All defendants in BES/GES case to face court

Portugal’s Central Criminal Investigation Court (TCIC) has decided to bring to trial four defendants in a corruption case associated with the failed bank Espírito Santo and its associated companies. The bank collapsed in 2014 eventually costing the Portuguese State and taxpayers €8Bn while leaving thousands of small investors penniless.

The case has eight defendants and half have requested a pre-trial – an optional procedural phase. Among the defendants are the former president of BES, Ricardo Salgado, the former director of BES Madeira João Alexandre Silva, and a former employee of the Espírito Santo Group Paulo Nacif Jorge, reports the news source Observador.

“By an order issued on 15 July, the Central Criminal Investigation Court confirmed the overall accusation from the Public Prosecutor’s Office issued in the context of the case that concerns, among others, facts related to Banco do Brasil,” reads the statement published on Thursday by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The investigating judge has decided to bring to trial the four defendants who requested the opening of an investigation into active corruption to the detriment of international trade, passive corruption in the private sector and money laundering. A crime of falsification of a document that was also on the indictment has not been included.
Four other defendants, who did not request an investigation to be opened, will stand trial for money laundering and passive corruption in international trade. In the case, defendants from GES financial entities (BES, ESBDUBAI), a defendant from the company’s equity management arm (Gestar/ICG), two lawyers and a law firm stand accused.

Involved are loans made on the Interbank Money Market (IMM) and letters of credit involving the former vice president of Banco do Brasil and suppliers of the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA. All told, pecuniary advantages from commissions total €12,242,964.83.

In the case of Banco Espírito Santo Angola (BESA), lvaro Sobrinho (ex-CEO of BESA) and Ricardo Salgado will stand trial for fraud, abuse of trust and money laundering. Also the former administrators of BES, Amílcar Morais Pires and Rui Silveira, and the former administrator of BES Angola, Hélder Bataglia, will go on trial. That decision was announced on Monday by Judge Gabriela Assunção. None of the defendants were present at the hearing.