It begins today at the Court of Beja, the trial of a former Business Manager at the Beja Branch of Banco Santander Totta (BST), accused of having embezzled almost 1,4 million, in material co-authorship with seventeen other defendants. The case was revealed by Lidador NotĂcias (LN) in May 2016.
Sergio Easter, then with 37 year old, took advantage of its functions to “interfere with the computer processing of data from the bank, to obtain the concession of credits and the payment of sums, obtaining illicit enrichment and economic damage to the institution”, justified the MP in the indictment order.
Between 7 November 2014 and 10 February 2016, the defendant “created and managed credit granting processes in which promissory notes were signed, current account contracts signed and blank checks signed, which caused property damage of 1.397.000 euros”, describes the charge.
The defendant “counted on the collaboration of acquaintances and friends who in turn hired other people to collaborate on the plan and in exchange for receiving financial compensation”, maintains the MP magistrate.
When in May 2016 the case was triggered and the suspect submitted his resignation, Santander source justified that "irregularities practiced by an employee at the Beja branch were detected", adding that according to the data collected “it will not have harmed any customer”, concluded.
The first suspicious operation began in a bank account belonging to the mother and of which the defendant was a co-holder., being accused of 38 crimes, 21 of which in authorship and 17 in co-authorship with the other defendants, qualified fraud, document forgery and computer forgery. The remaining 17 defendants are accused of a crime of computer fraud and another of document forgery, each.
Nonconformists, six defendants, four people and two companies, requested the opening of the process instruction, but the Criminal Investigation Judge maintained the charges, and they will all be tried for the crimes for which they were pronounced in the indictment.
"Haunted House"
When the case was revealed by LN, the building where the bank is located and where another banking institution was headquartered, was baptized as “Haunted House". two decades ago, when the Portuguese Property Credit was installed there (CPP), an employee embezzled a large amount of money from customers. The author of the embezzlement was Francisco Hope, the man in 21 February 2012 killed the woman, daughter and granddaughter. The triple murderer who committed suicide days later, He served jail time in Prison Beja, the diversion of money from CPP, where he graduated in law.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
