This is the largest bail ever required by a Portuguese court, according to local media. Portuguese entrepreneur Armando Pereira, co-founder of the Altice telecoms group involved in a corruption case, paid the sum of ten million euros to end his house arrest, his lawyer announced on Monday.
“We are only waiting for the judge to confirm the validity of the payment of the bail, and from there Armando Pereira will be able to move freely,” lawyer Manuel Magalhaes e Silva told journalists after the Lisbon court in load file.
Tax fraud and money laundering
Former right-hand man of Altice boss Patrick Drahi, Armando Pereira was arrested on July 13 in a vast raid which led to a search of the company’s headquarters in Lisbon. The investigation concerns facts likely to constitute crimes of “corruption in the private sector, tax fraud, forgery and use of forgery and money laundering”, according to the public prosecutor.
The Portuguese businessman, suspected of eleven acts of corruption and money laundering, is also suspected of having set up a network of dubious suppliers with the aim of embezzling large sums of money via the policy of group purchases. Armando Pereira disputes these suspicions.
Altice is the parent company of the French operator SFR.