Artur Virgílio Alves Reis (Lisbon, 8 September 1896 – 9 July 1955) was a Portuguese criminal who perpetrated one of the largest frauds in history, against the Bank of Portugal in 1925, often called the Angola e Metrópole affair. At a point, he had duplicated 1% of the Portuguese GDP, leading to the collapse of the country's financial system. He was tried in May 1930, convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison, where he converted to Protestantism. He was released in May 1945, and died of a heart attack in 1955.
Early life
Alves Reis was a child of a humble family; his father was a financially troubled undertaker who ended up being declared insolvent. Reis wanted to study engineering. He started his degree but quit in the first year to marry Maria Luísa Jacobetti de Azevedo, sister of Octávio Jacobetti de Azevedo and daughter of de Azevedo and Beatriz, in August 1916. In 1916, he decided to emigrate to Portuguese Angola, at the time a Portuguese colony, to try to make a fortune and escape the humiliations from his wife's family, due to their differences in social status. Before departing to Angola, Reis forged himself a diploma from Oxford University's "Polytechnic School of Engineering", a department that did not exist. He supposedly studied engineering sciences, geology, geometry, physics, metallurgy, pure mathematics, paleography, electric and mechanical engineering and applied mechanics.
The key to Reis's plan was that only he knew that the contract was forged; trading on the period's widespread cynicism about the monetary policies of governments and on Portugal's reputation for corruption and self-dealing, he convinced the others who assisted in his operation that what they were doing had the clandestine support of the Bank. Reis' key associates, Dutch trader Karel Marang van IJsselveere, German trader Adolph Hennies, and José Bandeira (brother of António Bandeira, the Portuguese Ambassador to the Netherlands) later claimed to have believed the project was legitimate throughout. Reis had been lucky or fortunate in his selection of associates; although currently legitimate, each man had checkered pasts and had no objections to engaging in an enterprise that was technically legal even if shady, especially if it involved such major insiders. Reis alone knew unquestionably that there were no insiders and his various documents were worthless, though prosecutors and journalists later suggested that the continuing credulity of his associates as the scheme progressed strained belief.
On the pretext that the supposed loan and issuance would be politically unpopular, and with the implication that it was a bit of sharp practice by bank insiders, the entire operation was conducted in an atmosphere of deep secrecy. It was vital, Reis emphasized to his contractors from Lisbon, that the matter be kept quite confidential to avoid embarrassing their prominent silent partners and risking the whole deal being scotched in the face of political opposition.
Karel Marang approached Joh. Enschedé, an old and respected Dutch printing firm for the job. Reviewing the attached sample notes, they said they were the work of Waterlow and Sons Limited of London, a British printer almost as old and eminent. Since the contract insisted that the new notes be identical to the existing issue, the Dutch firm suggested that Marang take the job to Waterlow since they already had the plates and it was almost impossible to reproduce plates exactly. On 4 December 1924, Marang approached Sir William Waterlow with a letter of introduction from the Joh. Enschedé company. Marang explained that for political reasons the contract required utmost discretion and promised that Waterlow would shortly receive appropriate documentation from Lisbon.
Marang was tried in the Netherlands and sentenced to 11 months. He left the country rather than serve prison time. He later purchased a small electrical manufacturer in France, eventually becoming a respected manufacturer, family man, and French citizen. He turned over management of the prosperous firm to his sons and died at his vacation home in Cannes on February 13, 1960.
Waterlow & Sons' business never completely recovered; it was finally acquired by De La Rue in 1961. Sir William Waterlow had been dismissed as president of the printing house and was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1929. He died of peritonitis on 6 July 1931 before the final judgment of the House of Lords.
In popular culture
The fraud was the subject of the 1974 Italian TV miniseries Accadde a Lisbona ("It happened in Lisbon"); Reis was played by Paolo Stoppa.
It was also the subject of the 1991 episode "Duplikát" of the Czechoslovak-West German TV series Dobrodružství kriminalistiky ("Adventures in Criminology"). Reis was portrayed by Jan Teplý.
In 2000, Alves dos Reis' life was depicted in a 50-episode Portuguese television series written by former Polícia Judiciária investigator Francisco Moita Flores, with the full title Alves Reis, Um Seu Criado ("Alves Reis, At Your Service") and broadcast by RTP1.
See also
- Stavisky affair, a financial and political scandal in France in 1934 that led to government resignations and a crisis in the French Third Republic.