The Court of Aveiro today sentenced three former businessmen to four years’ suspended imprisonment for having embezzled more than one million euros of state support for business investments.
The criminal acts took place between 2011 and 2013 and involve the legal representatives of a group of companies in the field of manufacturing concrete artifacts, based in the municipality of Oliveira do Bairro, in the district of Aveiro.
During the reading of the judgment, the presiding judge said that it had been proven that the defendants had “misused” part of the 2.6 million euros that had been handed over by IAPMEI – Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation for the implementation of an industrial project that they had set out to develop.
According to the facts proven, most of the embezzled money was used to realize equity that they had to secure and were unable to do so, a “major management error” assumed by the defendants, but which the panel of judges considered to be “an abuse that has criminal consequences”.
“The incentive money was used at your pleasure to plug a hole here, plug a hole there, in a group relationship that didn’t exist,” said the presiding judge.
The court considered, however, that these facts did not constitute the commission of the crime of fraud in obtaining a subsidy or grant, of which the defendants were accused, since “there is equipment and physical work that was developed and that concerned this project”.
After changing the legal classification of the facts, the defendants were sentenced to four years in prison each for the crime of misappropriation of subsidies in its aggravated form.
This sentence was suspended for a period of five years on condition that each of the defendants paid IAPMEI 20,000 euros.
The defendants were also ordered to pay fines of between 1,500 and 2,100 euros and an additional penalty of deprivation of the right to subsidies or grants for a period of three years.
The court also declared that 1.12 million euros had been forfeited to the state, and dismissed the request for the extended forfeiture of assets amounting to five million euros.
The defendants, who did not pay back any money, were also accused of money laundering and willful insolvency, but were acquitted of these crimes.
Although they partially confessed to the facts and showed self-censorship, the judge noted that the defendants “tried to show some exculpatory attitude, attributing many of the decisions to exogenous external conjectures”.
The judge also pointed out that these facts “have a serious consequence for the state and public interest institutions and denote a strong refusal on the part of citizens and compliant companies”, adding that the condemnatory decision will have to be publicized.
