As her first “decision” as the new Minister for Internal Administration, Anabela Rodrigues has ordered an inquiry into the concession of Golden Visas and other residency applications.
The news, reported by Diário de Notícias this morning, comes in a story entitled “Foreign investment rises 641% up until Golden Visa crisis”.
How much the scandal will affect this exponential increase remains to be seen.
As DN reports, the property sector is rattled as daily news stories reveal new extremes of Golden Visa corruption.
In Correio da Manhã on Saturday, for instance, came the story of “closed envelopes” found by investigators searching SEF’s headquarters last week – indicating “thank-you paybacks” from Chinese extended Golden Visas.
The envelopes all contained €100, wrote CM, and were almost certainly destined for “staff members” at the Aliens and Frontiers authority.
The paper said investigators did “not attribute” the payments being for SEF boss Manuel Palos (one of the principal defendants in the case and still behind bars in Évora awaiting bail conditions), who the paper nonetheless maintains had been dubbed “Mr 10%” in the scandal.
Concentrating on the foreign investment angle, DN reports that Golden Visas were directly responsible for 10% of the €6.8 billion that came into Portugal between January and September this year. That is “almost eight times more” than the same period in 2013.
“Part of this value is explained by golden visas which brought more than €1 billion into Portugal since October 2012 – almost €700 million this year – overwhelmingly through property transactions,” added the paper.
“Of the 1,775 visas attributed, three were for the creation of employment, 91 were for transfers of capital, and the rest resulted from the purchase of houses.”
This is what has worried the property sector. It is now concerned it may lose this lucrative new segment of business.
Thus Anabela Rodrigues’ inquiry is seen as the first “decision of importance” of her new tenure.
