The Supreme Court of Brazil has decided to extradite to Portugal one of the key figures in an ingenious millionaire property-purchase scam.
João Moura is reported to have conned billionaires out of millions by selling their properties from under their noses.
The modus operandi involved Moura and various silver-tongued side-kicks pretending to be the owners of very swish properties all over Portugal.
According to national tabloid Correio da Manhã, they used forged documents of the properties’ legal owners to defraud purchasers.
They even hired practising lawyers to draw up promissory contacts that were signed at bona-fide registry offices.
Moura is believed to have made well over 20 million euros from the audacious scheme which came to light in 2011 when African diamond billionaire Renato Teixeira Hermínio contacted the PJ to say he had received an email from a company of lawyers informing him that land he had in Cascais’ luxury Quinta da Marinha complex had been sold for €14 million.
Similar cons then came to light involving a “palacete” in Oeiras, land at Tagus Park (a Lisbon development already steeped in rumours of corruption), an apartment at Foz do Porto, and a property in Viana do Castelo.
João Moura fled to Brazil but was arrested there last August. He will now face a court in Lisbon charged with criminal association, qualified fraud and the falsification of documents.
Only some of his accomplices have been rounded up by the authorities, writes CM.
