The new Secretary of State for Agriculture, Carla Alves, has had her bank accounts seized. These are accounts that she holds jointly with her husband, the former mayor of Vinhais, who is being investigated by the Judiciary Police for suspected crimes of active corruption and abuse of power.
The news was reported by the newspaper Correio da Manhã, which had access to the accusation made against Alves’ husband, Américo Pereira. According to the newspaper, the Judiciary Police discovered strange movements in the couple’s accounts since 2013. Between July and December of that year, the couple declared earnings of 44,000 euros but 54,000 euros entered their accounts. The following year, they declared 135,000 euros, but 180,000 euros entered their accounts. In 2015, the declared income was 135,000 euros, but 338,000 euros entered the couple’s shared accounts. In 2016 and 2017, the situation was different but equally suspicious, with the accounts reaching lows, and in 2018 there was another discrepancy: they declared 159,000 euros, but 228,000 euros entered the shared bank accounts.
According to Correio da Manhã, the Judiciary Police even speaks of the “miracle of multiplication,” since the current governing official was a public employee but received, in the accounts shared with her husband, much more money than she declared.
Carla Alves had been the Regional Director of Agriculture and Fisheries of the North since 2018 and took office this Wednesday as the new Secretary of State for Agriculture, replacing Rui Martinho, who left the position.
The case occurs just one day after taking office and adds to the sum of cases that have affected several government officials. The last one had been around the Secretary of State for the Treasury, appointed on December 2 and resigned three weeks later following the controversy over the TAP compensation.
