When, in 2022, police officers under the orders of Luís Neves accused the Jewish Community of Porto of corrupting registry offices – even though no one in the organization's leadership knew a single registry office – a good portion of infantilism populated the public debate. For years, the word corruption served as a tool for officials to advance their careers and spit on the astonished targets.

The problem is that celestial energy always ends up restoring the truth and severely punishing those who dare to spit the Jews. The recent controversy involving two high-ranking officials of the judicial police - Luis Neves and Álvaro Pires - seems to be clear proof of this.

Construbarcelos, a contractor owned by João dos Santos Carvalho, conducted home renovations at Neves and Pires' private residences. Neves presented invoices revealing a payment of €5,000 for the works. Pires has not yet shown how much he paid, and for now it is known that he only paid €150 to have a Carvalho's van repaired. All these amounts were paid in cash.

Between 2020 and 2025, Construbarcelos was awarded 17 different public works contracts by the PJ worth roughly €2.3 million. Several of these contracts, including major upgrades in Guarda and Évora, were completed through an exceptional direct-award regime without competitive public tenders. It is known that these works were not exactly perfect, quite the contrary.

The owner of Construbarcelos is a close personal friend of Luís Neves, the former National Director of the PJ. Neves appointed Pires as financial director during his tenure. Not by chance, the appointment was signed by Minister Francisca Van Dunem, who had also appointed Luís Neves to head that police force and Albano Pinto to head the DCIAP.

The socialist machine in Justice was being assembled. Political scientist José Santos Ferreira summarized it as follows: "State control is being exercised in this blatant way, even within the PJ (Judicial Police), an institution that should be fighting corruption in an impartial and independent manner."

Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. This applies to Neves and Pires. Yet, in abstract terms, a public official who endorses €2.3 million contracts and subsequently receives free or heavily discounted home renovations from that contractor could be committing several crimes under Portuguese criminal law, depending on specific circumstances.

1. Crime of Passive Corruption. The offense occurs when a public official, directly or through an intermediary, requests or accepts an unauthorized property or non-property advantage (or the promise of it) to perform or omit an official act.
Receiving home renovations free of charge or significantly below market value constitutes a clear, unauthorized material advantage. If these renovations were a quid pro quo (the "counterpart") for endorsing or facilitating the €2.3 million contract, it directly fulfills the criteria for corruption. If the act violates the duties of the office (e.g., bypassing public procurement rules), the penalty is 1 to 8 years of imprisonment. If the act itself is lawful but the reward is still accepted, the penalty is 1 to 5 years.

2. Crime of Economic Participation in Business. This crime applies when a public official, who is responsible for administering, supervising, defending, or executing a specific state legal transaction, intentionally harms the state's financial interests in that transaction to secure an illicit economic gain for themselves or a third party.
If an official bloated the €2.3 million contract terms to allow the contractor to overcharge the state—and then used that margin to fund the personal home renovations—the crime is fully applicable. Punished with a prison sentence of up to 5 years.

3. Crime of Undue Receipt of Advantage. This crime eliminates the need to prove a specific connection between a quid pro quo act and the reward. It simply penalizes a public official for soliciting or accepting an unauthorized benefit by virtue of holding their public position or during the exercise of their duties. Punished with a prison sentence of up to 5 years.

Pires was already under fire after admitting under ordens of Neves he personally authorized transferring a heavy trailer, which was filled with chemical precursors seized from a major cocaine trafficking ring, into the custody of Construbarcelos.

The question that now everyone is asking is how and where did so much love come from between Neves, Pires and Carvalho, a love triangle that will presumably still cause a lot of ink until the end of September.