A special team of magistrates and moneymen from the Bank of Portugal is analysing the “explosive list” of more than 100 politicians, journalists and businessmen who received payments from Group Espírito Santo (GES) through an offshore tax haven in the British Virgin Islands.
According to Expresso, the Syndicate of Journalists particularly wants the names of journalists involved to be made public as it is upset that journalists are reported as being on the list to start with.
Correio da Manhã says the team is taking the cases one at a time, following up all payments made and what they appear to have been for.
This way, they will be able to determine whether the payments were legitimate and whether the income was claimed by the recipient.
GES is understood to have paid out as much as €300 million from this fund – and as far as CM is aware, “none of it was declared in Portugal”.
Thus, the list “could reveal an unprecedented scandal of corruption”, says the paper – not to mention new suspects in the already long drawn out investigations into banking irregularities.
