João Rendeiro

João Manuel Oliveira Rendeiro (22 May 1952^[1] – 13 May 2022) was a Portuguese banker, entrepreneur and university teacher.^[2] He was the founder of the Banco Privado Português.^[3]

João Rendeiro
Born	João Manuel Oliveira Rendeiro (1952-05-22)22 May 1952 Lisbon, Portugal
Died	13 May 2022(2022-05-13) (aged 69) Westville, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Occupation(s)	Banker, university teacher
Spouse	Maria de Jesus Rendeiro

Biography

Rendeiro was born in Lisbon,^[2] the son of João Augusto da Silva Rendeiro and wife Joana Marques Gonçalves Oliveira, shoe store owners in Lisbon. Both of his parents were originally from Murtosa, in Aveiro District.^[1] The family moved to Lisbon and lived in Campo de Ourique, a civil parish (freguesia) of the historic center of Lisbon, and João Rendeiro attended both the reputed Salesianos private catholic school and the state-run Liceu Pedro Nunes high school in the city. He then studied economics at the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão (ISEG) of the Technical University of Lisbon, where he was also a teacher, and later went to the University of Sussex in England where he would be awarded a doctorate degree also in economics. While working as a university teacher, in a marketing class, João Rendeiro created together with a pupil a successful mineral sparkling water brand called Frize, founded as a company in 1994^[4] and based in Vila Flor, District of Bragança, that they would later sell to Compal.^[5]

However, Rendeiro became nationally renowned and influent after he has founded the Banco Privado Português (BPP) in 1996, a private bank that grew considerably for several years but would collapse in 2008 and went into liquidation.^[6] His private bank followed to bankruptcy for which on 24 July 2009, Paulo Guichard and Salvador Fezas who served as two board of directors committee members of the BPP were suspended and were both joined by Rendeiro with the appointment to a case that involved indicting for falsifying accounts, money laundering and tax crimes.^[7] He had claimed that he did not know anything about its issues.^[8]

On 11 February 2013, the three of them were charged by Public Prosecution Service with indictments of intention of deception and fraud in the management of an investment fund.^[9] In a second case, on 15 October 2018, Rendeiro was sentenced by the Judicial Court of the District of Lisbon for committing computer and falsification document forgery.^[10][11] On 14 May 2021, he was sentenced to ten years by the Lisbon District for breach of trust, money laundering and tax fraud.^[12]

On 28 September 2021, Rendeiro was sentenced by a Lisbon District court to three years of imprisonment for fraud.^[13] In the same day, it was reported that he had fled via London^[14] from Portugal and Europe to break free from the execution of his sentences.^[15] His wife Maria de Jesus Rendeiro had stayed in Portugal for Rendeiro's escape and the childless couple got an arrest warrant on 3 November 2021.^[16] Her wife was subjected to an interrogation by the Portuguese Judicial Police (PJ) for which she was placed under house arrest.^[16]

On 11 December 2021, Rendeiro was arrested in South Africa.^[17][18] On 23 February 2022, his ten-year sentence was upheld by the Lisbon Court of Appeal for which Rendeiro was declared with other issues.^[19] As of May 2022, the extradition of Rendeiro to Portugal was planned to be decided in court in June 2022.^[20]

Death

He died in May 2022 of suicide from hanging in his serving sentence time inside the Westville Prison, in Westville, KwaZulu-Natal.^[21][22]

References

1. "Lisbon Central Court of Instance - 1st Criminal Section" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on 17 December 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2022 – via Wayback Machine.
2. Trigueirão, Sónia (13 May 2022). "João Rendeiro found dead in jail". Público (in Portuguese). Retrieved 15 May 2022.
3. "The wealth manager and art collector who escaped justice". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). 13 May 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
4. A HISTÓRIA, Frize https://frize.pt/historia/
5. Caso BPP: Fortuna de Rendeiro começou com venda da Gestifundo ao Totta, Dinheiro Vivo (13 February 2014) https://www.dinheirovivo.pt/empresas/caso-bpp-fortuna-de-rendeiro-comecou-com-venda-da-gestifundo-ao-totta-12650607.html
6. "BPP: João Rendeiro has overcharged three million debts to the tax man". Expresso (in Portuguese). 31 July 2009. from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2022 – via Wayback Machine.
7. "BPP case: two more defendants are set up". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). 25 July 2009. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
8. "BPP: Searches in the home of former administrators". Expresso. 11 November 2010. from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2022 – via Wayback Machine.
9. "Rendeiro accused of fraud at The Private Bank Portuguese". Expresso. 11 February 2013. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2022 – via Archive.today.
10. Petiz, Joana (15 October 2018). "João Rendeiro sentenced to 5 years with suspended sentence". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). Retrieved 15 May 2022.
11. Jacobson, Don (11 December 2021). "Fugitive Portuguese banker Joao Rendeiro arrested in South Africa". United Press International. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
12. "João Rendeiro sentenced to 10 years of effective imprisonment". Cofina (in Portuguese). 14 May 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
13. Carvalho, Deborah (28 September 2021). "João Rendeiro sentenced to three years and six months in prison for qualified fraud". Cofina (in Portuguese). Retrieved 15 May 2022.
14. Da fuga à detenção até à morte. Os últimos meses de Rendeiro, Diário de Notícias (13 May 2022) https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/da-fuga-a-detencao-ate-a-morte-os-ultimos-meses-de-rendeiro-14852800.html
15. "João Rendeiro fled to court for not serving time". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). 28 September 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
16. Rico, Carolina; Rosa, Luis; Casanova, Rui (4 November 2021). "João Rendeiro's wife is under house arrest". Observador (in Portuguese). Retrieved 15 March 2022.
17. Rosa, Luis; Tavares, Rita (11 December 2021). "João Rendeiro was arrested in South Africa, near Durban, a surf zone. "He was surprised. I wasn't expecting it."". Observador (in Portuguese). Retrieved 15 May 2022.
18. "Fugitive Portuguese banker captured in South Africa". Reuters. 11 December 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
19. Trigueirão, Sónia (23 February 2022). "Lisbon Court of Appeal confirms 10-year prison sentence for João Rendeiro". Público (in Portuguese). Retrieved 15 May 2022.
20. Portugal, Rádio e Televisão de (14 May 2022). "João Rendeiro morreu na prisão na África do Sul". João Rendeiro morreu na prisão na África do Sul (in Portuguese). Retrieved 27 January 2024.
21. Silva, Simone (13 May 2022). "Rendeiro found dead in prison". Multipublications News (in Portuguese). Retrieved 15 May 2022.
22. "Rendeiro had already predicted suicide as a possibility if he lost extradition process". Cofina (in Portuguese). 13 May 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2022.