Operation Vortex: Former PSD mayor and friend of current PSD leader in further speculation

In the way that all investigations under Secrecy of Justice end up being leaked to the press (or ostensibly leaked), new revelations are coming implicating PSD MP and former mayor of Espinho Joaquim Pinto Moreira in the Operation Vortex investigation. Pinto Moreira’s successor, Miguel Reis, is already in preventive custody over his alleged role in Vortex. Now, it appears further dirt has been unearthed on Pinto Moreira, a friend of the party leader Luís Montenegro: Pinto Moreira is understood to have pressured authorities to construct an old people’s home (to be built by a man, also now in preventive custody) who wanted to build it, says Expresso – and was to have received money for doing so. He equally is suspected of having “asked for favours to approve a building project of a family member”. Pinto Moreira, however, has not been made an official suspect in Vortex, and up till now still enjoys parliamentary privilege. He has also wholeheartedly rejected any allegations of corruption.