Vítor Manuel Álvares Escária (born 21 August 1971) is a Portuguese economist, specialized in European funds, and politician. He got his PhD in Economics in 2004 from the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

in the UK. He was appointed as the main economic adviser to

José Sócrates José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa (born 6 September 1957), commonly known as José Sócrates (), is a Portuguese politician who was the prime minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011. For the second half of 2007, he acted ...

on 4 April 2005, position that he would keep until 2011. He maintained business relations with

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. He was made a

defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one juris ...

in 2017 in the case and scandal known as Galpgate, resigned and returned in 2020. In August 2022 he was reappointed as

António Costa António Luís Santos da Costa (; born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who has served as President of the European Council since 2024. He previously served as the 118th prime minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2024 and th ...

's chief of staff, being sacked in November 2023 following Operation Influencer.

Political life

Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister's Office of the XVII and

XVIII Constitutional Government of Portugal The XVIII Constitutional Government of Portugal (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''XVIII Governo Constitucional de Portugal'') was the 18th government of the Third Portuguese Republic, under the Constitution of Portugal#Constitution of 1976, P ...

. Economic Adviser to the Office of the Prime Minister of Portugal of the

XXI Constitutional Government of Portugal The XXI Constitutional Government of Portugal () was the 21st government of the Third Portuguese Republic, under the current Constitution. It was in office from 26 November 2015 to 26 October 2019, and was formed by the members of the Socialist ...

. Head of the Cabinet of the Prime Minister of the XXII Constitutional Government of Portugal.

Chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...

of the Prime Minister of Portugal of the

XXIII Constitutional Government of Portugal The XXIII Constitutional Government of Portugal () was the 23rd government of the Third Portuguese Republic under the Constitution of Portugal#Constitution of 1976, current Constitution, and had António Costa as the Prime Minister of Portugal, ...

Operation Influencer

On 7 November 2023, due to Operation Influencer, some people were arrested, including

's chief of staff, Vítor Escária, António Costa's close advisor, Diogo Lacerda Machado, and the mayor of

Sines Sines () is a town and a municipality in Portugal. The municipality, divided into two parishes, has around 14,214 inhabitants (2021) in an area of . Sines holds an important oil refinery and several petrochemical industries. It is also a popular ...

, Nuno Mascarenhas. Judicial searches of Escária's office and home due to suspicion of

lithium Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...

and

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

shady businesses. Vítor Escária was found with 78,000

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s in his office. Asked why 78,000 euros in banknotes were found in Escária's office, his lawyer said that if it had been deposited in the bank there would have been "terrible trouble", although he assured that the money found is not illegal. António Costa sacked Escária, his chief of staff, after learning that the Public Prosecutor's Office had found the notes hidden in his office, being replaced with Tiago Vasconcelos. Later the 78,000 euros in his office were proven to have nothing to duo with the lithium and hydrogen businesses. On 13 November 2023, the five defendants who were arrested as part of Operation Influencer, including Escária, were allowed to wait for their trial in freedom. This happened in the same day that João Galamba resigned. Vítor Escária had to surrender his passport and was also prohibited to leave Portugal. On 14 November Escária announced that he was going to appeal against the

coercive Coercion involves compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner through the use of threats, including threats to use force against that party. It involves a set of forceful actions which violate the free will of an individual in order to in ...

measures imposed on him.

References

1971 births Living people Politicians from Lisbon Social scientists from Lisbon 21st-century Portuguese economists Alumni of the University of York {{improve categories, date=November 2023

Political life

Operation Influencer

See also

References