Ex-BES banker in Venezuela corruption links

Ricardo Salgado and six other defendants have been accused of corruption in business links of the Espírito Santo Group (GES) in Venezuela.

As the alleged crimes took place between 2009 and 2014, the time to bring the various crimes to court has expired, namely those involved with traffic of influence, falsification of documents and active corruption in the private sector.
According to the news source Observador and Lusa, Ricardo Salgado is imputed in 20 crimes of active corruption prejudicing international commerce, and 21 crimes of money laundering together with five defendants but have not been charged with criminal association since they have already been accused of this crime in the main Espírito Santo case.
Those involved are Paulo Murta (Gestar, Eurofin and ICG); Michael Osterag (Gestar/ICG); Humberto Coelho, ex-administrator of the bank’s unit in Dubai; Jean-Luc Schneider, former administrator of companies ESFIL and Enterprises; and João Alexandre Silva, who was the manager of BES Madeira and also led the Department of International Business and Private Banking – all accused of the same crime in addition to criminal association.
The two latter defendants are also accused of passive corruption in the private sector while Schneider is accused of qualified fraud.
BES’s ex-director of compliance, João Martins Pereira, is accused of money laundering and passive corruption.
Ricardo Salgado allegedly created a hidden payments scheme for Venezuelan officials and civil servants so that BES and GES could benefit and maintain business that would take advantage of money from Venezuelan public entities, particularly the State-owned petroleum company PDVSA which was the bank’s most important client in the country.