Portuguese businessman Armando Pereira, co-founder of the Altice telecommunications group embroiled in a corruption case, has posted ten million euros in bail to end his house arrest, his lawyer announced on Monday.
“We are just waiting for the judge to confirm the validity of the bail payment, and from there Armando Pereira will be able to move freely,” lawyer Manuel Magalhaes e Silva told reporters after a Lisbon court hearing in the upload file.
According to local media, this is the largest bail ever requested by a Portuguese court.
Armando Pereira, the former right-hand man of Altice boss Patrick Drahi, was arrested on July 13 in a large-scale raid that led to a search of the company’s headquarters in Lisbon.
The investigation concerns incidents that are likely to constitute crimes of “corruption in the private sector, tax fraud, forgery and the use of counterfeiting, and money laundering,” according to the Public Prosecutor.
The Portuguese businessman, suspected of 11 acts of corruption and money laundering, is also suspected of creating a network of suspicious suppliers with the aim of embezzling large sums of money through a policy of group procurement. Mr. Pereira refutes these doubts.
Altice is the parent company of French operator SFR.
