Alves dos Reis

Artur Virgílio Alves dos Reis ( born September 3, 1898 in Lisbon, † June 9, 1955 ) was a Portuguese cheater. He is responsible for the biggest counterfeit money scam in the history of banking.

Alves dos Reis grew up in middle-class family. He studied engineering, he broke in favor of a marriage with Maria Luísa Jacobetti de Azevedo from the first year, especially since his father's business went bankrupt and he stood penniless. In 1916 he emigrated to the Portuguese colony of Angola in order to try his luck. Very soon he was given a senior position in construction. This rapid rise he owed a fake diploma from the Polytechnic School of Engineering in Oxford, a non-existent device. With a bad check -bought rice, the share majority of Angolan Railway Company, with which he acquired wealth and prestige.

The case Ambaca

Back in Lisbon, he participated in 1922 a company called Ambaca, the American Automobile up and sold. He enriched himself to the company by talking about had approximately $ 100,000 of company funds to his personal account. With this money he bought shares in other companies, including also in Companhia Mineira do Sul de Angola, an Angolan mining company. The fraud flew open and in July 1924 he was arrested in Porto to due process.

Forgery of banknotes

During his captivity - he was only 54 days a - he was planning his greatest coup: the falsification of a contract, the Banco de Portugal. As the central bank had this the ultimate supervision of the money circulation in Portugal and thereby the right to print money. His idea was to award the contract for a series of 500 - escudo banknotes from a private company on behalf of the bank and so illegally receiving fake bills, which could not be distinguished from genuine notes. In 1924, Alves dos Reis tied contacts with unsuspecting accomplices. So he learned the Dutch financier Karel Marang van Ijsselveere know. Particularly worth mentioning is José Bandeira, the brother of the ambassador in The Hague.

Alves dos Reis put a fictitious contractors on and managed to get this notarized by various official bodies, including the British, French and German consulates. The signature of the Portuguese ambassador gave rice will presumably have access to the appropriate people.

About Karel Marang, who headed a company for money printing, including the contact with the British company Waterlow & Sons was established, the official also normally processed print jobs from Portugal. On December 4, 1924 Marang negotiated with William Waterlow and asked this because of political reasons for the greatest possible discretion. The stated purpose of the new series was given money to revive the money circulation in the colony of Angola. Since the money should only be used overseas, it was agreed between the parties to reuse the plates had already reached a series of notes in circulation. Only one word " Angola " should be added. Due to the unusual circumstances of William Waterlow wrote a confidential letter to the head of the Bank of Portugal. As this letter was intercepted by Rice, is not known, but the reply itself comes from his pen.

After all the doubts were dispelled, and finally 200,000 bills were printed with a nominal value of 500 escudos in Waterlow & Sons. This amount corresponded to about 1 percent of Portugal 's gross domestic product at the time. The number of counterfeit notes was almost as high as the legal. In addition to that due to the re-used printing plates matched the serial numbers. In February 1925, the first notes came through the help of José Bandeira via England to Portugal. Then succeeded Karel Marang to establish a secure transport over the Liberian Embassy in England.

Although Alves dos Reis was the initiator of these operations, he retained only 25 percent of the sum of money for themselves. He shared a 200 in the sum of bank debt of Banco Comercial Português, an agricultural bank with which it has a return of 7 percent hoped for and at the same time the impoverished middle classes wanted to support the purchase of rice plantations. This was enough for him, however, for he had to watch how the bank used its funds for warmongering in Angola. In June 1925 he decided to start his own bank and counter the established system of usurious interest. Again he falsified documents to expedite the authorization for it. He invested his money in stocks and in forex trading. In addition, he slept with numerous real estate and took over the whole taxi business in the Portuguese capital. In addition, he financed his accomplice José Bandeira a lavish lifestyle, as this maintained numerous liaisons to famous ladies throughout Europe.

One goal of Alves dos Reis seems to have been to take the parastatal Banco de Portugal in order to hide his dark intrigue better. During the year 1925 he bought over straw men approximately 10,000 shares of the Bank, with around 45,000 would have been enough for the majority of shares.

Exposure

Meanwhile, it fell in several places that a high number of counterfeit banknotes in circulation was. However, even specialists could not find any fake bills. As of November 23, 1925 journalists from the paper O Século were interested in the little transparent processes at the bank by Alves dos Reis. It was noticed that the bank was able to offer loans at extremely low interest rates, without being able to practically demonstrate Customers also invested their money there. Curiously, thought the journalists in the operations of an attempt by the German espionage to ruin the finances in Portugal, making a takeover of the colony of Angola would become possible.

On 5 December 1925, the first report in the newspaper was published. The day before it was possible for the first time to find Alves dos Reis a bill which had the same number as a legal bill. Only after the machinations of rice were revealed. It was issued an order to all banks to sort their banknotes of the serial number. Then it came en masse to the discovery of false notes.

The ownership of Alves dos Reis was confiscated immediately, thereby also found the fake documents for his ventures. He was arrested on December 6, 1925 on board a ship, with whom he wanted to return to Angola. On the day of his arrest, he was only 28 years old. Also, most of his accomplices were arrested.

Judgment and captivity

Alves dos Reis was dated 6 December 1925 to 8 May 1930 in captivity. During this time he was able to convince a judge that the Board of Directors of Banco de Portugal was itself involved in the fraud. This he succeeded in turn by fake identity papers. After a suicide attempt, he was provisionally released.

The final verdict was announced in May 1930 in the Court of St. Clara: 20 years imprisonment, of which 8 years in prison and 12 years in exile. Alternatively Alves dos Reis was also for 25 years in exile. He was credited with having one of his goals was to stimulate economic development in Angola. During his captivity converted rice to the Protestant faith. He was released in May 1945. He was immediately offered by several banking houses bodies it but all rejected. He went back to Angola, where he devoted himself to the cultivation of coffee. There, he earned great respect among the native black population, as he showed them new opportunities in trading. It was at that time common practice to bring the blacks at harvest to their rightful share. Alves dos Reis showed the farmers how they had to do it, not to be deceived. In these operations, however, he was caught again in a fraud. Before starting a prison sentence Alves dos Reis, however, died on June 9, 1955 to a heart attack. Total impoverished he could leave his son only an old linen suit.

Epilogue

The Portuguese currency suffered as a result of fraud strong fluctuations and lost much of their credibility. The Portuguese political and financial world lost one of its reputation, from which they could no longer recover. In 1932, the Estado Novo was finally proclaimed by António de Oliveira Salazar, another fascist state in Europe.

Counter Waterlow & Sons, a process was opened, as a result, they were sentenced to pay compensation to the Banco de Portugal. After the payment, the company was forced to declare bankruptcy.