The interrogation of Armando Pereira, co-founder of Altice and defendant in the Picoas case, has ended. Hernâni Vaz Antunes began to be heard this afternoon.
During the afternoon of Thursday, Hernâni Vaz Antunes began to be heard, who is said to have secured billing contracts of 660 million euros with Altice, through several companies. The interrogation will continue this Friday.
He was the last of four defendants to be detained, and is therefore the last to be heard. As there will be no court proceedings over the weekend, it is likely that the coercive measures will not be released until early next week.
As for Armando Pereira, he spent a total of eight hours explaining himself to the judge. But despite this, he will continue to be detained because the coercive measures will only be known after all the defendants have been questioned.
The co-founder of Altice was confronted with decisions he made to benefit companies owned by his friend and businessman from Braga, Hernâni Vaz Antunes. He was questioned about the alleged benefits of this friendship connection and about contracts for soccer broadcasting rights.
The suspicions involve crimes of active and passive corruption, money laundering and document forgery.
Observador reports that Armando Pereira’s son-in-law, who isAltice USA’s purchasing director, has been temporarily removed from his position and is on leave.
Alexandre Fonseca, Altice’s current international representative, has suspended all his duties at the company.
Altice Portugal is carrying out an internal investigation and has suspended payments to companies that are cited in the Picoas case.
Altice group workers in Portugal say that if the suspicions are confirmed, they feel they are being used for fraudulent purposes.
