2021, 2022. Luís Neves directed the Polícia Judiciária, collaborated with Albano Pinto at the DCIAP, and supervised the inquiries into Judge Ivo Rosa and the Jewish Community in Porto. As a high-ranking public official and the former head of Portugal’s primary anti-corruption police force, Luís Neves was legally and ethically expected to be a scrupulous, law-abiding citizen. This expectation is precisely why his appointment as Minister of Internal Administration (Ministro da Administração Interna) became mired in severe public controversy following revelations of a systemic double standard regarding transparency and compliance.
Like a demolition tractor, Luís Neves breached administrative, municipal, civil, and criminal procedural laws.
1) The hiring of a contractor from Barcelos by Luís Neves for private works on his estate in Odemira has raised public debate over potential conflicts of interest and corruption hypotheses. The company involved, Construbarcelos (owned by João Santos Carvalho), was awarded 17 contracts by the Judiciary Police (PJ) totaling approximately €2.3 million during the period when Luís Neves was the head of the institution. Sharp-tongued critics like former Bar Association leader Marinho Pinto invoke the specters of corruption or economic participation in business
2) Public accusations arise due to suspected political favors, low cash payments, and missing payment proof. These involve a conflict of interest, a low 5,000-euro cash amount, and unrecorded work by a distant builder on his property. Neves stated he paid 5,000 euros in cash for small costs. Workers traveled far from Barcelos on weekends for two years, which critics say is too cheap for the small sum paid. People questioned the lack of early bank records and proper local licenses for building parts like a pool. Besides, paying 5 thousand euros in cash is illegal in Portugal, violating the 3,000-euro cash limit for individuals.
3) Missing asset declarations to the Tribunal Constitucional. Luís Neves omitted his mandatory declarations of assets, income, and interests to the Constitutional Court (Tribunal Constitucional) throughout his tenure as the National Director of the Judicial Police between 2018 and 2024. Under Portuguese law, failing to submit required declarations gives the court the power to enforce a termination of the mandate. If this issue had been officially raised and processed while he was still leading the PJ, it should have resulted in his dismissal or forced resignation from that specific role.
4) Luis Neves ordered that a trailer with drums of chemicals, seized following a criminal case, be transferred to the possession of the Barcelos builder who was his friend. This action is illegal, involving an official criminal inquiry. The legal focus of the Public Prosecutor's Office centers strictly on abutil of power and misappropriation/asset diversion.
5) Luís Neves, carried out unlicensed construction works in a protected environmental zone on his family property in São Teotónio, Odemira. The land is located within the Sudoeste Alentejano and Costa Vicentina Natural Park and overlaps with both the National Ecological Reserve (REN) and the National Agricultural Reserve (RAN). Building concrete surfaces or pools on RAN/REN soils without joint authorization from the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) or CCDR constitutes a serious environmental infraction. They carry severe financial penalties. The fines can range from thousands to tens of thousands of euros.
In 2022, officials led by Luís Neves and Albano Pinto raided the Porto synagogue. The evidence required by law for that ostentatious search was not present. Everything was reduced to the political will to destroy a law, a fake news story planted by the government in an official newspaper, the use of slanderous accusations from a convicted criminal, and the fabrication that the Community corrupted registry offices and was an open door for unqualified people to obtain citizenship.
Years later, not a single case of a poorly issued certificate or a corrupt registry office has been identified. The seized material only served to invade the organization's associative life, spit on people's honor, and interpret everything against them, never to their benefit.
The Jewish Community of Porto has always characterized what happened as a case of serious state corruption, immersed in the trafficking of favors between political, media, and judicial powers in an attempt to destroy an organized minority, which resulted in a resounding and pathetic failure.
Meanwhile, the Community is on track to complete 11 years of minyan and has become the world leader in promoting Jewish culture.
