The investigation concerns facts “which may constitute crimes for acquisitive purposes, active corruption, falsification of documents, money laundering” or even “tax evasion,” the Portuguese prosecutor’s office said in a press release. Judicial Police investigators on Friday carried out several searches of the Porto Jewish community, which led the process that allowed Roman Abramovich to be granted Portuguese citizenship in April 2021.
According to local media, in addition to the rabbi of Porto, the lawyer of the leaders of the Jewish community, who are suspected of issuing false certificates of Jewish origin of several candidates, is also accused in this case.
Complaint
As part of this naturalization law, the Jewish communities of Porto or Lisbon must provide a certificate confirming the Jewish origin of candidates, a document which is then submitted to the Institute of Registries and Notaries (IRN) before the procedure is confirmed by the Ministry of Justice.
The owner of London’s Chelsea Football Club benefited from this indemnity law, allowing all descendants of Sephardic Jews persecuted and expelled in the late 15th century to acquire Portuguese citizenship.
The Jewish community of Porto, which points out that this investigation is also directed against other naturalization procedures such as Patrick Drai, owner and founder of the telecommunications and media group Altice, denies these allegations of wrongdoing.