Commission Against Corruption, Macao SAR

The Collective Court under the Court of First Instance re-adjudicated on February 9 a case of a former employee of the Finance Services Bureau convicted of embezzlement and fraud. The defendant, Fernando Valentim da Silva Nogueira, was sentenced to a 10-year imprisonment for 7 crimes of embezzlement and 5 crimes of fraud. He was also ordered to pay back over 10 million patacas including interest to the 5 victims in the case and to pay a court fee of MOP3,150.

The case was revealed by the former High Commission Against Corruption and Administrative Illegality (ACCCIA) in 1994. The defendant fled overseas and was tried in absentia to a 15-year imprisonment in February 1999. He was detained by police and remanded to prison when he returned to Macao last year. Upon request of the defendant, the re-trial was held. As a result, the Collective Court sentenced the defendant to a 10-year imprisonment today.

When sentencing, the judge, Alice Leonor das Neves Costa, indicated that the defendant had taken advantage of his position many times to pocket the victims' money. The defendant was well-aware that the content of the documents did not match the fact and his sole intention was defrauding. The judge maintained the verdict of guilty. The defendant was initially sentenced to a 15-year imprisonment with a 340-day fine (MOP20 per day, mounting to a total of MOP6,800). However, considering that the penal code has already been revised since the verdict was made in 1999, a combined verdict was also made in this re-trial where the defendant was sentenced to a 10-year imprisonment for several crimes. The judge announced that, since the 10-year imprisonment sentence based on current penal code was less severe than the 15-year imprisonment sentence in the initial trial, the less severe verdict - the 10-year imprisonment sentence - was adopted.

The defendant, Fernando Valentim da Silva Nogueira, is 53 years old and held a high-ranking position in the Finance Services Bureau before the Handover. In the 1990's the defendant told several building contractors that a plot of land in Frequesia da S赌 had been confiscated by the government because of delayed tax payments and that the law granted the owner's heir the priority to purchase it. He suggested that the building contractors cooperate with the owner's heir in purchasing the plot of land. Several contractors deemed it a profitable transaction and so gave a total of about 24 million patacas to the defendant. Conspiring with another employee of the Finance Services Bureau, named Campos, the defendant managed to cash the cheques and obtained the money. The ACCCIA investigated the case in March 1994 and the defendant fled and went into hiding overseas afterwards. On 26 February 1999, the Court convicted the defendant of embezzlement and fraud and sentenced him to a 15-year imprisonment.