Rádio Popular, SA; FERPINTA, SA; Colégio Luso-Internacional do Porto, SA (CLIP); Lopes Barata, Consultoria e Gestão, SA; Beetsteel, LDA.; INETUM Holding Business Solutions Portugal, SA; ITAU – Instituto Técnico de Alimentação Humana, SA; Portugalenses, Transportes, LDA and Joaquim de Barros Rodrigues & Filhos). Statements were also made by Luís Montenegro.
DCIAP concludes the statement by stressing that elements collected led to the conclusion that there was no news of the aforementioned crime, nor was there any danger of its being committed; No news of any other crime was also collected. As a result, a reasoned order of archiving was issued.
It ends by highlighting that the decision has already been communicated to the leader of the Government, who will make a statement to the country at 8pm this Wednesday, in Brussels, where he is located.