During the trial of the Operação Marquês case in Lisbon, agronomist Ana Bessa, wife of Pedro Silva Pereira, testified that in 2013 and 2014 she provided consultancy services to a company owned by Carlos Santos Silva, receiving a monthly fee of 5,000 euros for advising on investment opportunities in the African market.
Recounting her “17 years of activity in the tropics,” the environment and energy specialist acknowledged that she did not produce any written reports but noted that she verbally shared her assessments of information from various sources with Carlos Santos Silva during meetings at his company’s office in Lisbon.
“The work was done,” she stated, explaining that she did not manage to share a report with the businessman because he was arrested in November 2014 on suspicion of being a front man used by former Prime Minister José Sócrates (2005-2011) to accept money from corrupt sources.
The Public Prosecutor’s office alleges the work contract was falsified as a means for José Sócrates to pay expenses for Pedro Silva Pereira, who was the Minister of the Presidency in the two socialist governments and a close friend for many years.
Among these expenses, the prosecution suggests, was the accommodation in 2013 for the couple’s son in Paris while he undertook an internship in the French capital.
Today, Ana Bessa recounted her surprise at the time over the accommodation being in an aparthotel instead of at the house of José Sócrates’s ex-wife and one of his sons, at a cost of nearly 15,000 euros.
When questioned about who paid this amount, the agronomist replied that she did not know.
At the beginning of her testimony, when asked if she still maintains a friendship with José Sócrates, Ana Bessa emphasized that it ended with the onset of Operação Marquês, due to “loss of trust” caused by the process and her involvement in the case.
Pedro Silva Pereira, once considered the right-hand man of the former prime minister, also ended his friendship, revealed the ex-minister’s wife.
José Sócrates, aged 68, has been charged with 22 crimes, including three of corruption, for allegedly receiving money to benefit the Lena group—of which Carlos Santos Silva had connections—the Espírito Santo Group (GES), and the Vale do Lobo resort in the Algarve.
The case involves a total of 21 defendants, who have generally denied committing the 117 economic and financial crimes with which they are charged.
Carlos Santos Silva, also 68, faces charges for 23 crimes, while Pedro Silva Pereira and Ana Bessa have not been charged with any offenses.
The trial has been ongoing since July 3 at the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon, with sessions scheduled at least until December 18, 2025.
