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 documents, and widespread cynicism about the nation's elites, were convincing enough for judges to suspect that Bank of Portugal officials and others in the government and establishment might really be involved. This delayed the sentence for five years, but Reis was finally tried in May 1930. He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In prison, Reis converted to Protestantism and converted other prisoners. He was released in May 1945, and was offered, but refused, a job as a bank employee. Reis died of a heart attack in 1955. Fate of principal accomplices Bandeira received a sentence of 15 years, served it, and upon release, briefly went into the nightclub business. He died in late March 1960 in Lisbon, a well-liked man of modest means. 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