Porto, Portugal, Dec. 24, 2025 (Lusa) - Porto-based lawyer, Paulo Topa, detained on Sunday on suspicion of corruption in a scheme to embezzle funds in insolvency and corporate recovery proceedings in Portugal, has been remanded in custody, a judicial source told the Lusa news agency.
According to the same source, the official suspect appeared for his first judicial questioning at the Criminal Investigation Court (TIC) in Porto, which ordered the most severe coercive measure, to remand the lawyer in custody.
In a statement released on Sunday, the Judicial Police (PJ - the country's main criminal investigation agency) reported the detention, explaining that it "was determined by information indicating an imminent risk of the suspect fleeing".
The lawyer's detention follows the execution of a warrant issued by the Porto Regional Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DIAP), which has been investigating this case for several months.
According to the PJ statement, Paulo Topa is "charged with the crimes of active corruption, fraudulent insolvency, document forgery and money laundering, for which he had already been detained twice" and later released.
The arrest took place days after SIC TV reported that the lawyer and insolvency administrators are suspected of embezzling €10 million from bankrupt businessmen.
"The PJ's investigation focuses on the concerted actions of the suspect, who was involved in insolvency and/or company recovery proceedings in the course of his professional duties as a lawyer," the PJ statement added.
The public prosecutor's office suspects that Paulo Topa, together with two other suspects who were arrested by the PJ in April, "developed a criminal scheme that allowed the insolvent parties to benefit and enabled the appropriation of assets by themselves or in favour of third parties, to the detriment of creditors".
The investigation maintains that the scheme involved individuals and companies trusted by the lawyer, who came forward "with fictitious credits and forged documentation, namely contracts relating to the respective real estate or establishment permits, which were immediately approved without being properly verified".
The fictitious credits not only allowed "the immediate appropriation of goods and property," but also "the approval of recovery plans [for the beneficiaries of the criminal scheme], so that the debtors could take advantage of their effects, suspending the action of the real creditors and dissipating the existing assets."
In the April statement, issued at the time of the arrest of the other suspects, the PJ stated that the crimes "had been committed since at least 2016".
JGS/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
