Suspended sentence sought for Vieira in Saco Azul, impact on Benfica

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·17 Desember 2025

Suspended sentence sought for Vieira in Saco Azul, impact on Benfica

In the closing arguments of the trial in Lisbon, the prosecutor also requested the application of the same penalty to Domingos Soares de Oliveira, former CEO of Benfica, and Miguel Moreira, former financial director of the club.

“The evidence shows that the said plan was initiated by the defendant Luís Filipe Vieira,” the magistrate stated, adding that the former president of the 'reds' then “made the plan known” to Domingos Soares de Oliveira and Miguel Moreira, to which they adhered and of which, due to their roles, they could not have been unaware.

The allegedly simulated contracts were supposedly signed between the company Questãoflexível and Benfica Estádio, paid by the latter and by Benfica SAD, for which the prosecutor argued that the three companies should be sentenced to fines.

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The process also includes three other defendants – José Bernardes, owner of Questãoflexível, and José Raposo and Paulo Silva, accused of assisting him in the scheme – for whom the Public Prosecutor's Office also requested suspended prison sentences.

Regarding Luís Filipe Vieira – who presided over Benfica from October 31, 2003, to July 15, 2021 – Domingos Soares de Oliveira (who continued at the club after that date), Miguel Moreira, and José Bernardes, prosecutor Cláudia Caldas argued that the suspension of the sentences should be conditioned on the payment to the State of the compensation set in the proceedings, related to unpaid taxes.

In total, the Public Prosecutor's Office requested that these four defendants and the three companies be jointly obliged to pay 113,328 euros, plus late payment interest, concerning improper declarations of Value Added Tax (VAT) and Corporate Income Tax (IRC).

The suspected facts are said to have occurred between 2016 and 2018.

The case involves crimes of qualified tax fraud and document forgery, in an alleged scheme where the defendants, through fictitious IT consultancy contracts, allegedly withdrew more than 1.8 million euros from Benfica, an amount that largely returned to the club in cash.

Three of the defendants are charged with 22 crimes – 19 of document forgery and three of tax fraud – attributed in co-authorship with the company QuestãoFlexível and the defendant José Bernardes.

Benfica SAD, the sports public limited company, is charged with two crimes of qualified tax fraud, and Benfica Estádio SA is charged with one crime of qualified tax fraud and 19 crimes of document forgery.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.