Gil Loureiro managed Hernâni Antunes’ companies and helped hide the identity of the
businessman. First he tried to destroy evidence, then he gave up and handed over
documentation.
Álvaro Gil Loureiro, one of the defendants in Operation Picoas, which investigates crimes of
private corruption and tax fraud around supplies and real estate deals with assets that belonged to Altice , was the man who went to Paris to buy a property to compensate Armando Pereira for his alleged collaboration in the millionaire scheme and who handed him the keys to the new apartment.
This economist from Braga played a decisive role in the implementation of the strategy
strategy set up by businessman Hernâni Vaz Antunes and Altice co-founder Armando Pereira.
Pereira, having confessed, when questioned by Judge Carlos Alexandre, that he obeyed the instructions of the former, whom he considers to be a the instructions of the former, whom he regards as a father.
In the interrogation, it became evident, according to the magistrate, the reverential fear
of this economist towards Hernâni Antunes, who ends up being described (based on the
statements of Loureiro, and Hernâni’s daughter, Jéssica as someone of an imperative, manipulative, calculating, self-centered and impulsive nature.
As for Gil Loureiro, it was concluded that he has a personality somewhat permeable to
the dictates of more imposing people and is someone who has not shown that he has
internalized the incorrectness of his conduct in an intricate network that, according to
the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), will have damaged the State by more than 100 million
euros and diverted about 250 million euros from Altice.
Throughout the interrogation, he repeated several times the phrase “but that’s legal”,
when confronted with the architecture of the schemes he allegedly set up to illicitly
reduce the amount of tax to be paid by the other defendants, or to relocate funds
between the various companies controlled by the defendant Hernâni Antunes to, for
example, companies based in the United Arab Emirates.
It was also proven by the statements of this economist (brother of another of the
defendants, the lawyer Duarte Loureiro) that it was his initiative to destroy and hide
evidence, by cleaning the electronic equipment of other participants in the process.
Prior notice
Loureiro said during questioning that he was informed by telephone by Hernâni on July 5
that an inspection by the Braga tax office was planned (as it turned out on July 13, with
search procedures in various parts of the country in which the Public Prosecutor’s Office
and the Tax Authority collaborated). Given this information, Gil Loureiro (to whom
Hernâniconfessed to paying bonuses and commissions) went to Luxembourg, where he also lived, to deal with
certain matters. He did the same for Madeira.
At first, Gil Loureiro said he had been cleaning offices, then, during questioning, he went
backwards and eventually indicated the place where he had hidden 130 folders of
documentation and provided the credentials for accessing the electronic equipment that
was seized from him.
His statements in the interrogation revealed that he knew and believed in the strategy set by Hernâni, so much so that he began by assuming that he was the true holder of the 50% stake in the Smartdev entity (one of the entities that bought real estate from Altice), as well as the companies owned by it.
Both Gil Loureiro and Hernâni Antunes admitted that the former was a mere fiduciary holder, only intended to conceal the identity of the real owner of the companies (Hernâni Antunes).
Loureiro took over the execution of the financial and corporate organization of the entire
group of companies controlled by the businessman from Braga and is, alongside Jessica,
identified as the main collaborator of the alleged scheme set up from Braga.
Both were able to move accounts in different countries to circulate money that allowed undue advantages to be given to employees of the Altice group – Gil Loureiro is thought to have been involved in giving advantages to figures such as Hakim Boubazine, Olivier Sansané and Olivier Duquesne, who somehow tainted the hiring process at Altice.
In order to extract commissions from other companies providing services to the Altice group, Gil Loureiro also set up invoicing circuits without any support in the actual services provided.
The evidence detected by the investigators and all the statements made by Álvaro Gil Loureiro during questioning lead to the conclusion that he was the executor of the strategy of transferring several of Hernâni Antunes’ companies to the Madeira Free Trade Zone, in order to please his boss by obtaining significant tax savings, and that he too ended up falsely declaring himself as a non-resident.
After being heard by the judge, Gil Loureiro was released, but was required to report to the police every two weeks and was prevented from contacting other defendants. In addition, he had to post a bail of 250,000 euros