The Institute of Registries and Notaries (IRN) has known for at least seven months that Álvaro Sobrinho was using false identity documents, since he had renounced his Portuguese nationality in October 1984. But the services did not inform the address of the institution.

That is to say, the situation that was made public on November 6 through a SIC report was already known by the IRN services since the beginning of the year. According to what the Observer found, this is the main conclusion of the report that resulted from a survey on the services of the Institute of Registries and Notaries.

The case is also being investigated by the Public Ministry, which may involve the crime of false statements before a public official, since Sobrinho continued to declare Portuguese nationality in order to renew his documents.

IRN investigation into the use of national documents by Álvaro Sobrinho sent to the Public Ministry

The Observer tells you the details of a case that could also lead to the investigation of signs of corruption in the IRN.

The discovery of the ‘flaw’ in the registration by a Citizen Store

It was on April 3 when a call was made from the Saldanha Citizen Store to the technical assistance coordination for the citizen card indicating that Álvaro Sobrinho did not have Portuguese nationality. This assistance service sent an email to the support and information unit of the Civil Identification Department (DIC), after verifying that the Angolan banker’s nationality continued to appear as Portuguese in the Integrated Identification and Civil Registry System (SIRIC), although there was a record. of loss of nationality of November 12, 1984.

In just five days, according to the Observer, the DIC marked the information in the Civil Identification System (SIIC) and canceled Álvaro Sobrinho’s citizen ID card and passport. On the same day, April 8, 2024, the Internal Security System (SSI) was informed via email to seize the documents.

The former president of BES Angola was notified of the cancellation of his citizen card and the destruction of his passport on May 7 and saw his documents seized at the Humberto Delgado airport in Lisbon on August 11, before returning to Angola, where you are now. awaiting the start of the trial in which he is accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of euros from the Angolan subsidiary of the BES.

El Observador contacted Álvaro Sobrinho’s lawyer in the BES Angola case, Miguel Esperança Martins, for a comment on this case, but has so far not received a response.

Doubts about what the records did with Sobrinho’s documents

The legislation in force in 1984 provided for the Central Registry Office to communicate changes in nationality to the Foreigners Service (formerly SEF) and to the foreign consular services (in this case, Angola), which occurred on November 12 of that year and that It appears in the nationality file of the former president of BESA.

The civil identification legislation also defined that a citizen’s identity card would lose its validity if the respective identification elements were outdated and that the document had to be seized and sent to the Civil and Criminal Identification Center (CICC), if it was used by a public. entity.

Minister of Justice says that there are already flaws identified in the Álvaro Sobrinho file process

However, after 40 years between the request for loss of nationality and the rectification of the situation, the IRN has still not been able to understand if the document was retained or if the identity card was declared invalid. The institution directed by Filomena Rosa – whose term ends in December – admitted in its investigations that it was unable to find the letters, since, due to lack of space in the registry offices, the documents were destroyed.

The birth certificate computerization process, carried out in 2011 by the IRN, did not update the nationality field in SIRIC, which prevented the citizen card database from being updated with the indication of foreign nationality.

That is, a human error occurred, since said information would prevent the renewals of the identity document carried out by Álvaro Sobrinho between 1989 and 2020, in which he declared that he had the Portuguese nationality which he had renounced in 1984.

A combination of human error and computer error

The models for registering the loss of nationality have changed in the last four decades, with four types of registration existing. However, the option to extinguish nationality was not always present in all models, although it was mandatory; The nationality indication field was always available, despite being optional for registration.

The Institute of Financial Management and Justice Equipment (IGFEJ) has already carried out a series of tests that revealed the existence of several files of loss of nationality without completing any of those fields of the form during the computerization of the system carried out. carried out between 2009 and 2014.

The IGFEJ analysis also concluded that the process of losing Álvaro Sobrinho’s nationality was incomplete in terms of the endorsement model. The human error explained above was thus combined with an incomplete computer system, in which the database did not provide records of loss of nationality for the different models that existed over time.

The new MP investigation and the remaining processes

The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) confirmed this Wednesday the opening of an investigation in the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) of Lisbon for the alleged misuse of national documents by Álvaro Sobrinho, after the sending of the announced process in a statement on IRN last Friday.

“The Public Ministry requested the process to issue a certificate of parts of the process for subsequent referral to the DIAP, with a view to registering an investigation. This request has already been granted by the judge,” an official PGR source responded to the Observer.

The Observer knows that the IRN prepared a criminal complaint on November 11 to be presented to the Central Directorate of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP). At least the crime of false statements before a public official will be at stake, since the former president of BESA will have declared having Portuguese nationality for the revalidation of documents from recent decades. The Observer understands that the DCIAP can also investigate signs of corruption.

In addition to the criminal complaint, the now canceled citizenship card and passport were also sent.

Shortly after the disclosure of this case, the Minister of Justice, Rita Alarcão Júdice, indicated that she hoped there would be a judicial investigation: “Mr. Álvaro Sobrinho also knew that he had renounced his citizenship and continued to behave in a way that I did. I also hope it is investigated.”

Why will Ricardo Salgado and Álvaro Sobrinho be tried in the BES Angola case?

This case is approaching the beginning of the trial for the BESA case, in which Álvaro Sobrinho was sentenced in July of this year to trial for 18 crimes of aggravated abuse of trust and five of money laundering, in an accusation that was known in July of 2022.

The former president of the BES, Ricardo Salgado, will also be tried in this case for five crimes of abuse of trust and one of qualified fraud, and the former administrator Morais Pires (one crime of abuse of trust and one of fraud), Hélder Bataglia. (crime of abuse of trust) and Rui Silveira (crime of fraud).

Álvaro Sobrinho was also accused in September of aggravated money laundering in Sporting’s SAD, in a process in which the Prosecutor’s Office considers that the Angolan banker used BESA funds through the Holdimo company to invest around 20 million euros, having come to own around 29.8% of the capital of the Leonine company.

Dozens of documents already canceled by the IRN

Given this case of Álvaro Sobrinho, the DIC began a process of verifying documents of citizens who lost their nationality in recent years and found at least 37 citizen ID cards and 23 passports that were improperly active and that had already been cancelled.

In addition to this verification, the IRN requested the IGFEJ to make corrections to the computer system and communication between entities.