André Ventura, the leader of Portugal’s Chega party, has no real estate under his name and has never declared any securities or financial investments. Nonetheless, an analysis reveals that his checking account balance has more than doubled in the last five years and a half.
The latest declaration by Ventura indicated financial assets amounting to €112,000, compared to €48,000 in 2018.
While serving as a councilor in the Loures Municipality, Ventura co-owned a pastry shop with his father-in-law in Entrecampos, Lisbon, holding a 45% share while his father-in-law owned 55%.
Five days after resigning as councilor, Ventura sold the pastry shop and did not declare the sale amount to the Constitutional Court, believing he was no longer obligated to do so after leaving office.
Ventura disclosed that he earned €38,250 from the sale in 2018 and paid €4,500 in taxes, ensuring that the new partners were neither family members nor part of his network of contacts.
Had the sale occurred while he was still a councilor, Ventura would have needed to report it to the Constitutional Court, as the earnings exceeded 50 times the minimum wage.
Ventura was out of political office and not subject to Constitutional Court scrutiny between October 2018 and June 2019. Upon being elected as Chega’s sole parliamentary member in 2019, he submitted financial declarations detailing all income earned in the prior year.
At that time, Ventura was required to report the €38,000 from the pastry shop sale. Although it was included in his 2018 tax return, it was absent from the Constitutional Court declarations.
He noted that politicians are required to declare “the gross income listed on the most recent tax return filed for individual income tax purposes.”
However, Ventura did not comply with this law in 2018, as he did not submit a cessation of functions declaration after ending his term as a councilor. The Constitutional Court did not detect this omission, although they requested other overdue declarations in February 2023 without mentioning the cessation document.
Over the past five years, Ventura has consistently submitted income declarations to the Constitutional Court, including earnings from teaching at two universities, consultancy for a law firm, and his role as a commentator for CMTV.
From December 2019 to his latest income declaration presented to the Transparency Entity in February this year, Ventura’s personal assets increased by 131%, with his balance rising from €48,891.72 to €112,910.23.
He does not own any real estate, vehicles, savings accounts, securities, financial investments, debts, or special holdings, according to the analysis, although he made updates to his declaration of interest.
In addition to serving as a parliamentary deputy for the past three years, Ventura is a member of the Moura municipal assembly, beginning in October 2021, and is set to take on the role of a State Council advisor starting June 2024.
