Sporting reacted, on Friday night, to the decision of the process e-mole, which culminated in the conviction of Paulo Gonçalves to two years and six months in prison on a suspended sentence, for a crime of active corruption. In a statement, the “lions” are surprised by the fact that the court has not made the connection between the former legal adviser and the rest of Benfica’s top management.
“Sporting Clube de Portugal – Futebol SAD is surprised that the court considered it plausible that this sports agent, despite having been “the preponderant element that triggered the entire sequence of crimes”, had not informed anything of his actions and the result of its diligences to the then president of SLB SAD, Luís Filipe Vieira, nor its vice-presidents or administration”, writes Sporting.
Benfica was not judged, as it has not been proven that Benfica managed or even tried to benefit from the action of Paulo Gonçalves, who received information on processes under secrecy of justice from the bailiff José Silva, sentenced to a suspended sentence of five years of prison.
Sporting also points out that, despite the fact that the employment relationship between Paulo Gonçalves and Benfica was officially extinguished at the end of 2018, the former legal advisor remained an active figure in the “red and white” universe, having been an intermediary in some transfers from “eagles”.
“The employment relationship between SLB and Paulo Gonçalves will have ended at the end of 2018, but the latter, in addition to being a constant presence at the club’s stadium, appears associated with SLB as an intermediary in several subsequent deals, such as the transfer of Darwin Nuñez from SLB to Liverpool, with which, according to public news, he will have profited five million euros. There is doubt about the reason for this intermediation on the part of the lawyer who no longer had a connection to the SLB and on whom suspicions and accusations of corruption already fell”, he says. the Alvalade club.
In addition to the Luz rival, the “lions” also took the opportunity to direct their sights to the north of the country, more specifically to FC Porto. Considering that “justice failed in the process of Apito Dourado”, Sporting says that “crime cannot compensate”.
Hours before the announcement, the club’s main supporters, Juve Leo, had criticized Sporting’s lack of a statement on the case. Sporting, assistant in the process e-moledid not appeal in the instructional phase, in which the acquittal of Benfica’s SAD was decided.
Paulo Gonçalves, Benfica’s former legal adviser, was this Wednesday sentenced to two years and six months in prison, with suspended sentence, as part of the e-mole. The former employee of the “incarnates” came to trial accused of six crimes of violation of the secrecy of justice, 21 of violation of secrecy by employee, nine of undue access, nine of violation of the duty of secrecy in co-authorship, in addition to a crime of active corruption, two of undue access and two of violation of the duty of secrecy. Of the 50 crimes he was charged with, Paulo Gonçalves was acquitted of 49 and convicted of a crime of active corruption.