Facade of the Polícia Judiciária headquarters in Lisbon

Immigration 20 July 2026

Golden visa applicants lost 1.2 million euros to their own lawyer — police have arrested him

A 58-year-old lawyer was arrested in Odivelas, accused of siphoning around 1.2 million euros from at least 33 foreign clients applying for Portugal's golden visa.

The person hired to protect the process was the one emptying it. Portugal’s Judicial Police arrested a 58-year-old lawyer in Odivelas suspected of siphoning around 1.2 million euros from foreign clients who had trusted him with their residence-by-investment applications — the golden visa. At least 33 victims have been identified, many of them Chinese nationals, and investigators admit the list may grow.

How did the golden visa scheme work?

In the simplest, most painful way: trust. According to the investigation, the lawyer used the relationship built with his clients to access the bank accounts they had opened in Portugal for their investments, claiming the transactions would speed up the process’s formalities. Rather than securing residence, the money is believed to have largely fed a gambling habit — the scheme is thought to have run from 2023 until March 2026, when police knocked on his door. He faces charges of aggravated fraud, breach of trust and money laundering.

How can you protect yourself in a golden visa application?

The golden rule is never to hand over control of your own accounts: no step of a residence application requires giving your representative access to your banking, and payments to the Portuguese state carry official references the applicant can verify personally. It is worth checking a lawyer’s registration on the Portuguese Bar Association portal before signing any power of attorney — and treating any promise to ‘speed things up’ that involves moving your money as a red flag. The programme itself is unchanged, as we cover in our ongoing AIMA and golden visa tracker, and no official rule has shifted because of this case.

For 33 families who chose Portugal, the lesson arrived the hard way. Let it at least serve those still on their way: the visa is bought with investment — the trust should always be verified.

By Juliana Castilho

Image: GualdimG / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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