The Judiciary Police (PJ) carried out a "complementary operation" to the one known as "Nomos", targeting the Azores Tourism Association (ATA), due to the suspicion, among others, of crimes of fraud in obtaining subsidies, falsification of documents and economic participation in business.
This is operation "Nomos II”, which investigates economic and financial crime, did not constitute new defendants in relation to those already existing in 2019.
"At stake is the use of a 'Collective Person of Public Utility' status, whose object of activity was the dissemination and promotion of tourism in the Azores, having received several million euros of Community structural funds for this purpose, but which will have been used for purposes other than those legally eligible", stresses the statement issued by PJ.
Searches were carried out at ATA headquarters, as well as accounting offices and economic operators in the tourism sector.
In these searches, mostly carried out in São Miguel (11), but also in Lisbon (three), Porto (one) and Faro (one), it was possible to collect accounting documentation, invoices, contracts, payments, and other information.
According to the clarifications provided by the Judiciary, the operation resulted from the need to collect "additional elements in terms of documentary and digital evidence" for financial and accounting expertise. The same source admitted that this operation requires a wide range of expertise, involving national and international entities.
