From the BES universe to Banif. From the arms business to aviation. From real estate to law firms. Powerful interests have been sitting at the table with André Ventura to support the leader of the Portuguese extreme right. Several businessmen admit to financing Chega, reveals Revista Visão.
July 23, 2020 - 10:00 am
At the luxurious Quinta do Barruncho, on the outskirts of Lisbon, a powerful group of businessmen and businessmen and high finance joined the table with André Ventura and his vice-president, Diogo Pacheco de Amorim, last June 18th .
Among the strong dishes on the menu was the availability of diners to help André Ventura and assess his “needs”. The conversation about Chega's financing was obviously not off the menu.
The organization of the lunch was in charge of João Maria Bravo, The owner of Sodarca, who has several
millionaire contracts to supply arms to the Portuguese security forces and army(link is external), and
Helibravo(link is external), which has already earned millions more to the Portuguese State, even in fighting fires, mobilized several of its contacts. He is seen as an enthusiast of the extreme right deputy and does not hide his political opinions, or does not understand "that the country has been sinking since 1974"
In the article signed by the journalist Miguel Carvalho, the arms millionaire assumes bluntly that “in terms of financial aid, the necessary will be done”. And that will mobilize its means and contacts to make André Ventura and his extreme right party grow.
The list of gifts included Miguel Félix da Costa, whose family represented the lubricant brand Castrol in Portugal,
Slil's current strong man for 75 years.
(link is external), a holding company in the fields of real estate and tourism, which also has interests in
agriculture and
horse breeding. This businessman, who does not hide his
sympathies for Trump
, paraded alongside André Ventura in the recent racist demonstration organized by Chega, in Lisbon.
Carlos Barbot, owner of the business empire of Tintas Barbot, and Paulo Mirpuri, former owner of the bankrupt aviation operator Air Luxor, CEO of
Mirpuri Investments and Hi-Fly,
recently hired by the Government of António Costa to bring medical protective equipment from China, also did not miss the call. The group is also joined by lawyer João Pedro Gomes of the influential
BSGG with offices in Lisbon, Madeira and Rio de Janeiro and Francisco Sá Nogueira, former vice president of the former holding company of Grupo Espírito Santo for the activities of travel agencies and tour operator, Espírito Santo Viagens.
The allies of the BES and BANIF universe
The name of lawyer Francisco Cruz Martins was already associated with the
BANIF scandals
(link is external), BES,
Vale do Lobo, “
Panama Papers ”And the
Angolan elite.
For a while, his name also became linked to André Ventura. It is still ironic that the business lawyer and with a reputation for being iron-headed and a “facilitator” justifies his support for Chega with the fact that the deputy on the extreme right “shakes up the status quo and attacks political cronies”. The fact is that there are not many recent financial scandals and stories of political misdeeds that have not given rise to the name of Cruz Martins.
From Banif to BES it is a little jump. Who brought Cruz Martins closer to André Ventura was Salvador Posser de Andrade, who,
like José Maria Ricciardi, is the administrator of the former real estate company of Grupo Espírito Santo()The party's national leader also tells “Visão” that he used his business contacts to promote André Ventura and find money for the party.
Many of the “fundraising” meetings will have taken place at the luxurious Hotel Palácio, in Estoril. Among the facilitators were also the historic fascist militant Jaime Nogueira Pinto and Eduardo Amaral Neto, descendant of a prominent deputy from the Estado Novo dictatorship.
Regarding the future, Posser de Andrade is peremptory. "It is natural that more money starts to appear and some friends can help us to make Chega bigger".
