The Obra Diocesana do Porto and four former directors and employees were sentenced on Thursday to suspended prison terms of between two and three years for tax fraud by falsifying user lists to obtain Social Security benefits.
Speaking to Lusa after reading the ruling, which took place this morning at the São João Novo Court in Porto, one of the institution’s lawyers, Rui Barreira, said that appeal the decisionand accused the group of judges of having made “a presentation for the media.”
According to the indictment, from 2020, the defendants used various schemes for get social security quotesFrom using users who had already died or who did not even exist, they began to “loan” users between the different social centres they managed, in addition to placing elderly people or children on the lists who did not meet the age requirements to attend the social centres.
“What we witnessed was a presentation to the media by the president of the court, which shook up what could have been a collective effort,” said Rui Barreira.
Four of the six defendants were sentenced to prison sentences of between two and three yearssuspended in its execution and, said Rui Barreira, to the solidarity payment, together with the Diocesan Work, of around one million euros.
The other two defendants were acquitted.
“There was a summary reading of the ruling, in which the judge gave notes on what was proven or not, and it got to the point where the judge asked the lawyers and the Public Prosecutor’s Office if they had already spoken about everything. I had never seen this before,” the lawyer criticised.
For Rui Barreira, “this reading gave rise to the premises of the appeal, which can only be favorable to the defendants.”
“The court found that there was no benefit for a preschooler registered to attend another class, but there was for an adult who attended a different class. This ruling showed that the group did not understand anything about how the system of cooperation with Social Security works,” he said.
The lawyer also stressed that “the court itself acknowledged that none of the defendants obtained any benefit from this case, that they acted in favor of the institution.”
In April 2023, in a statement, the Obra Diocesana do Porto – a private social solidarity institution (IPSS) – acknowledged that irregularities committed between 2009 and 2015 through the “communication of false data” related to cooperation agreements with Social Security were being investigated, stressing that the MP “has not recorded any evidence of misappropriation of securities by any of the accused (natural persons) for their personal and private benefit”.
Founded in 1964, with headquarters in Porto and located in social neighbourhoods of this city, the Diocesan Work for Social Promotion provides support to nearly two thousand users and is made up of 12 Social Centres that cover 55 social responses, including Nurseries, Pre-school Centres, Establishments, Schools, Activity and Leisure Centres, Day and Social Centres, Home Support Service, Social Canteens, Family Support Centre and Parental Guidance.
Source: Observadora
