The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) has brought charges against 24 defendants (13 men and 9 women working for two companies on the island of Terceira, Azores) for several crimes under Operation Mayday. The suspects have defrauded the State for more than 9.5 million euros through the social mobility allowance – SSM -.
According to the indictment, the guilty are charged with crimes of speculation, falsification of documents, fraud, laundering, and criminal association.
The scheme originated in two travel agencies created for the purpose of selling tickets between the autonomous regions and the mainland at prices lower than market price.
The intention of the defendants was to obtain undue advantages via reimbursement of the social mobility allowance, which sets the price of the connections between the mainland with the Azores and Madeira at 134 and 86 euros, respectively.
Among the crimes with the highest incidence, the travel agency Dias Estridentes is accused of 2,417 crimes of falsification of documents (together with 18 other defendants) and 2,199 crimes of speculation (with five more defendants).
The company Iven Cunha/Fly Dreams will answer for 1,025 crimes of speculation (with three defendants) and 1,149 crimes of falsification of documents (with four other defendants).
In a statement, the MP said:
“As is apparent from the facts described in the indictment, with the commission of the crimes for which they were accused, through the use of false documentation, the defendants obtained monies via the SSM that were not due to them by defrauding CTT into making what they believed legitimate payments.”
In a 600-page document, the agencies are accused of selling low-price flights (“as a rule 25 euros”), issuing “invoices-receipts in the name of the purchasers of the tickets for the amounts effectively paid by them, thus giving discharge of the payment received.”
Furthermore, the MP states, fictitious invoices-receipts were created in the name of one of the defendants whose flight prices had been over-inflated to obtain the SSM.
Between June 2023 and March 2024, Dias Estridentes created 2,417 fraudulent invoices, which cost the State more than 7.2 million euros. Monies they are not entitled to, state the Public Prosecutors office.
Iven Cunha/Fly Dreams, on the other hand, created at least 1,149 fictitious invoices, which resulted in CTT paying out 2.3 million euros in SSM.
The MP also substantiates the accusation that the agencies created campaigns that offered trips for members of the Public Security Police, the National Republican Guard (GNR), Volunteer Firefighters, prison guards, and maritime police.
At the time of writing this article 6.22 million of the stolen 9.5 million have been recovered through the seizure of goods such as yachts and top-of-the-range vehicles
As part of the operation, 26 searches were carried out, which resulted in the arrest of nine people in March 2024.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
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