page_title: Alves dos Reis
section_title: Discovery and arrest
hierarchical_section_title: Alves dos Reis / Banco de Portugal plot / Discovery and arrest
caption_attribution_description: English: Crowds rush to the Bank fo Portugal to exchange 500 escudo banknotes fraudulently printed during the Portuguese Bank Note Scandal of 1925 Português: Multidões no Banco de Portugal tentam torcal notas de 500 escudos emitidas durante a fraude do Banco Angola e Metrópole, em 1925.
context_page_description: Artur Virgílio Alves Reis was a Portuguese criminal who perpetrated one of the largest frauds in history, against the Bank of Portugal in 1925, often called the Portuguese Bank Note Crisis.
context_section_description: Throughout 1925 rumours of fake banknotes arose, but they could not be detected: the notes Reis had released were not counterfeit as such, but real—although unauthorized—Bank of Portugal bills.
  Although the issuing of unauthorised banknotes went undetected, the attempts by Reis and his partners to make good their fictitious obligations to Angola attracted attention for other reasons. The Portuguese had long suspected the German government of coveting their Angola colony. The prominent role of Hennies in the bank and Reis' triumphal return to Angola caused suspicion because of Hennies's well-established relationship with Germany's espionage apparatus during World War I. The acquisition of large tracts of plantation land by Angola and Metropole alarmed Alfredo de Silva, who controlled Portugal's market in vegetable oils. De Silva's friend and business associate Pereira da Rosa (who himself sat on the boards of banks that had been losing business to the Angola & Metropole) owned O Século (Portuguese for "The Century"), the most important daily newspaper at the time and one that was concerned at the prospect of a deep-pocketed owner for the competing Diário de Notícias. The newspaper assigned its top reporters to dig into the bank and Reis and began a campaign of aspersion and innuendo.
  Journalists asked how it was possible that Reis's bank, Banco de Angola e Metrópole, gave loans with low interest rates without the need of receiving deposits. It was implied that the bank was a German front aimed at infiltrating the country and gaining control of the Angolan colony. The campaign, filled with insinuation and calls for investigation, made public the fact that the Inspector of Banking Commerce had opened an investigation shortly before the newspaper's crusade began. The inspector's inquiry was into the attempts by people associated with the Angola & Metropole to buy up shares of the Bank of Portugal. The revelation of the effort added fuel to the dark suspicions that then hung around the Angola & Metropole and its backers.
  On 4 December 1925 a teller for a money-changer in Porto who had been following all the allegations and revelations in the press suddenly had a flash of insight and became convinced that the Angola & Metropole must be counterfeiting. The teller had an advantage on other observers; his employer was one of Reis' half-unwitting launderers. The Angola & Metropole illegally bought foreign exchange from him at a premium (money exchange was illegal in Portugal at the time, but in fact widespread and tolerated). The ledgers of these transactions were then torn out and destroyed. Although neither the teller nor the officials at the Porto branch of the Bank of Portugal could find any evidence that the bills from the Angola & Metropole were counterfeit, the circumstances were suspicious enough that the allegation was reported to Lisbon.
  O Século publicly revealed the fraud on 5 December 1925. The day before, the Bank of Portugal had sent the inspector João Teixeira Direito, to Porto, to investigate the huge deposits by the Banco de Angola e Metrópole in banknotes of 500 escudos at the cambist firm Pinto da Cunha. After exhaustive and frustrating investigation, they finally noticed, by chance, banknotes with duplicate serial numbers. Authorities ordered all bank agencies to store their notes by order of serial number to detect duplicates; many more were found. The Bank of Portugal contacted Waterlow and Sons, and Reis's scheme fell apart.
  On 6 December, Reis's bank's wealth was confiscated and arrest warrants were issued for him and most of his associates. Reis and Hennies were on board the Adolph Woerman en route to Portugal from Angola and were tipped off that they were to be arrested when they made harbour. Hennies slipped away and managed to elude capture; he changed his identity and was able to keep most of his share. Despite Hennies's pleading, Reis refused to run and insisted on returning to Lisbon to defend himself. He was arrested a few days later. He was 28 years old.
  In the following trial, Reis's forged docum
caption: Crowds rush to the Bank of Portugal building in Lisbon, to exchange the fraudulent banknotes (8 December 1925)
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