Portuguese justice announced on Friday evening that it had carried out several searches, in particular arresting the rabbi of the Porto community as part of an investigation into the naturalization of descendants of Jews expelled in the 15th century from which the owner of Chelsea Roman Abramovich. The Portuguese Public Prosecutor’s Office specifies in a press release that the investigation concerns “facts likely to constitute the offenses of influence peddling, active corruption, falsification of documents, money laundering or even tax evasion”.
Portuguese justice had opened an investigation last January into Abramovich’s naturalization procedure. The Russian billionaire had benefited from a law allowing all descendants of Sephardic Jews, persecuted and expelled at the end of the 15th century, to obtain Portuguese nationality. In a press release, the Israelite community of Porto explains that community officials are suspected of having issued false certificates of Jewish ancestry to several candidates. Charges that are refuted by the main interested parties.