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On October 6, 2021, after having lost the empire he founded to a fund, Paulo Maló’s personal insolvency was declared, at the request of Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), which for several years had been trying, unsuccessfully, to collect a debt of more than eight million euros to the famous dentist.
At the time, the court noted that the businessman, whom they called a millionaire dentist, “confesses to having no assets or income and expressly assumes his inability to pay the debt” to the state bank, also noting that, “from the research carried out by the agent of execution on March 23, 2021, it follows that there are no assets subject to seizure and that the last known and declared remuneration dates from October 2019, in the amount of 29,042.11 euros”.
But behold, a week after being declared insolvent, Paulo Maló confessed that, after all, he maintained an unburdened financial life: “I have a base salary that allows me to live without problems”, he admitted, in statements to Negócios.
As for assets, “they are carrying out a survey of what I have in my name, which at the moment I don’t know how to specify but which will have to be handed over to the insolvency administrator”, he signaled.
Paulo Maló “has assets that he hid from the insolvency process”
Now, Paulo Maló’s insolvency administrator, who argued for the bankruptcy to be classified as culpable, “with serious fault”, would later declare to the court that the fact that “the Insolvent constantly appears in various media advertising his work, not hiding that he receives income and describing that he formally has a service provision contract with Prosperity Towers, whose income he seized as soon as he became aware of them”.
In subsequent clarifications, he explained that “the insolvent had income susceptible to seizure since the beginning of 2022 but only handed them over from January 2023.
However, following a request to this effect made by several creditors, including CGD, the Judicial Court of the District of Lisbon would decree Paulo Maló’s “insolvency qualification incident” open, having now declared him guilty, for dissipation of assets, hidden income and breach of the insolvent’s duties.
According to the court ruling, handed down on February 29th, Paulo Maló’s culpable insolvency was proven for having “artificially created or aggravated liabilities or losses, or reduced profits, causing, in particular, the debtor to enter into ruinous deals in his benefit or not of people specially related to them”.
This, as “it was found that the insolvent sold to the company Desafio Majestoso, Lda., the brands ‘Malo Dental International’ and ‘Paulo Malo Dental’, for the price of 1 euro, brands registered in his personal name, with that company ‘Desafio Majestoso, Lda.’ subsequently transferred the aforementioned brands to the company Prosperity Towers Unipessoal, Lda., owned by a person he trusts, Sónia Meireles, and whose manager is his de facto partner, Nancy Caroline Dewitte, a transfer that aimed to harm the creditors’ financial interests”, considered the judge of the case.
Already under the classification of culpable insolvency for having “destroyed, damaged, concealed, or caused to disappear, in whole or in a considerable part, the debtor’s assets”, the court considered that “the same is also fulfilled”, insofar as “the it has been proven”, in short, that “the Insolvent has assets that he hid from the insolvency process, namely shareholdings in dental clinics, inside and outside Portugal, held by him and through people he trusts”, and “leads a new network of clinics in Portugal and abroad, which is called Malo Dental, being the beneficiary of its activity”.
Woman from Maló rents family home for 3,500 euros per month in Twin Towers
More: “The insolvent has provided dental medicine services and given lectures/seminars in collaboration with foreign entities such as nobelbiocare; the insolvent uses the company Prosperity Tower – Unipessoal Lda., with which it apparently has no corporate connection, as company as a vehicle for holding brands, image rights and other rights and receiving remuneration for the commercial activity it performs; in the costs of the companies Prosperity Tower and Modernitypower (supplies and external services) income obtained by the Insolvent Party is camouflaged and people affected by it are interposed”, he lists The court.
Of the 59 pages of the sentence, to which Negócio had access, we also highlight this passage: Nancy Caroline Dewitte, who lives in a de facto union with Paulo Maló, leased, on January 23, 2020, with provision of a guarantee by Prosperity Towers , for a monthly rent of 3,500 euros, the house where they both lived with their two children: a 273 square meter apartment, with two parking lots and storage, located in the Twin Towers development, in Lisbon.
Qualifying the insolvency of Paulo Sérgio Maló de Carvalho as culpable, the court decreed his “inhibition from managing third party assets and from carrying out commerce and from occupying any position as holder of a body of a commercial or civil society, association or foundation private company of economic activity, public company or cooperative, for a period of six years”.
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